A Historical Survey Of The Migration Route Of Mongolian Audience Media In Bozhou, Xinjiang

Bayingol Mongol Autonomous Prefecture,Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture and Mongolian Autonomous County of Hoboksar are three major Mongolian-populated areas in Xinjiang.The total Mongolian population of Xinjiang is 156 thousand while that in these three areas account for approximately 54%of it.Located along the northwestern border of Xinjiang,Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture is home to about 25 thousand ethnic-Mongolians.Living in a multi-ethnic and hence multi-cultural Xinjiang,Mongolians have been trying to inherit their own culture and language and,meanwhile,trying to adapt to the modernized era full of new things and values.In this dynamic process of social change,the way how Mongolians use and interact with media also changes.Born in Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture as an ethnic Mongolian,the author has been witnessing the changes which happened to the society,the usage of Mongolian language and the media ecosystem there.Based on a brief review of Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture's social development and media history,this paper conducts a historical inspection on the 50-year-long media migration of Mongolians in Bortala——on both micro and macro levels——through in-depth interviews with three generations of Ouha family members living in Bortala,and seeks to analyze the factors which influence media migration.It is revealed by this research that Mongolians in Bortala barely use media or seldom read newspaper written in Mongolian language from 1960s to 1980s.With social development,the number of monolinguals decreases while that of bilinguals increases,and the flow of information and population is growing rapidly.In this process,media migration behaviors could be evidently seen among Mongolians.Different languages and different media gradually become part of Mongolians'daily life,playing different social roles.Mongolians' media migration behaviors currently share a general trend,whereas due to individual discrepancy such as different economic conditions,professional backgrounds,educational backgrounds,geographical conditions,etc.,there are also diverse and unique routes.There exists quite evident discrepancy of media migration behaviors among different generations.The first generation of the family followed a route from Mongolian newspaper,then to the Mongolian radio,and to Chinese and Mongolian TV finally,which is largely related to the social improvement,the simple media environment then and the simple entertainment needs.The second generation's media migration behaviors are more diverse as they entered various educational,geographical,professional and media environments.Economic conditions,personal interests,professional backgrounds,living environments,media environments,language habits etc.together contribute to this diversity.The third generation grew up in an Internet era and thus shared a route from watching Chinese TV mostly to using mobile Internet devices,which is a result of poor Mongolian proficiency,the availability of cheap mobile Internet devices and the advantage of Internet-based media.The availability and advantage of cheap Internet resources and the changes of language habits make the second and the third generations' routes merge gradually.Mongolian TV are marginalized,whose audience number decreases in the second and third generation to different extent,while the traditional newspaper and radio almost lost all their users.Internet-based TV and mobile devices are owned and used by a great number of Mongolians of the second and third generation.There are altogether six chapter of this paper.Chapter one introduces the research background,the significance of this research,the research methodology and framework and reviews the previous studies.Chapter two to five is the body part,briefly reviewing the social development,media development and the media history of the three generations in Ouha Family and analyzing the external and internal factors which influence the media migration behaviors of the Mongolians in Bortala.Chapter six is the conclusion and also points out certain limitations of this research.