Abstract
This study examines the television drama ¡§Taiwan Pili Fire¡¨ produced by SET TV¡¦s Taiwan Channel, and the process in which the nation¡¦s three major newspapers ¡V China Times, United Daily News, and Liberty Times ¡V set out to report it, from the time it began on June 22 of 2002 to the three months after it ended on July 22 of 2003, and construct the media issue, the Pili Fire phenomenon.
SET TV¡¦s drama ¡§Taiwan Pili Fire¡¨, which went on air in June of last year, aired a total of 285 episodes. In less than a year, its rating surged five folds from 2.5 to 13.5. It not only defeated the 8 o¡¦clock dramas of the four wireless television stations, it also broke the 8 o¡¦clock ratings record of recent years ¡V coming in second behind the rating record of 14 held by FTV¡¦s ¡§Dragon Flight¡¨ ¡V to become the second longest running 8 o¡¦clock drama in television history. As a result, it prompted this attempt to examine the process of how the media reported and constructed the entire frenzy surrounding the show. The goal was to examine, through the construction process of the Pili Fire issue, whether the media is the main force behind why a show, which began with a poor rating, expanded into a social phenomenon and explore the role the media played in the building of the show¡¦s success.
Initially, the show ¡§Taiwan Pili Fire¡¨ began as a simple news event about its plot development and actors. Later, the Government Information Office penalized the show for its plot of spilling dog blood. However, the show not only reached the highest 200-episode record in Taiwan¡¦s television history, but its rating continued to climb higher. Eventually, the show became a controversial social education issue. Newspaper coverage played an important role and displayed the power of the media. The intense coverage built up the issue and created the Pili Fire hysteria in society. As study samples, this study looked at a total of 266 Pili Fire related articles from three newspapers ¡V ¡§China Times¡¨, ¡§United Daily News¡¨, and ¡§Liberty Times¡¨ ¡V from the period when the show began on June 19 of 2002 to Dec. 31 of 2003. The content analysis method was used to examine the connection between the source of show information and the media issue in order to explore the complete construction process of the show¡¦s popularity.
This study discovered that the media frenzy constructed through different sources (including SET TV, academic experts, and the viewers) of information was already a given fact. Through the process of building the issue, it was apparent that an initially unimportant news event could be turned into a noteworthy social incident that roused morale and popular opinion. Without the media coverage, the Pili Fire series was merely an ordinary television show promoting its beginning that would surely cease when it was through. Without the media coverage of viewers¡¦ response and the opinions of sociology experts, other Pili Fire resulted social phenomenon would not have occurred. On the other hand, this transfer of power also influenced the nation¡¦s television shows, which in the past only placed importance on ratings. Viewers¡¦ feedback on the shows could now dictate television-programming decisions. The plot, of course, was an important factor behind the popularity of the drama, Taiwan Pili Fire. However, without the strong media presence, the Pili Fire issue would not have spread. Overall, through the development of the Pili Fire hysteria, this study allowed us to understand the role that the media played. Aside from a better understanding of the process and the result of news production, we also grasped the relationship between the media frenzy created by the Pili Fire show and fad. We also hope that it can serve as a reference for the future development of other television programs.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0728104-220052 |
| Date | 28 July 2004 |
| Creators | Tsai, Pei-yin |
| Contributors | Joon-ying Huang, Chun-cong Huang, Ya-jing Li |
| Publisher | NSYSU |
| Source Sets | NSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive |
| Language | Cholon |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0728104-220052 |
| Rights | not_available, Copyright information available at source archive |
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