| In recent years, a variety of TV Programs, among which there are increasingly popular talent shows, story-telling programs, reality shows, etc. have drastically sprung up, flooding the screen-based market.In 2007, Legend, a program created by Jiangxi Television, took full advantage of miscellaneous program materials organized by other TV stations nation-wide, and again deeply explored and integrated the highlights of these programs. Finally, it prepared a real banquet for the audience to both the eye and the ear successfully. Since its debut on the screen, its audience rating had been increasing all the way, steadily ranking the first among its rivals in 35 other cities in the nation in the year of 2007. The program had brought about much gain in both wealth and fame. In the wake of its success, soon afterwards, various other story-telling programs came sweeping the whole TV realm, with lots of TV stations competing with one another by following the pattern of TV narration, such as CCTV’s Tales of Creating Wealth, Shandong TV’s Stories around the World, Liaoning TV’s Wang Gang to Tell Stories, etc. Apart from those major provincial satellite television stations, many provincial terrestrial channels presented similar programs as well, Nanjing TV Integrated Channel’s Stories Told by Zhou Tao, BTV Public Channel’s Collection of Tales, Jilin TV Law Channel’s Mr. Liu’s Story-telling Session, and Ningxia TV’s Tales of Wealth, just to name a few, making such kind of programs highly sought-after for the whole TV field for a long time.On March 1,2007, the Public Channel of Anhui TV Station, characterized with news reporting and story telling, thoroughly debuted on the screen. Not only did the channel present multiple news programs, but it also developed a story-telling program called Real Events applicable for the current situation. Following the aforesaid program, Legend, Real Events made full use of its other competitors’ materials and reorganized them scientifically. On a daily basis, it led the audience to the evening program by telling a story in an engrossing way. Since its appearance in 2007, Real Events, having undergone four times of revision, has accompanied the audience of Anhui province for 9 years.Faced with the fierce competition of a number of identical programs organized by diverse TV stations, some of the programs are still in robust prosperity, while others have long vanished from the screen without notice. Currently, Real Events of the Public Channel of Anhui TV Station has been confronted with the big predicament of sustainable development. From May 2015 to the end of November 2015, during which time I was on an optional practical training in the production team of the program, I participated in the program production and exchanged ideas with the personnel in chief. Gradually, I got familiar with the basic operating procedure and in the meantime found out some problems currently existing in the program. As a story-telling program of the terrestrial channel of the provincial TV station, it’s challenged both by external environment and internal inferiority. As far as external environment is concerned, on the one hand, the celestial satellite televisions and the city stations have already formed an enclosure towards the terrestrial channels. On the other hand, an increasing number of newly built-up media have shunted its original audience. Worse still, story-telling programs are seen everywhere of the TV stations all over the country, making the assimilation of programs even more phenomenal. As for the program itself, it’s bombarded with piles of problems, including the scarce of materials and human resources, the lack of creativity of the staff in charge,the singleness of marketing approaches as well as the infrequency of interaction with the audience. Impacted by all of those unfavorable elements, Real Events is definitely going nowhere.This dissertation has mainly adopted methods of references, participatory observation, plus case analysis. To start with, it deals with the general situation of the evolution of our national story-telling programs and the plight they encounter at present. As a matter of fact, these programs have gone through a process from the embryonic period to the thriving stage. Since a growing number of documentaries and news programs come out in the form of story-telling, such programs accordingly spring up in embryo. Speaking of their thriving, Legend’s successful debut is merely the beginning. With TV stations across the country modeling, the prosperity of the programs seems to have risen to the climax. Secondly, the dissertation is focused on the analysis of the reasons why people are so attracted to those programs and how they easily survive in the circle regardless of intense competitions going around. However, as is always the case, the programs are but a flash in the pan. The current story-telling programs have been severely confronted with double challenges:new media’s impact and the vulgarity of their own. After a thorough overview of the present situation of similar programs of our nation, I dedicate myself to the research of the specific program of our local program, namely, Real Events, by introducing its establishment background along with its evolution. Last but not least, the dissertation will describe the program production process and characteristics demonstrated through my personal practical experience and communication with the chief program designers. External and internal factors taken into account, the thesis will dissect the development predicament facing Real Events or likewise with a combination of multi-media and terrestrial channels, aiming to help terrestrial channels’ story-telling programs develop in a more scientific way. |
