Television Industry Development and Its Effect in the Contemporary Chinese Society

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The function of television behind entertainment

The Communist Party of China awarded that the television system is the most commodious and modernism to the mass communication, and it facilitated the television channels to more proliferated and easier to send over the territory. Television considers as a propaganda machine for the Chinese Government. On one hand, as Wasko points out that:

"The Chinese television industry is characterized by a unique for of state monopoly capitalism: commercialized operations organized into a hierarchical structure of administrative monopoly." (J. Wasko, 2005 ,P.527).

Seeing through the real situation of the brew, birth and development of the media groups in China, the government is playing the role of giving directions to the market instead of replacing the market. (J. Wasko, 2005 ,P.27). During the lesson, professor Cheng comments that Mass media & popular culture are the means of generating false consciousness, they lead people to believe that “whatever is, is right.”. In this situation, the television invaded to most of the household families nowadays in China, the Chinese government are more easily to disseminate the message that they want, or to prohibit some of the message that unfavorable to the political power, which is the TV censorship in China.

The Communist Party's Central Propaganda Department (CPD), it is not only the powerful department in the China, but it makes the citizens formidable which control with the administration of the mass media, including the film producing company, television broadcaster and the radio in every state in the China. (Xu, 2016) Moreover, it manages the right of publication and press in order to ensure the content of the program fulfills the party’s doctrine and is not including any message that is prohibited or restricted to the communist party. Before 1994, the Central Propaganda Department would examine and check the CCTV primetime news drastically before the live of the program at 7pm, which is the prescreen of the CPD, so, the live broadcast of the news channel is impossible in the past.

However, the Central Propaganda Department made some adjustment since then, the programs on CCTV and the other province television broadcaster were only checked after they have broadcasted usually. Additionally, the multiplicity and volume of material or program makes the Central Propaganda Department could be review the broadcasts that are more crucial or prioritized. For example, the CCTV primetime news usually receive more TV ratings and much more audience than the morning or midnight news do.

The another example that representing the government has weaken or set the prescreen level more lower are that, there is a current affairs program which called “ 今日關注 ” in Guangdong TV. It is the network that owned by the Guangdong provincial government, whereas, this program always exposes some controversial public topic with related to the government. Corruption of the provincial government, the injustice judgement from the court of justice etc. Such programs could also be watched at the CCTV – Focal Report and Beijing TV – Express News channel.

It is one of the manipulation method which shift the citizens with mindless leisure program or drama and bring them off by getting them involved with dominant values. Undoubtedly, all of the TV program were screened by the government and shows some incorrect and artificial appearance in the society in the past, with controlling the freedom of speech and the right of option for our favorite TV program for the purpose of consolidate the power of the Communist Party. Nevertheless, as before mentioned, CCTV is the producer which is the most powerful and productive of the television program, and it starts to emancipate from the Central Propaganda Department and produce the current affairs program. With the criticism by those program, the Party and the provincial government will take the effort on those trouble issues with related to the citizen, and it shows that the function of television is not only for the propagandistic usage, but it can also be the method of approach between the government and the citizen. However, besides propaganda and criticism purpose, what is the other effects of the Television to the Chinese Society?

Advertisement and Television

In television industry, advertisement is one of the most important element.

According to economic times, Advertisements are messages paid for by those who send them and are intended to inform or influence people who receive them.

Advertiser usually presents their products, informs the content of the service or just entertains by using the particular message and displayed in the mass media for accomplish the several purposes. Particularly, TV advertisement is the most successful publicity method to the public. “The television is the most important influential advertising method among all the media in China.” (Wang, J., 248). This shows that the television and advertising can never be standing alone. For the above passage, the voice of China will be the example to examine the relevant between the television show and advertisement.

The voice of china – is a Chinese reality show produced by Zhejiang Television channel that premiered on 13/7/2012. It receives many support from the Asia since in launch, and this reality singing show has the high TV rating since it engages more that 4 billions and 1.2 billion audiences on the internet and television respectively (He.H, 2014).

The series consists of three phases: a blind audition, a battle phase, and live performance shows. The four well-known judges, including Na Ying, Jay Chow, Wan Feng and JJ Lin etc. They choose teams of contestants through a blind audition process and consider audition’s performance to decide whether the contestants can join their team or not. In the final phase, the selected contestants will compete against each other in live broadcasts.

This television show is the most valuable program in China nowadays, it is not only the attracting content, but also the cost of advertising slot of the program. Advertising slots on the voice of china is offered 360 thousand RMB for fifteen seconds. For the one-hour show in a week, the broadcaster can gain the total of 16 million yuan a week. In the last episode of the previous season, the cost of a minute advertising deals with 30,000,000 yuan and this is a revolution record for the advertising industry in China. It reveals that the television industry in china can bring the economic income by enriching the content, so that the advertiser will afford