On The Chinese "TV Intellectuals"Origin、difficulties And Survival Strategy

The concept of "TV Intellectuals", which originally referred to "the intellectuals’who occupied a period of television time’and lived on media", was derived from a speech delivered by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu on TV in1966. These intellectuals, who gained rich "cultural capital" through "conspiring" with the "media field" on the one hand, and lost the "autonomy" of intellectuals on the other hand, breaking the rules of "academic field" in a way similar to "Trojan horse".With the popularity of TV sets among people since the beginning of the1980s, it happened occasionally that Chinese intellectual entered into television field. The occasional individual behavior gradually evolved into an unstoppable tide which not only won many applause but also generated great controversy when the new century came. In the midst of question that equated "TV intellectuals" with "TV intellectuals who succumbed to TV", the term "TV intellectuals" was repeatedly mentioned as "infamy". Despite the continuous criticisms and accusations, the Chinese "TV intellectuals", as a newborn group of intellectuals, still grew rapidly in less than twenty years and became a social power that could not be ignored no matter in number or in impact. Today, it is imperative to make a comprehensive reflection and summary about the phenomenon of Chinese "TV intellectuals" from theoretical and practical perspectives. The present thesis, starting from the definition of modern intellectuals and going back to France where it was considered the birthplace of TV intellectuals, investigated the history of French intellectuals’entering into television field and relevant discussion about "TV intellectuals" by western scholars in detail. Based on this, the thesis redefined the intension and extension of the concept of "TV intellectuals" by "stigmatizing" it. After the concept of "TV intellectuals", which included wider audience, was confirmed, the present thesis reviewed the process and background of the birth of Chinese "TV intellectuals" and illustrated the necessity of its emergence by dividing it into fourteen classes according to criteria like "in-industry","out-industry","on the screen","off the screen" and so forth. Through figure exemplification and case analysis, this thesis comprehensively demonstrated the present situation of Chinese "TV intellectuals" and affirmed the positive significance of its existence from four aspects.Furthermore, this thesis summarized the difficulties that Chinese TV intellectuals faced according to two groups of people:the in-industry and the out-industry. The difficulties that the former group was confronted with were as follows:1. contradiction between political monitoring and intellectuals’ideals;2. contradiction between financial pressure and intellectuals’responsibilities;3. contradiction between limited TV circle and intellectuals’survival; while the latter group mainly confronted difficulties like:1. shallow in thoughts, lacking in depth;2. lingering on screen and getting suspicion in qualification;3. made a profit but impure in motives;4. underperformed and disliked by audience. After the full study of the birth background and current situation of Chinese TV intellectuals, this thesis held that the ultimate cause of the difficulties confronted by Chinese TV intellectuals could be concluded in the following four respects:1. the polarization and marginalization of Chinese intellectuals;2. their strangeness and rejection toward the way of TV transmission;3. the special environment of Chinese TV business;4. the rise of mass culture and the prevalence of consumerism.This thesis also proposed feasible strategy for Chinese intellectuals’ involving in TV from two aspects:attitude and method. As to the former aspect, four suggestions were put forward:1. it is necessary for "TV intellectuals to get involved although a variety of restriction existed;2. it is unnecessary to reject fame and wealth, but fulfillment of responsibilities was needed;3. TV intellectuals could participate the production of "mass culture", but their character and morals were supposed to be maintained;4. if it is properly used, TV media was no shallower than mass culture. As to the latter aspect, another four suggestions were proposed as well:1. cooperation but no conspiracy;2. paying attention to communication strategy;3. taking initiative to gain discourse space;4. making the best of various modes of propagation. Chinese "TV intellectuals" was a necessary consequence of the great development of TV business and mediaization of contemporary intellectuals. There were no irreconcilable and hostile relations between intellectuals and television. Meanwhile, the independence and the criticalness of intellectuals, together with their social responsibilities and pursuing of truth and justice, would not necessarily lose because of their appearance on TV screen.On the one hand, Chinese TV intellectuals needed to be taken seriously and protected carefully by society and media; on the other hand, they themselves ought to explore actively and gain experience from practice in the process of benign interaction with TV media. After an effective survival strategy was found, TV intellectuals could ultimately change their negative image in nowadays, thus making great contribution to the social development and the Strategy of A Powerful Country with Culture.