I am not a native English speaker, so there must be tons of grammatical mistakes out there...
Really appreciate if anybody can help me with it...
Any suggestion will be great help!... ^ ^
PLUSïźthe reference section is omitted
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The Semiotic Analysis of Gender Images in TV Dating Shows:
â-A case study of "If You Are the One" and "Take Me Out"
- Abstract
This research focus both on interpreting the construction of gender iamges in Chinese TV dating shows and the hidden gender ideology behind those images, through the methods of quantitative content analysis and semiotics analysis.
- Research Topic
TV dating shows are now significantly popular in mainland China. Two of the champion shows-"If You Are The One" and "Take Me Out"-are leading audience rating in China, once far beyond all the other programs. The "TV dating hot" has been prevailing all over the country, which becomes topic in between tables and sofas, and it stirs serious social concern both from the academy and government.
I am interested in the gender images (man & woman images), and gender ideology in the so popular TV dating shows. On the one hand, dating and marriage are major issues of gender study-who and in what situation does one has power over the other, who take the initiative, who owns the right to make decision, what do men and women behave during the process of choosing dating mates, how masculinity and femininity are constructed and reproduced within, etc. On the other, TV dating shows are significant field that showing present gender policy and ideology of society. It may not completely reveal the true reality, but it can highlight people's views and values toward gender and other culture issues, though maybe in a more dramatically way.
The objective of the show is for a man to gain a date with one of twenty-four single women (the number is eighteen in "Take Me Out"). The women stand on stage underneath twenty-four white lights, each with a button in front of them.(In the 'Take Me Out" series once there was special episodes that were men who stand in front of the lights and choosing one woman. ) A single man is then brought on stage tries to woo the women in a series of rounds, playing a prerecorded dating video, displaying a skill (such as dancing or playing a musical instrument), or playing another video in which the man's friends or family reveal more about him. At any point during the rounds, the women can press the button in front of them to turn off their light. If, at the end of three rounds, there are still lights left on, the bachelor will turn off all but two of the remaining lights himself. He will then have a chance to ask one question to the last two women, before choosing which woman he wants to go on a date with by turning off one more light. If the man is left with 2 lights at the end of round 3, then he will just ask his question to the two remaining women and if there is only 1 light left at the end of round 3 then he will go on a date with that girl without asking them his question. If all the women turn off their lights before the end of the third round - what is referred to as a "blackout" - then, the man must leave the show alone. In addition, apart from the participants, there are also a host and two "dating expert" will make their judgments and give suggestions during the procedure.
The images of man and womanïž-of masculinity and feminity, are being constructed, contradicted, and argued throughout the show, where female and male participants' appearance, character, opinions, occupation, economic status are presented with the proceed of the program. It seems to be simple for feminist critics to draw the conclusion that they can easily see patriarchy ideology occupying the show, and feminism reverse is just on the surface. Sun Yukun(2012) concludes that the manifestation of woman's right to speak during the show is just skin deep, powerful "male centered" thinking still dominates the overall ideological direction of the program. Some radical, outspoken women only serve as cannon fodder of the patriarchal society discourse; the real beneficiaries are the male producers, so it is only a fantasy of the female revolution and cannot change the essence of the "Phallocentrism". However, gender images in TV dating shows are much more complex than one-sided criticize from feminist critics or applauding of optimists. Further investigation should be done to draw the conclusion.
All in all, through research, I want to interpret gender images in TV dating shows in a semiotic way, and critically reveal the hidden gender policy and ideology from the perspective of multiculturalism.
- Literature Review
Gender Images In Media
Representation of gender images in media were first used by feminist analysis for the desire to understand how images and cultural constructions are connected to patterns of inequality, domination and oppression (Rosalind Gill, 2007). The women and media research landscape took shape in the 1970s as the most vigorous attention was generated by women's opposition to certain imagery of females. (Byerly, 2012). Research found the media were showing bruised, and dismembered females in films, advertisements, magazines and other forms of popular culture, which indicated women's subjugation by men. The issues had erupted locally as smaller-scale skirmishes that led to larger campaigns which women struggled for their rights of politics, education, profession and fair representation in media. Between 1976 and 1985, as the result of feminist movement, the United Nations set the Decade for Women. During the decade, critique of women images was sorted out in three parts: the absence of women image, the unfair representation of women in media, and employment of women in media industry.
The central of representational research is about masculine ideology which in various ways manifests itself in image or story to reinforce longstanding values of men's superiority over women. Among the most common methodologies in representational research are textual analysis, framing analysis, semiotics and ethnography. Most research on women's media representations is concerned about stereotypes of women, which represent women as inferior (Yanni 1990, Rudman and Verdi 1993), passive (Goffman 1976, Shields 1990) , submissive (Courtney and Lockeretz 1971), and even as sexual objects (Dominick and Raouch 1972, Courtney and Whipple 1974) . These research are conducted mainly using an interpretive (qualitative) approach associated with cultural studies.
Despite focus on female image in media, researchers realized that it would not reasonable if they leave the male image without scrutiny. As Connell (1990) defined it, hegemonic masculinity is "the connecting of masculinity to toughness and competitiveness" as well as "the subordination of women" and "the marginalization of gay men". At the beginning of masculine media image study, research are focusing on idealized image of men through analyzing representations of sports stars, entertainment stars and advertisement icons. For example, Frith and Mueller(2010) noted that in the United States, ads for men have historically presented a single individual, who is shown as the hardworking business type. Men's images are represented in isolation without the assistance of others, also they had a physique that was strong and muscular.
Research conducted in the 1990s found that the traditional depictions of men were changing and that there was a notable increase in the use of the male body as a sexual object in the West. This trend has been termed the "feminization of masculinity" (Iida, 2005). As societies become more globalized and trends move quickly across borders, this feminization (devoted, obliging, superstitious) of the male body challenges the phallocentric economy of the past and is opening up a space for men to redefine masculinity (Frith and Mueller, 2010).
Another important change in media representation of gender in the last decade or so has been the growing prevalence of representations of lesbians and gay men, and to a much lesser extent, bisexuals and transgendered persons. Gill (2007) argued that while homosexuality is much more visible in advertising than it was ten year ago, it is signified through highly specific, highly sexualized codes.
Cultural approaches of television study
Laura Grindstaff and Joseph Turow (2006) employed an organizational frame that groups television study approaches into political-economic approaches on the one hand, and cultural approaches on the other. Cultural approaches focus more on the expressive and symbolic dimensions of television programing and reception. This approach of television is a reaction to early media critics, such as McLuhan (1964), who put it that "medium is the message", and Baudrillard (1983), who argued that the primary effect of television and other media, regardless of content, is to substitute a realm of hyperreal representation (simulacra) for the world itself.
Some scholars holds theories that less deterministic attitude towards television, such as Gitlin (1978), who argues that in reproducing established power relations, medium has ideological/hegemonic dimensions, while Williams (1974), Newcomb & Hirsch (1983) and Kellner (1990) focus on negotiating cultural contradictions.
Horace Newcomb's (1974) TV: The most Popular Art, and Raymond Williams's (1974) Television: Technology and Cultural Form, have a strong influence on the framing of television as popular rather than simply mass culture. And Raymond Williams's work set the stage for an explosion of media research in the UK and abroad, much of it associated with cultural studies. American scholars such as Kellner(1981) and Spigel (1992) also regarded television as the cultural terrain where the metaphoric fault lines of American society are expressed and worked through, not by imposing a monolithic or dominant viewpoint by exploring ideological contradictions through multiple and competing perspectives.
Studies of television in cultural approaches employs textual, archival, and/or discourse analysis in the service of understanding how television works in/on society; and as a commercial institution it not only produce programs, but also social representations and ideas about the world, particularly as they relate to notions of power, place, and identity (ethnic, class, gender, sexuality, etc.). (Cantor 1983, Spigel 1992, Hamamoto 1994, D'acci 1994, Gray 1995).
- Research Method
McQuail (2005) notes that only with the combination of quantitative content analysis and semiotic analysis can reveal the connotation and denotation of media content. So in order to understand the construction of gender images in TV dating shows, and furthermore, reveal the hidden gender ideology behind those images, this research will use both the method of quantitative content analysis and semiotic analysis.
Quantitative content analysis
First broadcasted on January 15th, 2010 by Jiangsu TV station, "If You Are The One" have aired up to 287 episodes. Episodes 150th to 190th will be selected for reviewing and analyzing. In terms of "Take Me Out", initiated by Hunan TV station since December 24th, 2009, 190 episodes have been aired. Episodes as follow will be selected for further investigation: episodes 100th to 149th, and episodes between April 23rd 2010 and September 15th 2010, when men and women change position.
Semiotic analysis
Semiotics analysis is the appropriate way to understand complexities in constructing gender images of TV dating shows. Semiotics is a study of signs, which concerns how meaning is constructed through the interaction of signs in all contexts. According to the theory of semiotics, meaning arises from the differences between signifiers; these differences are of two kinds: syntagmatic (concerning positioning) and paradigmatic (concerning substitution). Whilst syntagmatic relations are possibilities of combination, paradigmatic relations are functional contrasts- they involve differentiation. (Chandler, 2009)
Through syntagmatic analysis and paradigmatic analysis, gender images can be interpreted neutrally. In terms of revealing the hidden ideology behind those images, it is here useful to identify a parallel between frames of computation and frames of cultural reference, through another application of Fiske and Hartley's (1978) model.
Figure1. Fiske and Hartley's (1978) model of first, second and third orders of signification applied to possible ways of representing frames of sign-functions inside a computer system.
