Value Orientation And Social Responsibility Of The Media

Under the impact of the gradual urbanization in China and the permeation of Western consumer culture in the mid1990s, young people of this period, confronted with goods and consumer consciousness, formed their distinctive characteristics which are different from previous ones. After entering into the new century, these characteristics become more distinctive. Jiangsu TV keenly grasped these new features and produced the TV dating show Feichengwurao, which well fits the quick-tempo modern life. It adopts a brand new mode and provides an open platform for "high quality" male and female guests to make friends. To some extent, it imperceptibly offers a shortcut for the guests to become famous overnight.To this phenomenon, this thesis explores Feichengwurao from the perspective of media value orientation and social responsibility in the consumerism context. Chapter One mainly discusses the content of the program with its face-lift as the watershed. Before the face-lift, this TV dating show produced some anti-mainstream culture speech, created some "speech stars", triggered much counter-tradition discussion and satisfied the consumer psychology of the audience in the age of consumerism. While after the face-lift, the content is quite different, changing form the anti-mainstream value to conforming to mainstream value. However, no matter it is anti-mainstream or conforming to the mainstream, the nature of this program is to entertain. It aims to appeal to the consumer psychology of modern audience and increase the audience rating. In Chapter Two, theories on semiotics are adopted to analyze semiotic elements of the male and female guests, the host and the stage design in this dating show. Rules, conflicts and suspense in the semiotics structure all contribute to a good atmosphere for the program as well as satisfy the audience's taste and maintain a high audience rating.However, is the audience rating the only pursuit of the media? Is it the single standard to examine whether the program is good or not? In Chapter Three, the author first explores the negative influence of Feichengwurao on social value orientation from three perspectives, namely the boosting of the entertaining tendency of TV program of Jiangxi TV, the ballyhooed consumerism culture and the news factuality and the abandon of morality bottom line. Then it points out the corresponding main reasons behind it—the pursuit of economic interest, the blind seeking for high audience rating and indulging in catering to the vulgar taste of the audience. It ignores the social benefits and professional ethics and deviates from social responsibility and journalistic ethics. At last, this thesis provides some suggestions on how to cope with the consumerism crisis and how to stick to correct value orientation of the mass media.