Becoming Extra-Ordinary: Negotiation of Media Power in the Case of Super Girls’ Voice in China

Abstract

This article aims at understanding the popularity and cultural and social significance of the highly prominent Chinese television show Super Girls' Voice (the 2005 season), a talent contest largely modeled upon “reality shows” such as American Idol in the United States and Pop Idol in the United Kingdom. We focus particularly on whether the show, as some critics have claimed, has altered the power relationship between the media and the audience. Theoretically, we follow Couldry's (2000) framework and consider the media's construction of the symbolic boundary separating the “media world” and the “ordinary world” as crucial to the legitimization of media power. Based on an analysis of media discourses, review of publicized materials about the show's organization, and a focus group study on young female audience members, we contend that the Super Girls' Voice has involved a temporary suspension of the media/ordinary boundary. Yet the boundary was re-established toward the end of the show, thus relegitimizing media power. The audience members, meanwhile, were largely complicit throughout the process: They both enjoyed the temporary suspension and the ultimate re-establishment of the media/ordinary boundary.