Television Communication And National Identity

The popularity of nationalism and the general founding of nation state under the influence of the former made national identity unprecedented important, both in theory and in the political life. How to establish a unified national identity and then create a strong national cohesion has become a hot topic. It is with this background that the television media which has an unparalleled advantage in building the public "collective memory" start to enter researchers' vision. Can we use the television to produce and communicate texts with specific ideology through some concrete forms so that audiences will accept this ideology which fits the communicator's request of national identity. The answer is yes, especially in China where naturally regards the media as party and people's mouthpiece.In fact, among these mass productions of historical TV seires produced bytelevision media in nowadays China, some are exactly constructed and communicated by the request of mainstream ideology. But when applied to concrete audiences, their effect is entirely different -- it is an attribute of lacking theory support. Research whether for mass communication theory or for national identity is just in the beginning step in China, let alone for the interdisciplinary studies. It is from mass communication angle of view that this thesis try to find out how national identity is built and communicated as a kind of ideology in some specific historical TV series, and with what effects in the end. This thesis studies from three perspectives including texts, institutions and audiences, classic mass communication theory and related subject including "hegemony theory", "semiotics", "discourse theory" and so on. Through regarding this phenomenon as a whole, the author hopes to provide his own opinion on utilizing television to maintain our national identity. Moreover, the author also hopes the application of audiences theory derived from British Cultural Studies School would enrich the single audiences study in China to a certain extent. This thesis is divided into five parts to discuss.The first part is preface, which summarizes the current survey for the national identity research home and abroad and the historical TV series research in China, and illuminates the meaning of this paper.Part two is texts analysis, which illustrates how ideology of national identity in these texts is to built and conflict with each other through concrete cases.Part three is institutions analysis. In this part the author analyzes the production process of texts and power forms behind them based on two attributes of the media institution, and then probe the reason for texts building and conflict.Part four is audience effect analysis. The purpose of this part is to determine whether the communication of national identity ideology is success or not. Macroscopic effect theory derived from mass communication theory and audience theory derived from British Cultural Studies School mainly including Hall's "three models" and Fiske's "the productive audience" are all used to analysis in this part.The last part is epilogue, the author emphasizes once more the significance as national identity to nationalism country's stability, unity and mightiness, and point out that communication of complex themes should not be simplified treated. To accomplish the conduct of national identity as historical TV series to audience, we must grasp lofty communication skill.