Conspiracy And Struggle Of Discourses

This research stands on the position of social constructivism and uses four methods include case study, content analysis, text analysis and questionnaire investigation to mainly focus on how "November 11 th", a physical time tag was built into Singles’ Day, a cultural festival with marriage meaning, and then to 11.11 Shopping Festival, the national consumption event. Finally the study tries to describe the relationship of discourse game and power competition between mass media, commercial capital, political force and the public behind the changes. The study does not consider that Singles’ Day and 11.11 Shopping Festival are two separate things and regards the two as the dynamic connotation of "November 11th". The research finds that it is a result for conspiracy and struggle. Mass media and commercial capital have successively led the November 11th issue settings, the guiding role of political power appeared gleamingly, and the public was coerced to move on between power competition.In the evolution process of "November 11th" from the ordinary date to Singles’ Day, mass media discourse had always been dominant. The meaning of personality expression and self-mockery faded out of reports and Singles’ Day was constructed as a time for blind date and marriage or just recreation in the background of traditional culture by mass media using festival narrative strategy.The public knew Singles’ Day and participated in the festival construction under the guidance of the media. Commercial capital was loosely attached to the media discourse and actively constructed promotion discourse to look for business opportunities in Singles’ Day which was defined by mass media, and finally became the main content of the festival consumption issue. In the meanwhile, political force had not been involved in the construction and Singles’ Day had not appeared in the mainstream and professional discourse. In the evolution process of "November 11th" from Singles’ Day to 11.11 Shopping Festival, the commercial power rebuilt the concept of "November 11th" and created 11.11 Shopping Festival, figuring discourse of consumption ceremony. The support of political power and the problem of homogenization of content drove the mass media to rename "November 11th". "Double Eleven" has been a common symbol between the commercial capital, the political power, the mass media and the public. It has also been a symbol resource which can be utilized by the four. The business power received technology and media resources through economic means, then they established ceremony and set agenda to slowly occupy the center of discourses. The metropolis newspapers adopted the narrative strategy of war to reach conspiracy with commercial capital. The public tending to irrational was coerced by the former two and sought for material carnival. The political power played a balance role in the evolution process. On one hand, it encouraged the development of electric commerce. On the other hand, it joined the discourse struggle through mainstream media tightening report attitude. Professional discourse tried to expose more problem being covered to struggle for another discourses combining with mainstream discourse.