Analysis Of Causes For The Adaption And Prevalence Of Overseas Television Formats

Abstract:The transnational flow of television formats is a significant phenomenon appeared in the current globalization trend of television. In the global television format industry, what is the motivation for certain countries to introduce those television formats, and how can they become popular in alien civilization? In the literature review section, the two opposed but equally influential theoretical paradigms, namely, cultural imperialism and cultural pluralism, are analyzed critically. In this thesis, The Voice of China, a typical case of the adaption of the overseas television format, is selected. Besides, the reasons of its introduction and prevalence are explored. To begin with, the research is based on the understanding of the history and the current situation of global television format industry. Secondly, the development of the brought-in overseas television format and its status quo make up the premise of a further discussion. As in the case study of The Voice of China, three dimensions, namely the policy, business and copyright mechanism, are analyzed to explore the causes of its introduction. Besides, some contributing approaches are adopted in digging out the reason of its popularity in China. These approaches include the cultural proximity-localization of production, copyright protection and industrial development analysis. Through the literature analysis and the deep interviews, it is concluded that the cross-border communication of overseas television format, driven by commercial benefit and adopted on the basis of industrial reality, is unprompted mostly. Its own characters are revealed in terms of cultural autonomy and option freedom. The findings also in some way refute the theory of cultural imperialism.