“The Medium is the Massage”: Exploring the Influential Role of Slow Variety Shows

Abstract

“The Medium is the Massage”, first proposed by Marshall McLuhan, as another theory in communication science with an extraordinary vision, provides a new perspective for understanding the impact of slow variety shows on the emotional role of audiences in research. In recent years, slow variety shows such as “Welcome Back To Sound” and “Life to Live” have spurted on and won wide attention from audiences. In this paper, we will take the second season of “Welcome Back To Sound” as an example and analyse the influence of slow variety shows on audiences’ emotions from the perspective of “The Medium is the Massage”. Specifically, it takes sound as the entrance, “massaging” the audience’s sensory system from visual presentation, discourse and aesthetic performance, thus causing emotional resonance and reawakening the audience’s aspiration and pursuit of a better life. It is worth noting that while enjoying the “media massage” of slow variety shows, we also need to be wary of the excessive consumption of audience emotions by commercial capital and new media.