The Analysis Of Chinese And American Television Public Service Advertisements:A Cross-cultural Perspective

With the rapid development of society,a variety of social problems sprung up.Television public service advertisement as an important component of mass media system,shares some pressure of resolving social problems.It is an important and effective way to inform the public to certain social issues and stimulate actions at the same time.Many scholars only cover one theme of the public service advertisement,while in this thesis the author chooses three themes of it and explores the inner relationship between these themes.The author employs a cross-cultural perspective to explore the differences between Chinese and American public service advertisements.Cultural dimension theory and context theory are applied as the theoretical basis.Altogether 90 Chinese samples and 90 American samples are collected to support the analysis.The finding reveals that value dimensions embodied in Chinese public service advertisements are as the following: collectivism,high power distance,high uncertainty avoidance and high context culture.However,American public service advertisements show a relative individualism,low power distance,low uncertainty avoidance and low context culture.As for masculinity,Chinese health and safety public service advertisements show higher masculinity than American ones.In the theme of environmental protection,American samples show a long term orientation feature.It is hoped that this thesis can enrich the study of public service advertisements from a cross-cultural perspective and facilitates the process of cross-cultural communication.By comparing the cultural values reflected in Chinese and American public service advertisements,it can also raise the awareness of the public to certain social issues.