CCTV ‘dialogue’ = speaking + listening: A case analysis of a prestigious CCTV talk show series Dialogue

Abstract

I have conducted a series of case studies of Chinese television in recent years in areas ranging from talk shows (Zhong, 1998), debating shows (Zhong, 2002) and the reception analysis of serials (Zhong, 2001a) to the political economics of its operation (Zhong, 2001b). These studies prompted me to observe that Chinese television continues to be a master’s medium, used for propaganda purposes, rather than a medium of mass empowerment. In the 1998 study of talk shows, which is of direct relevance to this present one, I found that these shows adopted a communication model which was meant to facilitate a one-way injection of messages into the audiences and which, by doing so, alienated the audiences. This was because the communication model positioned the different participants in a hierarchy, with the television hosts and government officials constructed as the single and central source of information; business interests as visible, financial but voiceless facilitators for conveying information; and the audiences as a passive, indistinguishable, listening mass at the receiving end.