Media And A Migrating New Generation Of Peasant Workers

The new generation of the peasant workers was mentioned first in Central Document No.1 in 2010. Around the academic circle, this new peasant workers is defined as the peasant workers who was born after the 1980's and went to work part-time in the cities after the 90's. Those workers are different from their predecessors-the first generation of peasant workers in their way of life, group features and the use of the media.The author has gone on a three-month field investigation Huizhou in Guangdong from Oct. 2010 to Mar.2011. The chosen site was Byd Co. Ltd in Xiangshuihe Industrial Park at the West Zone of Daya Bay in Huizhou, Guangdong. The author was lodged in the dormitory in the industrial park, communicating, observing and participating on a daily basis with the peasant workers. Special interviews were also involved in the dormitory, boarding houses nearby or the factory sometimes for about two hours and a half. Throughout the whole field investigation, qualitative research is employed with the supplement of questionnaire survey. Apart from the three-month ethnographic study in Guangdong, the author has been keeping contact with the interviewees on the internet, on the mobile phone through chatting room or SMS. Meanwhile, two QQ groups of the new generation of peasant workers in Byd were also studied by the author.The changing society as well as the media has specified the need, acquisition and use of information by the new peasant workers which are different from the older generation. The new workers, living in the suburban district of developed cities far from the prosperous area, are surrounded by the large-scale plants and other part-time workers from all over China. They spend the whole day on the grunt work beside the flow line. They live in the ten-room dormitory or the boarding houses nearby. They frequent internet bars chatting over QQ. As the older generation of peasant workers are watching TV or chatting together, the new generation has got used to the internet videos, entertainment and news on the computer in the internet bars. They video-chat with their friends, or indulge themselves in online games. As the old generation is enjoying the convenience of the mobile phone on the communication, the new generation is interested in QQ chat, music, novels, films and games on the mobile phone. In their world, where traditional media such as newspaper or TV are rare to be seen, internet and the mobile phone plays a great part in their migration.The interpersonal communication among the new generation of peasant workers of the 80's and 90's differs that of the older generation due to the spread of the internet and mobile phones and the advancement of new media technology such as WAP phones. Media has functioned a lot in the construction of their interpersonal relations. They are keen on copying the interpersonal relations in real life onto the internet or mobile phones. Compared with their fathers, the new generation seems more likely to maintain their interpersonal relations to some extent. At the same time, the new peasant workers can somewhat enlarge their interpersonal interactions with the help of the internet. However, under the regulation of the management system in the factory, their daily life are rearranged. Media may have to a degree encouraged the maintenance and enlargement of interpersonal relations among the new peasant workers, but their relations in the real life are apart in front of regulations in the factory. Media has provided channels for the affective interactions and expressions, while interpersonal relations in the media are still fragile. Moreover, the new generation of peasant workers tends to conceal their identities in the cyber world. They restructure themselves according to their imaginations. They could sound their own voices through the internet, which means a possibility of resist proposed to them by the media.