A Case Study of “ Super Girl” in China - Centered on Mc Quail’s Mass Communication Theory

1. A Case Study of “Super Girl” in China- Centered on McQuail’s Mass Communication Theory A7KM1017 孟　海蓉 Linguistic Communication Department 8/1/2007

2. News (1) For nearly three hours Chinese society stopped - and voted. No, it wasn't a political revolution, but a mass thumbs up to a 21-year-old girl from Sichuan who belts out the song "Zombie" from the rock band "Cranberries" as part of her act. By Robert Marquand The Christian Science Monitor August 29, 2005

3. News (2) China's runaway summer hit, "Super Girl," ended last weekend with a television viewership that eclipsed the combined populations of the United States and Canada. State news media reported that more than 400 million people had watched the finale of the show, an "American Idol" knockoff, and saw a frizzy-haired music student from Sichuan Province selected as the winner. Jim Yardley The New York Times SEPTEMBER 5, 2005

4. News (3) “2005 SUPER Girl" winner Li Yuchun, with her tomboy-style hair and a shy smile, appears on the cover of the latest edition of Time Asia Magazine, issued on Monday, as one of the 25 Asia Heroes of 2005. 2005-10-07  XinhuaEnglish

5. Introduciton • “Super Girl” (“Mengniu Yogurt Super Voice Girl Contest”) is an annual national singing contest for female contestants in China, organized by Hunan Satellite Television since 2004. • It has been successfully presented to the public through 2005 and 2006, and this year 2007, “Super Girl” becomes “Happy Boy”, which just held its live finale in the evening of July 20th, in which the Champion topped the Runner-up by the voting of 3,318,550 : 2,573,652

6. “If you want to sing, sing!” • Here let us focus on the “2005 Super Girl” which had attracted attention from various fields and had been commented from all over the country by all kinds of media, and which had caused the greatest dispute in terms of different perspectives of Chinese mass media, culture and society.

7. The Process of the Contest (1) • Hai Xuan (Prelim, 150,000 contestants) • Five areas in China issuing simultaneously from bamboo forest villages to the crab shacks of Shanghai • A national wide selection of applicants of ages ranging from 4 to 89 • In spite of the long distance, even overseas Chinese, came to join with a dream of becoming famous or just to sing whatever she wants to sing. • Everybody 30 seconds of TV spot individually “It is extremely interesting,” said a 26 year-old viewer, “you never know who will be the next player or what she will do. It is just like a varied box of chocolates. ” -- Miao Qing, Shanghai Star, 8/2005

8. The Process of the Contest (2) • The Rolling Knockout Competition (nearly 4 months) • 50-20-10-7-5-3: weekly live competition of each area. The Top Three from each area are selected and reunited in Changsha – the capital of Hunan province – and starts the national weekly contests. • 15-10-8-6-5-4-3: a weekly 3 hours broadcast elimination game, more like a concert than a competition • During this period, all super girls survived will live together, and receive professional trainings on singing and dancing, and are involved in a whirl of public activities. • A team of expert judges: comprised of pop singer, critics and program designers, who have also won fame for their styles of commentary • The mass judges: 31 other amateur judges drawn from the ranks of common people who cast their votes by walking across the stage to single out their favorites as the studio band banged out up-tempo rock • Fans: for weeks, crowding shopping centers across the country, carrying the posters of their favorite contestants in an attempt to rally votes for them. • Audiences’ SMS (short message service): via mobile phone to vote for their favorite singers • PK (Player Kill): one of the weakest two is knocked out through the votes from the 31 mass judges. Not only fans but also the contestants cried again and again sending off the contestants one by one.

9. The Process of the Contest (3) • The finale (400,000,000 spectators ) • The three finalists: a splendid concert with the highest audience rating of China which drew more viewers than the government’s perennial blockbuster variety show at the beginning of each Lunar Near Year celebration. • No judgers, only votes from the viewers. • More than 8,000,000 votes for the three contestants, a figure that would have been far higher except that people had to pay (2 cents on average) to vote. Li Yuchun3,528,308,Zhou Bichang3,270,840, Zhang LiangYing1,353,906

10. A three-dimensional Media • Super Girl owes its success to the stereo combination of tridimensional media. Print media Net Work media Super Girl Electronic media

11. A society-wide mass communication

12. Complex Structure

13. A perfect combination • Super Girl is a perfect example of the combination of media, society and culture The enormous public fascination with the independently produced show has stimulated a nationwide online discussion on issues ranging from democracy to standards of beauty to whether Li is a lesbian. Jim Yardley, International Herald Tribune Sept. 5, 2005

14. Related to McQuail’s Media Theory Map • Super Girl is an event with complex elements, which is open to analysis from alternative points of view and according to differing concepts and methods. • In media studies, there is no one dominant paradigm. • Therefore, the present analysis will relate it with the “map” of McQuail which locates different theories and levels of theory about the mass communication process.

15. McQuail’s Eye

16. Alternative perspectives • Three-fold division: • Institutions: Macro-approaches • mass society theory; Marxist approaches and critical theory; political-economic media theory; hegemony theory; the social-cultural theory… • Texts: message-centered theory • Content analysis and semiology; sign and meaning; cultural studies. • Audiences: theory of audience and effect • Studies of choice, preference, motivation and media use behavior. • Dominance vs. pluralism

17. Analysis (1) - Media Institution • Media institution is essentially intermediate and mediating. • McQuail distinguished ‘media institution’ from ‘media organization’? • In Super Girl, obviously, HNSTV station is the centered media institution, and then, Tianyu Media Company, the sponsor, rules of the contest, principle of what a super girl is, the host and hostess, the cellphone of the audiences… • They are intermediate between the conventions and the audiences. • They are mediating in the sense of being channels for those elements to contact each other, and to acquire information.

18. Analysis (1.1) Super Girl and Economy • It is said that the program made gobs of money. • The Super Girls brand is now worth several hundred million Yuan. • 2005 Revenue: 43M(ads.)+14M (Mengniu sponsor) + 30M(SMS) =87M (shared by HNSTV, Tianyu, China Mobile, etc.) • The Super Girl became instant celebrities, and they will attend various kinds of concerts, activities held by HNSTV, and their personal CD or MV will soon be issued, which made them a ready source of money for HNSTV and Tianyu Media.

19. Analysis (1.2) –Super Girl and Democracy: anti-hegemony? • “It is like a gigantic game that has swept so many people into a euphoria of voting, which is a testament to a society opening up”, a social commentator, Zhu Dake, told state media. • No one is saying that the frenzy surrounding the show represents a threat to the ruling Communist Party or foreshadows the emergence of meaningful elective politics in China. But the degree to which the show resonated with people seems to have unsettled the government’s propaganda leaders. (International Herald Tribune) • “It is vulgar and manipulative,” intoned an official statement form CCTV, the national state-run broadcaster, which added that the program was not high-toned enough, due to the gaudy clothing worn by contestants, and that the show could be canceled next season due to its “worldliness”. (The Christian Science Monitor) • “ How come an imitation of a democratic system ends up selecting the singer who has the least ability to carry a tune?”asked the government’s official English-language newspaper, China Daily.

20. Analysis (2) Texts • The stage, the scenery, all the Super Girls, their images, their performance, their costume, their songs, their posters, their hard work, their spirits, even their friendship. • Among these, of course, the winner, Li Yuchun, is a focused text, who aroused the biggest discussion. • “The show is significant not only because people were allowed to vote for the winner but also because of the winner they voted for, Li, 21, is almost the antithesis of the assembly-line beauties regularly offered up on the government’s China Central Television (CCTV).” (International Herald Tribune) • It was the lack of polish of the performers, and the lack of predictability of the voting results, that made the program addictive. • “Some of them are really cool and brilliant in the show. It is unbelievable that previously they were as ordinary as me.” said a young audience. • Professor Jiang Yuanlun, also head of the Institute of Journalism and Mass Media with the Beijing Normal University, thought “Super Girl” was appealing to the eyeballs of the Chinese because it satisfied the aspiration of the general public for demonstrating themselves, venting their feelings.

21. Analysis (3) Audience and effect Pluralism out of Dominance in China?

22. Related to Gaye Tuchman • “The reasons people use the media help to determine the media’s affect on people.” • Lazarsfeld’s Uses and gratifications model • Washington State University: Media system dependency theory: how members of an audience actively use media to understand themselves and social situations, to orient themselves toward action and social interaction, and to enjoy themselves when along or with others. Individuals selectively expose themselves to programs they believe most likely to satisfy relevant needs. • Professor Jiang Yuanlun, also head of the Institute of Journalism and Mass Media with the Beijing Normal University, thought “Super Girl” was appealing to the eyeballs of the Chinese because it satisfied the aspiration of the general public for demonstrating themselves, venting their feelings.

23. Implications for the public interest in media Denis McQuail, Mass Communication Theory. • The summary has implications for changes in the requirements of society from its media. • Postmodernist thinking is fundamentally in tension with the very idea of storing valued information and culture and redistributing it according to some agreed notions of public interest. • On the other hand, the nature of any ‘public interest’ may well now be more variable and uncertain, and it will need continuing redefinition.

24. Super Girl and Public Interest Super Girl is a phenomena of typical sub-culture of postmodernism among young people, which has expanded from the past particular culture circle and entered people’s daily life, and become consumable. www.cdream.com.cn Li Yinhe--Beijing sociologist “Super Girl represents a victory of the grass-roots over the elite culture.”

25. Conclusion • Gaye Tuchman’s introduction and comparison between British and American media trends widened the view of what media was to include the situation (place, context) in which media were communicating. • It is kind of like how McQuail looked at a “system” in which media communicate. • Economic,Political,Social • Some of these approaches work better together than others. • It is more appropriate to analysis Super Girl in a comprehensive perspective.

26. References: • Denis McQuail, 1994, 1983, Mass Communication Theory, SAGE Publications. • Gaye Tuchman, 1988, Mass Media Institutions • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Girl_(contest) • http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005%2D08/12/content%5F468543.htm • http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005%2D08/12/content%5F468543.htm • http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/09/04/news/super.php • http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0829/p01s04-woap.html • http://mba.ce.cn/shouye/pic/200608/09/t20060809_8067839.shtml • http://www.hh80.com/bbs826/topic/20059/2005929503012612.htm