In a democratic society, apart from the three public institutions --- the executives, the legislatives,and the judiciary, journalism is regarded as the Fourth Estate. Among all of the mass media, television broadcasting is deemed as the most powerful and influential medium. Since 1945, the ownership of the three major electronic media in Taiwan had been substantially under the Kuomintang government's control and manipulated de facto by the KMT party. Under such circumstances, the electronic media were factually manipulated as an ideological propaganda tool of an authoritarian regime by the KMT, the ruling party.
With its political monopoly over the television broadcasting harshly criticized by the public and the opposition ¡Vthe Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Government Information Office of the Executive Yuan yielded to the request for deregulation by consenting to loosen its grasp of the frequency spectrum foranother television station, the Formosa Television, went on air in June 1997, marking a milestone in Taiwan's broadcasting evolution and generating one controversy after another since the inception.
In the current study, two research approaches are adapted. Firstly, from the standpoint of political competition, contextual analysis is applied to analyze the association between local electronic media's evolution and the the transition of democracy in Taiwan. Secondly, based on the findings and insights from the first approach, a case study on FTV is conducted to further assess the significance of the FTV¡¦s text and manufacture culture along with the media effect on social experience. Regarding methodology, the historical approach serves to ground the analysis of the television broadcasting development while qualitative research is employed to evaluate the case study, out of which first-hand information as well as perspectives are obtained through field observation and in-depth interviews with the managers and executives of the television station.
The thesis asserted here is that the ownership of the FTV does not belong to the DPP for the simple reason that its shareholders consist of varied kinds of investors. Nonetheless, the structure of the ownership is marked by the dominance of two non-official entities, the DPP and DPP-afffiliated law-makers. As a natural result of the will of its major shareholders, FTV's board members tend likely to be officials of the DPP party or its designated representatives. This is why FTV is generally referred to as a propaganda arm of the DPP.
One of the major findings suggests that FTV has since its inception set as its priority the raising of competitive edge against the three KMT controlled television networks (TTV, CTV, CTS). In fact, in their practical operations, two major indices for performance evaluation are turned to the prime-time news reporting and the ratings. Underlying the fierce competition are considerations for ideological dominance and advertising revenues. As it turns out, the political ideology of FTV owners parallels the marketing strategy of the professional executives. Due to an emphasis upon native-orientated programming, FTV has enjoyed a strategic advantage over the other three networks in terms of market appeal and division.
The study appreciates that the FTV's endeavors to break through the monopoly of the KMT-controlled networks, thus redressing the over-due biased reports on political issues and positively contributing to the pluralistic perspectives of a dynamic island democracy. However, in the meantime, ideological intervention by the ownership in the production and distribution of the programming is detected. Sepecifically, in assuming the responsibility for maintaining the impartiality of journalism and the self-appointed role of "power balancer", FTV finds its equally tempting to pursue revenues and profits for the sake of the electronic media's own survival and continuous development. As a result of interactions between political power intrusion and the commercial profit motive, television broadcasting in Taiwan has never been treated as an independent, ideally performing public domain in which public interests take precedence over political ideology and commercial proprietary rights.
As Taiwan is marching at full speed toward a fully democratic state, it is worthwhile to reposition the Formosa Television as a substantive player in the process while objectively assessing the extent to which television is capable of solidifying the achievement of democracy in Taiwan. In its analyses, this research discerns that FTV had been perceived as an opposition party's TV station instead of a genuine nonpartisan mass media ever since its inception. With the DPP in power after the presidential victory in March 2000, FTV is now criticized as an official organ of the new government. So it is proposed that FTV take aggressive actions during the post-election, critical period to resolve the general misunderstanding, impartiality and objectivity being the most essential elements of the reengineering work.
Grounded on a firm belief in the unbiased and yet facilitative role of journalism as the Fourth Estate, the study in its final assessment presents concluding assertions: 1. Media should sustain the inallenable right of supervision over government. 2. The ruling principles of objectivity and impartiality should not be compromised or vary from regime to regime. 3. Political parties and politicians should refrain from employing media as a personal or propaganda tool. 4. Mass media should serve as an arena equally accessible to citizens where public issues and interests are explored and strengthened in support of the democratization of Taiwan.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0605101-111941 |
| Date | 05 June 2001 |
| Creators | Chen, Yann-Long |
| Contributors | none, none, none |
| 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-0605101-111941 |
| Rights | off_campus_withheld, Copyright information available at source archive |
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