Commercialization and sensationalism: comparison of television news in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan

Abstract

Examining the prominence of sensational content, features and storytelling in news reports, this comparative study investigated news sensationalism in commercial and state-owned Chinese television news. For the selected cases (CCTV from mainland China, TVB Hong Kong, TTV and TVBS from Taiwan), 1,132 news stories from 56 main evening newscasts in the fall of 2007 were content analyzed. Three sets of variables, sensational topics, tabloid packaging and vivid story-telling techniques, were used to measure dramatic elements in news stories. The findings partially supported that more competitive commercial TV newscasters (Hong Kong’s TVB and Taiwan’s TVBS) have more sensational topics, tabloid packaging, and vivid storytelling techniques than the public service oriented CCTV of China and Taiwan’s TTV. Implications of these findings on Chinese television news sensationalism were discussed.

本文就華語商業電視台和國有電視台煽情新聞的內容，形式和敘事方式進行比較研究。我們從中國大陸，香港和台灣的四家電視台抽樣1,132條新聞進行內容分析，檢測煽情新聞主題，煽情編輯方式和生動的敘事方式共三變量。研究結果部分支持本文假設，即商業競爭導向的香港與台灣無線衛星電視台（TVB and TVBS）較國內的中央電視台（CCTV）和服務公共性質的台灣電視台（TTV）傾向於使用煽情主題，煽情包裝方式和生動的敘事技巧。本文並討論該結論對華語電視新聞商業化與煽情化之意義。