Page 157 - A Handbook Genre Studies in Mass Media

CHAPTER 6

by more than 400 million people in 2005. The winner of the contest,
a twenty-one-year-old college student named Li Yuchun, became an
instant celebrity in China. However, Chinese officials decided that the
reality show undermined the state-sanctioned cultural values. Barboza
explains:

Some experts and commentators on the Chinese media called the notice
a reaction against the show by conservatives in the government. . . . The
contest was a significant shift away from China’s usual television fare,
which often revolves around soap operas and delicate women in traditional
Chinese dresses, singing and dancing. . . . Many who watched the program
said that Ms. Li, last year’s “Supergirl” winner, dressed and danced like a
boy, and that several other contestants gyrated wildly on stage. . . . Media
experts here say the slightly rebellious nature of the show, which showed
participants in baggy jeans singing with unusual emotion, crying on stage
and punching their fists in the air, may have gone too far. 22

In March 2006, the state administration of radio, film, and television
issued a notice to the producers of Supergirl, declaring that the contests
should not promote “philistinism” and avoid “vulgar” displays of clothes
or jewelry. The notice also hinted that the show might not even be allowed
to be broadcast in certain regions.
Certain genres lend themselves to particular ideological messages.
For instance, the emergence of ideological broadcast news outlets in the
United States provides a platform for promoting political agendas. As
an example, while the manifest function of Fox News is to inform the
public, its latent function is to promote the agenda of the Bush admin-
istration. Indeed, a survey found that regular viewers of Fox News were
more likely to hold the following misconceptions about political events,
as compared to audiences of other news outlets:

• Were weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq?
• Yes: 33 percent of Fox viewers
• Yes: 11 percent of PBS/NPR audience
• Were there links between Iraq and Al Qaeda?
• Yes: 67 percent of Fox viewers
• Yes: 16 percent of PBS/NPR audience
• Does world opinion favor the U.S. invasion of Iraq?
• Yes: 35 percent of Fox viewers
• Yes: 5 percent of NPR/PBS audience 23

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