Media Image Restructuring Of Small Town Youth

Small town youth refer to those who aged between 18 and 35.They are born in third-tier and fourth-tier cities and towns below.Living in a sinking market,this group have a certain space for consumption upgrading,which have aroused the attention of various consumer goods fields and industries.This group start to become the object of media image construction.Some people in small towns use short video platforms such as TikTok and Kwai to produce local flavor videos,which are used as subject of sub-cultural to resist and deconstruct mainstream discourse narration.Due to the aesthetic ugliness of local flavor output,the stereotype of the group itself is caused.With the deepening of the rural revitalization policy,the image of small town youth in the official discourse space is about to complete the transformation and gradually returns to the mainstream value norms and image building.The concept of small town youth group originates from the demand of consumption upgrading in the economic field,the youth subculture resistance in the cultural field,and the official discourse narration of returning new farmers in the political field.Since the concept came into being,the symbolic significance of small town youth group is remarkable.The imbalance of media image about small town youth group is an objective problem.In the era of information enrichmen,new media,represented by Wechat and Microblog,have sprung up to give everyone a microphone and voice.New media have become the main platform for the public to obtain information and social communication.Based on the perspective of frame theory,sub-cultural capital and cultural hegemon theoretical perspectives,this study focuses on the framework characteristics of new media represented by Wechat in the construction of small town youth image,and analyzes its media image bias and imbalance.In order to explore the details of image presentation in reports and articles,this study combines with text analysis,summarizes six categories of typical media image of small town youth.In order to understand the gap between the real self-cognition and media image of small town youth,this study conducts semi-structured interviews with 15 small town youth from four coastal cities in Shandong Province.This paper analyzes the causes and manifestations of media image dislocation from three dimensions of culture,economy and media.Finally,the paper puts forward the guidance strategy from the three subjects of media,small town youth,county area.It is hoped that this study can make the media image restructuring of small town youth more objective and comprehensive.The study found that,the media image of small town youth tends to be more neutral and positive.It can be divided into six types of media images:small town youth who return hometowns and be new farmers,small town youth who strive to succeed,small town youth with spending power,small town youth who are lost and deranged,small town youth who represent earthy culture,small town youth who make supporting role of capital.However,there are three problems in the construction of the media image of this group.The first is the stereotype and image bias of the whole group.The second is that the consumption behavior and consumption ability of small town youth are overemphasized.The third is small town youth are prone to self-identity crisis in the selective presentation of mass media.It can be seen that the image reconstruction of small town youth needs the efforts of the media,the group themselves and the county town.Media platforms should fully understand the group in image communication,and make improvements in agenda setting,depth and objectivity of content.Small town youth are a large number of youth groups with strong endogenous power.They should improve their media literacy,make good use of the voice power given by new media,actively spread the group subculture in media practice,and help the benign development of image communication.The county should revitalize the town from the three aspects of industry,qualified people and culture,create more alternative lifestyles for small town youth,and help to build a platform for their media practice.