The Impact of American Television on Chinese College Students

THE IMPACT OF AMERICAN TELEVISION ON CHINESE COLLEGE STUDENTS

ZIXUAN ZHOU

A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of

WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

Communication

May 2011

Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Approved By

Michal D. Hazen, Ph.D., Advisor

Ananda Mitra, Ph.D., Chair

Ling Chen, Ph.D

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I would like to express my gratitude to all those who had contributed to the completion on this study, especially my cordial thanks to Dr. Michael Hazen, Dr. Ananda

Mitra and Dr. Ling Chen. The completion of this project would not have been possible without your guidance and support.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES………………………………………………………………………iv LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………………………v ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………vi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………..1 CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW……………………………………………….4 Globalization and Flow of Entertainment………………….……………...5

American Television in China……………………………………………………….6

Cultivation Theory, Cultural imperialism and the Paradigm Shift ……………11

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY……………………………………………………14 Participants………………………………………………….………………15 Measurement………………………………………………………………………16 Media Exposure……………………………………………………………….16 Uses and Gratification ………………………………………………………17 Perceived Impact …………..………………………………………………….18 Perception of Traditional Chinese Values …………………………………..19 Data Analysis Strategies…………………………………………………………..20 CHAPTER IV RESULTS……………………………………………………………..21 Section I ………………………………………………………………………...22 Viewership……………………………………………………………………22 Exposure…..…………………………………………………………………24 Viewing Pattern……………………………………………………………26 Section II ………………………………………………………………………...33 Values…………………………………………………………… …………..38 Other Cultivation Effects…………………………………………………39 CHAPTERV DISCUSSION………………………………………………………….43

Significance of Results…………………………………………………………44 The Participants ………………………...………………………….………..44 Viewing Pattern……………………………………………………………….45 Cultural Values.………………..…………………………….……………….46 Cultivation Effects………………………………………..………………….47 Limitations and Recommendations……………..…………………………………..50 REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………..52 APPENDIX A Descriptive CVS Ratings……………………………………………57 APPENDIX B T-tests for Different Viewer Groups…………………………….….58 APPENDIX C English Questionnaire…………………..…..……………………….62 APPENDIX D Chines Questionnaire……………………………………………...…75 APPENDIX E English Consent Form………………………………………..….…..88 APPENDIX F Chinese Consent Form………………………………………..….…..89 APPENDIX G IRB Approval Memo………………...………………………………..90 APPENDIX H IRB Protocol…………………………………………….……………..91 CV………………………………………………………………………………………..96

iii

LIST OF TABLES

Page 1 Frequency of Viewership by Year 23

2 Frequency of Viewership by Gender 23

3 Frequency of Viewership by Hometown 23

4 Frequency of Viewership by Oversea Experience 24

5 English Proficiency Ratings (1-10) by American TV Viewers and Non- 24 viewers

6 Preference in Different Genres of American TV Shows 29

7 Extracted Factors and items contained I 33

8 Extracted Factors and items contained II 35

9 Impact Factors Ratings by How Many Hours Spent on Watching American 39 TV Shows

10 Impact Factors Ratings by How Long Have Been Watching American TV 40 Shows

11 Impact Factors Ratings by How Many American TV Shows Ever Watched 41

12 Impact Factors Ratings by How Many American TV Shows Regularly 42 Watched Now

13 Significant Finding Summary 49

LIST OF FIGURES

Page 1 Approximately how many hours do you spend on watching American TV 25 show per week?

2 How long have you been watching American TV shows? 26

3 How do you watch American TV show (channel) usually? 27

4 How do you usually watch American TV shows (forms)? 28

5 Why do you want to watch American TV shows? 30

6 After watching American TV shows, what do you get from it? 30

7 How do you choose which American TV show to watch? 31

8 If you stop watching a show, it was probably because 32

9 Why are American TV shows appealing to you? 32

ABSTRACT

The present study examined the viewing of American Television among Chinese college students and the relationship between American TV exposure and its impact in terms of value, knowledge, belief, attitude and behavior. Data were collected from 279

Chinese college students using a cross-sectional online survey. The findings helped to better understand the viewing pattern of Chinese college students and more importantly, the results confirmed the overreaching impact based on substantial significant differences found between viewing groups. However, values are relatively hard to change and significant difference in values was only found between long-term and short-term viewers, which indicates that the length of viewership is the most powerful indicator in cultivation effects.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

We are used to the fact that American brands such as McDonald’s, Starbucks,

Nike and Disney becoming global. America has been, for at least a century, the most

powerful brand on the planet (Anholt, 2005). American-labeled leisure products such as

television programs have also spread around the world, reaching a large and diverse

audience. Most media programming, imported in the world, originates in the United

States (Harrington & Bielby, 2004; Atkin, 2003; Davis, 1999) even though significant amounts also originate in Europe, Latin America and parts of Asia (Banerjee, 2002). The topic of the impact of the imported television on domestic audiences throughout the

world is one that has aroused a high degree of interest but a limited number of studies

have resulted (Tan, Tan &Tan, 1985; Tan, Li & Simpson, 1986; Zaharopoulos, 2003).

Unfortunately, the studies that exist are often also not very sophisticated methodologically (Elasmar & Hunter, 1997).

The status of imported television in China differs from countries like Brazil,

Philippine or India, which early on imported US media. In China the foreign media penetration was minimal for about 30 years after WWII. Even after China’s economic reforms, opening up in 1970s, and the joining the WTO in 2001, western television programming still was limited in China because of the government's tight control over media. However, with the rapid growth of the Internet, millions of the

Chinese youth now spend their time consuming much of their entertainment online (Chu,

2010), and new means of watching foreign TV programs have evolved.

As a result, Wentworth Miller, the lead actor in American TV show Prison Break became the spokesperson for a Chinese local clothing line; His latest Chinese TV

Commercial of the Chevrolet Cruz is playing over and over again while the hit show has

never been aired; Go down many streets in Shanghai that are lined with little boutiques

for women clothing, and don’t be surprised to see that “As seen on Gossip Girl” plastered across the store window. Blake Lively and Ed Westwick (stars in Gossip Girl) are becoming fashion icons among young Chinese people without ever having a single episode of Gossip Girl on-air. The facts are testaments to how much and to what degree

American Television has been pervasive in China nowadays. This underbelly of China’s media market is playing a significant role in Chinese society yet often overlooked and misunderstood in academia, therefore deserves the attention.

This study proposes to examine the increasing popularity of American Television in China as well as its impact, that is, to take a closer look at American TV viewing in

China and its influence on Chinese audience. Before framing detailed research questions, it is useful to review past research on imported television and media effect as well as their theoretical framework. A literature review that explores different aspects related to this topic is presented below. First, some key concepts of globalization and flow of entertainment are introduced. Second, American Television in China, including historically how American Television got in the market and its current status is examined.

Third, in order to explore the impact on the audience, different theories and models are discussed, along with examples of relevant studies.

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

Globalization and Flow of Entertainment

Globalization became a commonly used term to explain the international

information flows nowadays. Armony and Lamy (2000) explain that economic processes

of globalization result in increased: trade, trans-border communication and movement of people, which is bound to bring some cultural convergence throughout the world.

According to Weber (2010), globalization is an increase in interconnectedness and

linking of economies due to advances in digitalization, knowledge and intermingling of

cultures. Globalization also can be defined as the erosion of the borders of nation-states

through expansion of international companies, international communications,

international financial networks, and the homogenization of consumer culture (Sheehan,

1996). The flows of information between countries are complex because it includes any

kind of communication from the point of view of flows, such as the most studied types:

news and entertainment.

According to Nordenstreng (1974) and Varis (1984), there are two trends within

international flow that deserve attention. The first trend is the one way traffic flow from

large exporting countries; the second trend emphasizes that entertainment material

dominates the flow of information to the rest of the world. In terms of international flow

of entertainment, the United States is definitely the dominant power. Hollywood studios

still populate theatres, controlling about 75% of the global distribution market. While the

music industry allows for grater local product, it’s still dominated by giants from the

OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development), and particularly

from the US (Centeno, 2005). The flow of American Television program across the globe

is so widespread that it is easier to enumerate the few countries that have been untouched

by American Television (Read, 1976).

The term “American Television” or “American TV” (美剧) in this study is narrow

in scope meaning the TV programs that are designed to entertain, such as drama, sitcom, reality TV shows and so forth. Based on the various themes, the programs can also be categorized into: comedy(喜剧类); crime show (罪案类); fantasy show (科幻类); reality show (真人秀); medical show (医务类); drama (剧情类); legal show (律政类); idol show (青春偶像剧). My focus in this study is on the viewing of American Television in

China and its impact on Chinese viewers. Therefore, it’s important to take a look at

China’s television industry, especially American Television’s status in China.

American Television in China

The Chinese population hardly knew any American TV shows until 30 years ago.

As U.S.-China relations were gradually normalized in 1970s, the first U.S. drama The

Man from Atlantis hit Chinese TV screens in 1980 as a result of Xiaoping Deng’s (邓小

平) visit to the U.S. The novelty of watching U.S. drama made the show so popular in

China that the series had several re-runs in the 1990s. Five months later, another

American TV show Garrison’s Gorillas was brought to China, 23 years after the show was first aired in the US. After the initial successes, a steady stream of American programs made their way onto Chinese screens, including ABC’s Growing Pains and

FOX’s The X-Files. After the CCTV Drama Channel was set up, more American TV shows such as Friends and Sex and City were brought in and soon became classics for

Chinese audience.

However, in the early 2000s, the government enacted a series of new policies to regulate the China’s television industry. TV networks have to get approval from the State

Administration of Radio, Film and Television for every imported TV program. The TV show has to go through strict censorship covering not only politics, but sexuality, violence and other subjects that form the gist of American entertainment, making it harder for the TV stations to import American TV programs. Moreover, there are sharp limits on the number of American programs and Hollywood movies that can be broadcast or screened in theaters in China. China imported only 16 American films in 2008, out of a total of 20 foreign movies. American programs are similarly scarce on Chinese television

(French, 2006).

However, means to access foreign TV programs have evolved due to the development of technology. Until the mid-1990s, the only way to watch foreign television was via broadcasts by national television station. Yet the introduction of

VCDs, DVDs and, most importantly, ready access to the Internet, have radically reconfigured Chinese viewing channels (Wang, 2006).

According to the head of Film and Television Center of the Shanghai Media

Group, it takes at least a year to get approval from the State Administration of Radio,

Film and Television after a show is aired in the US to appear on mainland Chinese television (Sina, 2007). The Internet, on the other hand, has drastically shortened the time between a program’s release in America and its availability to Chinese audiences. With the help of groups of volunteer translators, Chinese viewers can access American TV shows online, complete with Mandarin subtitles, within 12 hours of programs being aired in the US (Wen & Wang, 2007). In less than three decades the distance between Chinese

and American audiences has shrunk from 23 years to half a day (Wang, 2006).

Furthermore, in order to get the approval for imported TV program, scenes that are

related to sensitive topics such as political issues, sex or violence will be cut and lines

will be changed since there is currently no rating system in both Chinese movie and

television industry. When asked about examples of what went wrong with the CCTV-8

broadcast ABC hit show Desperate Housewives, one of the viewers said:

To adapt the program to fit the so-called situation of our country, words were

eliminated or had their meanings altered. For example, the scene where Andrew

reveals his homosexuality was cut. (French, 2006)

Moreover, among all the policies that drive audiences toward alternatives like

downloadable television shows or online viewing, there is a very important rule which

states all imported television has to be dubbed before broadcasting. One of the viewers

who are firmly against this policy said:

I thought, Oh my God, the dubbing, the translation, why is it all so bad? It lost

what made the original show wonderful. (French, 2006)

In contrast, the TV programs online are kept intact, while the translation of the subtitles is

close to original. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has different

policies for imported programs on the Internet and procedures to get approval are much

simpler as one official said in an interview in 2010 “compared to other mass media like

TV or movies, the Internet embraces new characteristics and the audience of Internet-

based programs is different” (Liu, 2010). As a result, the ratings for TV station broadcast of American TV shows are extremely low when compared to the degree of popularity of the same show online. Viewers set up forums online to study the lines, discuss plots and

debate over their favorite characters. The popular “1000fr” forum has over 420,000 registered users, while more than 400 million browsers have passed through the YDY forum (Wang, 2006). Increasingly more video sharing websites in China start buying copyrights of popular American TV shows to cater the interests of their audience. For instance, Youku now has Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy while Sohu has

Gossip Girls and The Big Bang Theory. Thus the price for one episode has been raised to more than $100,000 from $20,000-30,000 in 2009 (Zhu, 2011).

An online survey regarding American Television which got more than 1000 responses from members of YDY forum, 1000fr forum and Woodk Forum was conducted in 2006. The results correspond with data collected by the AGB Nielsen Media

Research in 2007: the American TV viewers are mainly college students and white-collar workers with high education; the ratings are different from Nielsen ratings from the exact same period (Feng, 2007). For example, in terms of choice of genre, Chinese audiences prefer drama such as Prison Break to reality TV shows American Idol, which was rated number one in the U.S. for the past six years. Therefore, in order get a clear picture of viewing of American Television in China, relevant data need to be gathered to profile the

Chinese audience’s viewing habit. The first research question is raised:

RQ1: What is Chinese audience’s viewing pattern?

This general research question can be broken apart in different aspects: Who watch American TV shows? How much time do they spend on watching American TV shows? When did they start to watch American TV shows? How do the viewers watch

American TV shows? What’s the viewer’s preference in different genres? Why do they watch American TV show? How can they choose which shows to watch? Why do they

9 stop watching one American TV show? Answers to those questions are all important to understand viewing pattern of the targeting audience.

Due to the rising popularity of American TV show in China, a country currently undergoing significant social and economic change, more people are interested in the reason why the audiences prefer American TV show instead of locally produced TV programs as well as the impact of the imported television. Television is not simply an entertainment medium; it also has the ability to communicate the norms, rules and values of a society (Zhang & Harwood, 2002). As one of the regular viewers, said in an interview:

The show provides cultural background relating to every aspect of our lives:

politics, history and human culture. These are the things that make American TV

special. When I first started watching 'Friends,' I found the show was full of

information about American history, and showed how America had rapidly

developed. It's more interesting than textbooks or other ways of learning. (French,

2006)

In an Internet forum about American TV shows, a poster who used the name Plum

Blossom put it in another way:

After watching these shows for some time, I felt the attitudes of some of the

characters were beginning to influence me. It's hard to describe, but I think I

learned a way of life from some of them. They are good at simplifying complex

problems, which I think has something to do with American culture."

The second research question is proposed:

RQ2: What is the impact of American Television on Chinese viewers if there

is any?

Cultivation Theory, Cultural imperialism and the Paradigm Shift

Several theoretical formulations have been suggested to explain the influence of

television on our social realities. Gerbner’s cultivation theory is one of the most

important and widely applied theories addressing the effects of media on beliefs and

values (Gerbner, 1990). According to Gerbner (1990), “cultivation means the specific

independent (thought not isolated) contribution that a particularly consistent and

compelling symbolic stream makes to the complex process of socialization and

enculturation” (p. 249). The cultivation hypothesis states that the more television people

watch, the more likely they are to hold a view of reality that is closer to television’s

depiction of reality (Zaharopoulos, 1997). Therefore, the cultivation theory provides a theoretical basis for analyzing the influence of American Television on foreign audiences

(Tan, Tan &Tan, 1985), especially when entertainment programs have the potential, more

than other forms of TV programming, to allow identification with the characters. (Jain-

Shukla, 2006)

Substantial scholarship has focused on the relationship between the media and

cultural values and some took on theories about the pervasiveness of western media, or

American Television in particular, under the rubric of “cultural imperialism.” Cultural

imperialism is similar to globalization to the extent that it means homogenization of

cultural diversity and synchronization of different cultures (Choi, 2002). Jeremy Tunstall

describes this term as a situation in which “authentic traditional, local culture…is being

battered out of existence by the indiscriminate dumping of large quantities of slick

commercial and media products, mainly from the US” (1977, p. 57). Other definitions

exist such as the assumption that foreign media products can produce ill effects in the local cultures (Willnat, He, Toshio & Lopaz-Escobar, 2002), a strategy on the part of dominant countries to affect people and practices in the receiving countries (Crabtree and

Malhotra, 2000). There is no consensus on the definition of the term, but many scholars do agree that, cultural imperialism requires a kind of intentional homogeneous influence over another culture.

Many scholars, based on their own research across different countries, confirm that foreign media does play a significant role in changing indigenous value systems and cultures. It has been suggested that western media can affect economic values by increasing desire for western produced goods and services, meanwhile, media critics have suggested that social values are changed as well. For instance, Dorfman and Mattelart

(1972) examined the ways in which comics such as Donald Duck might influence Latin

American school children to be more individualistic, competitive, and materialistic. Such influences have also been suggested in political values (Masmoudi, 1979) and aesthetic values (Dissanayake, 1985).

Other work done on the impact of imported television program on audiences of a different nationality suggests that these texts have the power to shape viewers' perceptions of the country or society where the program is created. For example,

Weimann (1984) examined the effects of American Television on Israeli viewers' perception of affluence and lifestyles of Americans. He found that heavy viewers tended to overestimate the income and amount of time Americans spent on recreation by a

greater amount than light viewers did. Similar associations between viewership of

American program and understanding of the US that are consistent with the content have

been noted by researchers working in Australia (Pingree & Hawkins, 1981), Taiwan and

Mexico (Tan, Li & Simpson, 1986).

However, there are some studies that yield findings inconsistent with the

assumptions of Cultural Imperialism Theory. For instance, Tan, Tan & Gibson (2003)

illustrates the complexities of the relationship between exposure to foreign TV and its

subsequent effect on the local audience and the difficulty of achieving strong and

homogeneous outcomes. Zaharopoulos (2003) also indicates the inadequacy of cultural

imperialism in explaining the variation in specific behaviors of Greek adolescents and the

limited role that imported TV plays in it. It seems that the cultural imperialism theory is

giving rise to a more complex paradigm where more factors need to be taken into

consideration.

Elasmar and Hunter (2003) conducted meta-analysis to investigate the size of

effect of cross-border television using 27 quantitative studies that examine the effect of foreign television on local audiences. They found the 5 dimensions of effect in those empirical studies: knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, behavior and values; According to

Elasmar and Hunter (1997), whereas knowledge is factual, beliefs are perceptual and relative but not affective; attitudes are affective beliefs; behaviors refer to actions; and values refer to fundamental beliefs consistent with those traditionally held by most individuals in a particular society. Since there is no relevant literature found on this particular topic in China, looking into the five dimensions of effect can be the first step of studying in impact.

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

A cross-sectional survey was conducted with a sample of Chinese college

students. Participants were asked to finish a Chinese-language online survey which was original designed in English and translated into Chinese using back translation (see the

Appendix). The questionnaire contained four major parts: (1) demographic information

(2) media exposure (3) viewing habit (4) impact. The questionnaire was voluntary,

anonymous and self-administered, and takes about 15minutes to complete.

Participants in this study were recruited using snowball sampling method

(Network Sampling) technique. Snowball sampling is most useful for populations where

sampling frames are not easily available and population is hard to reach. In the present

study, due to the geographic distance, limited resources, and time constraints random

sampling in Chinese college students was not feasible. Therefore, snowball sampling is a viable alternative and thus was employed. The URL link to the questionnaire was posted on social networking sites and various Internet forums and participants were asked to

post the recruitment message on their homepage as well as forward the link to other college students to participate in the survey.

Participants

College students were chosen as the sample because they represent a great portion of Chinese culture as well as the fact that they have the technological means to get access to American Television. Chinese college students, with better English proficiency and the

nature of the younger generation to be more friendly towards untraditional values can

better accept and understand the messages from American Television programs compared

to average Chinese people (An, 2008). A total 279 of students (56.5% male), composed

by 5.4% freshmen, 6.9% sophomores, 8.0% juniors, 17.0% seniors and 62.7% graduate

students majoring in various fields were sampled. About eighty percent of the

participants are reported from urban areas and 72.5% haven’t been abroad before. The

English proficiency of the participants ranged from 1(beginner) to 10 (native speaker)

(M=5.92, SD=1.58). Rate of completion of the online questionnaire was 67.4% based on

Survey Monkey report. There were 45 participants did go further than the demographic

questions in the survey, 234 responses were analyzed, among which 86.3% students

reported to watch American TV shows.

Admittedly, a convenience sample was used and thus generalizability poses as an

issue which is discussed in detail, later in the limitations.

Measurements

Media Exposure

Pilot interviews were conducted on 14 Chinese college students prior to this study

to develop the measures in this section. The interviews focused on the students’ exposure

to American TV shows as well as the perceived impact of the exposure.

To measure the exposure to American Television, respondents were asked to

recall the amount of American TV shows they were exposed to, the length of time they spend on watching American Television per week and how long they have been watching

American TV shows. American Television in this case is limited to TV shows that are produced in the US, regardless how it arrived in China (videotape, cable, importation, cross border transmission, direct broadcast satellite or the Internet), also primarily designed for consumption by American audience. Questions like “Approximately how

many hours do you spend on watching American TV show per week” , “How many

American TV shows have you ever watched” and “When did you start to watch

American TV?” were asked. Moreover, in order to view the exposure to American

Television in the context of the overall media exposure, general media exposure

questions were also asked such as “Approximately how many hours per week do you

spend on watching TV shows of all kinds in any medium, including those from Mainland

China, Korean, Hong Kong, American TV shows etc.?” “In general, how often are you

exposed to the following media? Newspaper; Radio; Television; The Internet;

Magazines; Mobile device” as well as “In general, how often are you exposed to the

following media content? News; Sports; Music; Education; Economy; Entertainment”

In order to answer the first research question in details, as well as to better

understand Chinese audience watching habit, questions related to the viewing channel,

preference in different genres, reasons for American TV show choices, reasons for

watching American TV shows and reasons for stopping watching were asked.

Uses and Gratification

To examine the reason why Chinese audience choose to watch American TV

shows, Uses and gratifications (U&G) theory was employed. U& G is “an audience-

centered approach to mass communication, which holds that understanding why people use media helps explain media choices and consequences (Perse, 2004, p.173)”. As a general perspective, U&G has been applied in a wide verity of settings to explain media use patterns (Katz et al., 1974; Palmgreen et al., 1985; Rubin, 2002).

Criticisms of U&G, such as confusion regarding its central concepts, exist as well.

Yet researchers such as Palmgreen responded to these criticisms by highlighting the

distinction between concepts that are antecedents to behavior—gratifications sought (GS)

and those that are consequents of behavior— gratifications obtained (GO). To apply this

new approach, Palmgreen, Wenner, and Rayburn developed scales to measure GS and

GO for TV news in the 80s, which have been repeatedly used and modified in the last

two decades. In this study, both GS, which represents the audience’s motives for

American TV consumption, and also GO, which shows the effectiveness of that

consumption to meet the audience’ needs were employed in the questionnaire. The 15

items GS-GO Scales originally created by Palmgreen, Wenner and Rayburn (1984) to

measure GS and GO for TV news to measure the American TV consumption were

adapted. The original items measure five dimensions: general information seeking,

decision utility, entertainment, interpersonal utility and parasocial interaction. Based on responses from the interviews and the 15 items scales, possible gratifications were proposed “Learn English; Learn about America; Learn about a certain field (medical, crime etc.); Pass time; Follow the trend; Have more topics in discussions with others;

Relaxation; Other” and multiple choice questions “Why do you want to watch American

TV show?” and “After watching American TV shows, what do you get from it?” were asked.

Perceived Impact

There are different aspects of the media effect have been extensively studied in

the past. In terms of foreign television’s impacts the local audiences, although there is

hardly any consensus on how the impact is generated as discussed in previous chapter,

Elasmar and Hunter (2003) found the 5 dimensions in cross-border television impact:

18 knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, behavior and values based on a meta-analysis investigating

27 quantitative studies that examine the effect of foreign television on local audiences.

Perception of Traditional Chinese Values

Values refer to fundamental beliefs consistent with those traditionally held by most individuals in a particular society (Elasmar and Hunter, 1997). The Chinese Value

Survey (CVS) is the most complete instrument to measure individual endorsement of traditional Chinese values (Zhang & Harwood, 2002). The CVS contains 40 items, representing dominant Chinese values (e.g. Work hard). The CVS has both Chinese and

English versions, thus translation is not required.

Participants were surveyed for self-perceived importance of the traditional values in the CVS. They were asked to rate each item in terms of its importance to them personally. The rating scale is from 1(of no importance to me at all) to 9 (of supreme importance to me). The full list of the items is available in the appendix.

Knowledge, Beliefs, Attitudes and Behavior

Since there are no readily made measures for the impact of foreign television on local audience, in terms of the knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and behavior, 64 statements were created adapting from several existing scales on relevant topics such as Perceived

TV Realism Scale, Television Affinity Scale, Child-parent Communication Apprehension

Scale (C-PCA), and the Humor Orientation Scale, as well as data collected from the interviews. Participants were asked to rate how much the statements apply to them from

1(not apply at all) to 7(definitely apply). Instead of using questions targeting other

nationalities developed years ago, creating a set of new questions based on data collected recently surely rendered higher measurement validity.

Data Analysis Strategies

Data were analyzed using SPSS. Factor analysis was used to explore the underlying dimensions of 40 items CVS and the 64 cultivation items, and new variables were created after factors were identified. Demographic information and the viewing habit data were analyzed initially using descriptive statistics in order to describe the sample and their viewing pattern. Inferential statistical analyses such as T-test ANOVA

Correlation Regression were also conducted.

CHAPTER FOUR

RESULTS

This chapter is organized into two main parts. The first section reports the

statistics concerning the viewership, exposure and viewing patterns to answer the first

research question: What is Chinese audience’s viewing pattern? The second section

responds to the second question: What is the impact of American Television on Chinese

viewers if there is any.

Section I

Viewership

Among the 234 participants, 202 reported to watch American TV shows which

accounts for 86.3% of the sample. Chi-square test was performed to determine whether

there was a significant difference between the viewers and non-viewers in terms of gender; where they are from, whether they have oversea experience and other demographic variables in Table 1-4. Significant difference was found between viewership and gender, χ² (1, N=233) = 11.37, p <.005. Only 6 (5.56%) of the females do not watch American TV shows, whereas 26 (20.8%) of males do not watch American TV shows. The difference between viewership and hometown was also statistically significant, χ² (1, N=234) = 4.84, p <.05. Only 11.4% of the students who came from urban areas do not watch American TV shows while 24.4% of the students who came from rural areas do not. The results indicated that more female students watch American

TV shows than males and more students who came from urban areas watch American TV shows than the students who came from rural areas.

Table 1

Frequency of Viewership by Year

Viewership Freshman Sophomore Junior Senior Graduate Total

Viewers 9 15 16 39 123 202

Non-viewers 1 0 4 6 20 31

Total 10 15 20 45 143 233

Table 2

Frequency of Viewership by Gender

Viewership Male Female Total

Viewers 99 102 201

Non-viewers 26 6 32

Total 125 108 233

Table 3

Frequency of Viewership by Hometown

Viewership Urban Rural Total

Viewers 171 31 202

Non-viewers 22 10 32

Total 193 41 234

Table 4

Frequency of Viewership by Oversea Experience

Viewership Yes No Total

Viewers 64 138 202

Non-viewers 5 27 32

Total 69 165 234

An independent sample t-test was performed to compare the differences in

students’ English proficiency between American Television viewers and non-viewers. On

average, American TV viewers had higher English proficiency ratings (M = 6.03, SD =

1.496) than non-viewers (M = 5.55, SD = 1.823). But the difference was not statistically significant, t (231) = 1.618, p > .01.

Table 5

English Proficiency Ratings (1-10) by American TV Viewers and Non-viewers

Viewership

Viewers Non-viewers t df

English Proficiency 6.03 5.55 1.618 231 (1.496) (1.823)

Exposure

To answer the questions related to the amount of exposure to the American

television the students get, descriptive data analysis was used (see Figure1). Among the

228 students who answered the question “approximately how many hours do you spend

on watching American TV show per week”, 15.8% do not watch American TV shows at

all, 25.4% spend only one or two hours watching American TV shows per week, 30.9%

spend 3 to 6 hours per week, and 29.8% of them spend 7 or more hours per week, which

means on average they spend at least one hour per day watching American TV shows.

Figure 1

Approximately how many hours do you spend on watching American TV show per week?

18 17 14 13

9 7 7 6 5 3 2 2 2 1 11 1111

Among the 232 who answered the question “how long have you been watching

American TV shows”, 24.6% reported less than a year while 7.8% reported that they have been watching American TV shows for more than 5 years. (See Figure 2)

Figure 2 How long have you been watching American TV shows? 57

34 34 32

9 6

0‐3month 3‐6month 6‐12month 1‐2y 2‐3y 3‐4y 4‐5y over5y

Viewing Pattern

In order to describe viewing pattern for the targeting audience, questions such as the viewing channel, preference in different genres, reasons for American TV show choices were asked only to the viewers (N=202). The results are listed below using histograms and tables.

Due to government’s tight control over media and the strict importing policies explained in the second chapter, various channels are employed by the Chinese audience.

Participants were asked to choose from watch online, download from the Internet,

Interactive Personality TV, DVD, TV broadcasting, and specify other channels not listed above if any. Among the 184 participants who answered this question, 62% watch

American TV shows through video sharing websites, 72.8% download from the Internet,

42.9% use Interactive Personality TV (online TV), 15.2% watch American programs

26 through DVD, while only 9.8% watch regular broadcasted American shows on TV. Other channels like campus resources were also identified (see Figure 3).

Figure 3

How do you watch American TV show (channel) usually?

Other 8

TV 18

DVD 28

Interactive Personality TV 79

Download 134

Watch online 114

0 20406080100120140160

American TV programs come from various channels in different forms. As discussed in literature review, imported programs on national television require dubbing while resources on the Internet are usually without dubbing yet with subtitles either in

English or Chinese or both. Participants were asked to choose the forms of American shows that they usually watch and the results indicated that only 7.5% watch American

TV shows with Chinese dubbing (see figure 4).

Figure 4

How do you usually watch American TV shows (forms)?

Without subtitles 18

With both English and Chinese subtitles 128

With Chinese subtitles 87

With English subtitles 47

Without dubbing 86

With dubbing 14

0 20406080100120140

To examine the preference of Chinese viewers in different genres of American

TV shows, participants were asked to rate how interested they are in the following genres

from 1: not interested at all to 6: very much interested. As can be seen in the table below,

comedy and crime shows are most popular among Chinese viewers while Idol shows are

the least popular (see Table 8). The participants were asked to list their favorite American

TV shows if any, and interestingly that the top two: the Big Bang Theory (生活大爆炸) which was mentioned 72 times and Friends (六人行 or 老友记) which was mentioned 69

times are both comedies.

Table 6

Preference in different genres of American TV shows

Genres N M SD

Comedy 181 5.00 1.282

Crime 183 4.48 1.463

Reality 177 2.89 1.483

Medical 178 3.30 1.558

Drama 178 4.40 1.346

Legal 177 3.46 1.477

Idol 177 3.32 1.596

Note: the question is to what degree the following kind of American TV show interests you? (1: not interested at all, 6: very much interested)

An independent sample T-test was also performed to explore whether there is a

relationship between gender and genre preference. The result indicated that other than

viewers’ interest in Crime shows (p=.641), there is a significant difference in their

interests in comedy (p<.01), reality TV show (p<.05), medical show (p<.05), drama

(p<.05), legal show (p<.001), idol show (p<.001) between male viewers and female viewers.

Participants were also asked to provide the reasons of watching American TV

(Gratification Sought) as well as the gratification obtained afterwards. The participants were allowed to choose any reasons that apply. In 186 responses, 76.9% said they watch

American TV shows for relaxation, followed by 61.3% stated that they watch American

TV shows to learn English (see Figure 5). Several participants identified some other

29 reasons such as habit or personal preference. Subsequently, 76.4% did get relaxed after watching the shows and 67.0% felt their English proficiency has been improved (see

Figure 6). Interestingly that although only 10.8% of the participants watch American TV shows at least partially for having more topics in discussions with others, 30.2% of all participants said after watching American TV shows they had more topics in discussions.

Figure 5&6

Why do you want to watch American TV shows?

Other 6

Relaxation 143

Have more topics in discussions with others 20

Follow the trend 21

Pass time 85

Learn about a certain field (medical, crime etc.) 39

Learn about America 65

Learn English 114

0 20406080100120140160

After watching American TV shows, what do you get from it?

Other 0

Relaxation 139

Have more topics in discussions with others 55

Follow the trend 29

Pass time 84

Learn about a certain field (medical, crime etc.) 64

Learn about America 85

Learn English 122

0 20406080100120140160

Regarding the factors that influence viewers’ choices in which show to watch,

75.1% value polt, 70.8% are concerned with the theme, 63.6% rely on others’ recommendation while only 8.6% were reported their choice could be influenced by the

advertisements (see Figure7).

Figure 7

How do you choose which American TV show to watch?

Other 6

Cast 60

Plot 139

Theme 131

Discussions on the Internet 84

Advertisements 16

Recommendation by others 118

0 20406080100120140160

When asked about the reasons for stopping watching a show, 67.7% chose the

answer “the story line does not interest me anymore” and some also suggested that other

reason such as “a week for one episode is too long to wait” and “there are too many seasons / episodes for one show” (see Figure 8).

Figure 8

If you stop watching a show, it was probably because

Other 2

I found some better shows 41

It’s hard to watch American TV shows in China 59

I don’t have enough free time 80

The story line does not interest me anymore 126

The show was cut 75

0 20406080100120140 The major appeals of American TV shows are interesting plot (84.4%), fast development (of the story) (59.7%), variety of themes (52.2%), well-produced (51.1%), different cultural experience (50%), and different language environment (43.5%).

Figure 9

Why are American TV shows appealing to you?

Other 3

No better choices 8

Cast 46

Interesting Characters 69

Fashionable/trendy 41

difference language environment 81

different cultural experience 93

Well‐produced/professional 95

Fast development (of the story) 111

Variety of themes 97

Interesting plot 157

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 32

Section II

The last section of the questionnaire examined different cultural values and how important were those to the participants using 40 CVS items as well as the perceived impact including knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and behavior using 64 cultivation items.

Before getting into the second research question, it is important to examine the impact items closely and explore the possible dimensions underlying CVS and cultivation items.

Descriptive data analysis was utilized and the results indicated that among the 40

Chinese values, trustworthiness（信任） and filial piety （孝）with means above 8 were valued the most while non-competitiveness（不重竞争） being conservative（保

守） few desires（寡欲） disinterested and pure（清高）with means below 5 were

valued the least. A summery for all the 40 values is listed as Appendix. To determine

what, if any, underlying structures exist for the 40 values (see table below), factor

analysis was conducted. Principle axis factoring analysis was performed with Varimax

(orthogonal) rotation on all the 40 items measuring Chinese values, which resulted in a 6-

componant solution (see Table 7). The 6 components accounted for 56.16% of the

variance. On further analysis of the 6 factors, only two factors were retained. Both factors

include 9 different values and are reliable with reliability coefficient of .915 and .884.

The students value the two factors differently based on a paired sample T- test. Universal

values (M = 7.69, SD = 1.18) are more important to the students than the traditional

values (M = 5.34, SD = 1.55), t (187) = 21.13, p < .001.

Table 7

Extracted Factors and items contained 1

Factors Items M SD Loading

Universal Kindness 仁爱 7.22 1.802 .628

Values Self-cultivation 修养 7.97 1.367 .826

Righteousness 正义感 7.57 1.545 .663

Sincerity 诚恳 7.78 1.410 .751

Education 学识/教育 7.70 1.572 .675

Persistence 耐力/毅力 7.72 1.406 .742

Trustworthiness 信用 8.25 1.211 .758

Courtesy 有礼貌 7.62 1.507 .73

Intimate friend 知己知交 7.66 1.549 .668

Traditional Non-competitiveness 不重竞争 4.99 2.205 .703

Values Cultural superiority 文化优越感 5.49 2.248 .571

Contentedness 安分守己 5.54 2.165 .682

Protect face 面子 5.52 2.067 .545

Loyalty to superiors 忠于上司 5.27 2.158 .654

Moderation 中庸 5.80 2.064 .591

Relationships by status 尊卑有序 5.83 2.301 .602

Being conservative 保守 4.80 2.194 .784

Few desires 寡欲 4.76 2.272 .614

In order to test the factor structure of the cultivation items, principle axis factoring

analysis was performed utilizing Varimax (orthogonal) rotation. The analysis yielded 17

factors explaining a total of 65.22% of the variance for the entire set of variables (see

Table 8). On further analysis, 12 were retained. The following table summarizes the

34 extracted factors and the items they contained. All of the factors are reliable: TV affinity

(α = .828), Knowledge-English proficiency (α = .896), Knowledge-America (α = .75),

Belief-open-mindedness (α = .829), Belief-positive (α = .839), Belief-Parent-child relationship (α = .667), Attitude-America (α = .722), Attitude-go to America (α = .694),

Attitude-risk taking (α = .849), Attitude-humor (α = .765), Behavior-culture (α = .712),

Behavior-expression (α = .793).

Table 8

Extracted Factors and items contained II

Factors Items/Statements

TV affinity I would be devastated if I can’t watch American TV shows

any more.

I will feel lost without American TV to watch.

Watching American TV shows is very important to my life.

I could easily do without American TV shows. (reversed)

Knowledge-English My English has been improved after watching American proficiency TV shows.

My vocabulary has been broadened after watching

American TV shows.

My English listening skills have been improved after

watching American TV shows.

My English speaking skills have been improved after

watching American TV shows.

Knowledge-America I know about American culture from American TV shows.

I know about American traditions.

I know about the way how Americans live.

I know about American education system/political

system/legal system/medical system.

Belief-open-mindedness I think Americans are open-minded.

I think Americans are open to new things.

I think Americans are receptive to new ideas.

Belief-positive I think many Americans are rich.

I think many Americans are well-educated.

I think many Americans are humorous.

I think many Americans are talented.

I think that a lot of dreams are realized in America.

Belief-Parent-child I think parents and children should have open discussions. relationship I don't think that children should be afraid to discuss

problems with their parents.

I think that children should be willing to ask their parents

for advice when dealing with relationship problems.

Attitude-America I like American food.

I like American fashion.

I like American music.

I like America as a country.

I like American people.

I don’t like American culture. (reversed)

Attitude-go to America I want to study in the US.

I want to travel to America.

I want to experience what I’ve seen in the show.

Attitude-risk taking I tend to take risks in life.

I prefer taking risks to living a stable life.

I’m willing to take chances.

Attitude-humor I want to have a sense of humor.

I like telling jokes.

I laugh a lot when people are telling jokes.

I appreciate people’s humor.

I like people with a sense of humor.

Behavior-culture I tend to buy American products when I am given options.

I eat American food a lot.

I listen to American music a lot.

I dress like Americans.

I celebrate some of American holidays.

Behavior-expression Sometimes I act like Americans, e.g. shrugging.

Sometimes I use gestures commonly used by Americans to

express myself, e.g. air quote.

Sometimes I use facial expressions commonly used by

Americans to express myself, e.g. eyebrow lift.

Sometimes I use catchy phrases commonly used by

Americans to express myself, e.g. oh my God.

In order to answer the second research question, participants were divided into

different groups based on their American TV exposure. In terms of the amount of time

spent on American television, the participants were divided into heavy viewers who

reported spending 5 or more hours per week on American TV shows and light viewers

(including non-viewers) who reported spending less than 5 hours; In terms of the length

of watching American TV, participants were divided into long-term viewers who

reported having been watched American TV for over two years and short-term viewers

(including non-viewers) who reported less than 2 years; In terms of the number of

programs ever been watched, the participants were divided into high viewers who have watched 5 or more shows and low viewers (including non-viewers) who have watched less than 5 shows; In terms of the number of programs regularly watched, the participants were divided into regular viewers who currently watch 2 or more shows and casual viewers (including non-viewers) who currently watch only 1 show or none. To examine the relationship between American TV exposure and the impact, multiple independent sample T-tests were performed based on the four sets of groups.

Values

Independent T-test was performed to examine whether the exposure to American

TV shows would make a significant difference in cultural values. The results indicated that there was a significant difference between long-term American TV viewers and short-term American TV viewers in terms of the universal values t (189)= 2.883, p< .01, while other exposure measures did not show any significant relationship with the two value factors.

Other Cultivation Effects

Independent sample T-test was also used to examine whether the exposure to

American TV shows would make a significant difference in the cultivation factors. The

results indicated that substantial significant differences were found between viewing

groups.

As can be seen in Table 9, there are significant differences between heavy viewers and light viewers, in Television Affinity; Knowledge-English proficiency; Knowledge-

America; Attitudes towards America; Attitudes-go to America and Behavior-cultural products.

Table 9

Impact Factors Ratings by How Many Hours Spent on Watching American TV Shows

Heavy/Light viewers

Heavy Light t df

Television Affinity 3.8696 5.4351 6.549*** 124.641

Knowledge-English proficiency 5.1298 4.4103 3.424*** 159

Knowledge-America 4.1833 3.7618 2.378* 160

Positive Beliefs 4.1862 4.0280 .796 160

Belief-American open-mindedness 4.9662 4.7455 1.105 160

Belief-Parent-child Relationship 5.4638 5.2348 1.232 160

Attitudes towards America 4.3763 3.9798 2.595** 161

Attitudes-go to America 5.1884 4.4583 3.371*** 159

Attitudes towards risk taking 4.3382 4.0549 1.254 158

Attitudes towards humor 5.3362 5.0654 1.639 161

Behavior-cultural products 3.9435 3.5781 1.992* 160

Behavior-expression 3.9783 3.9255 .221 161

Note. * = p ≤ .05, ** = p ≤ .01, *** = p ≤ .001.

As can be seen in Table 10, the results indicated significant differences between

long-term viewers and short-term viewers also in Television Affinity; Knowledge-

English proficiency; Knowledge-America, Attitudes-go to America and Behavior-cultural

products. More significant differences in terms of Belief-American open-mindedness and

Belief-Parent-child Relationship, Attitudes towards humor, Behavior were also found.

Table 10

Impact Factors Ratings by How Long Have Been Watching American TV Shows

Long /short term viewers

Long-term Short-term t df

Television Affinity 3.3830 2.4210 3.955*** 160

Knowledge-English proficiency 5.0254 4.1272 4.215*** 160

Knowledge-America 4.1441 3.5982 2.976** 161

Positive Beliefs 4.1857 3.9336 1.237 161

Belief-American open-mindedness 5.0220 4.5380 2.361* 161

Belief-Parent-child Relationship 5.4794 5.0546 2.251* 161

Attitudes towards America 4.2296 3.9870 1.521 163

Attitudes-go to America 4.9487 4.4511 2.045* 98.448

Attitudes towards risk taking 4.2000 4.1131 .371 159

Attitudes towards humor 5.3198 4.9284 2.323* 162

Behavior-cultural products 3.9129 3.4106 2.672** 161

Behavior-expression 4.1203 3.6164 2.087* 162

Note. * = p ≤ .05, ** = p ≤ .01, *** = p ≤ .001.

As can be seen in Table 11, we found significant differences between high viewers and low viewers in 9 factors similar to the findings between long-term and short- term viewers with slight changes on Belief-Parent-Child and attitudes towards America.

Table 11

Impact Factors Ratings by How Many American TV Shows Ever Watched

High /Low viewers

High Low t df

Television Affinity 3.4191 2.1282 5.412*** 154

Knowledge-English proficiency 5.0698 3.8497 5.785*** 154

Knowledge-America 4.1879 3.4657 3.876*** 155

Positive Beliefs 4.2257 3.8144 1.944 155

Belief-American open-mindedness 5.0127 4.4487 2.662** 155

Belief-Parent-child Relationship 5.4063 5.0994 1.539 155

Attitudes towards America 4.3181 3.8019 3.182** 156

Attitudes-go to America 4.9615 4.3365 2.465* 85.556

Attitudes towards risk taking 4.2127 4.0000 .869 153

Attitudes towards humor 5.3708 4.7087 3.894*** 156

Behavior-cultural products 3.9186 3.3003 3.200** 155

Behavior-expression 4.1262 3.5566 2.277* 156

Note. * = p ≤ .05, ** = p ≤ .01, *** = p ≤ .001.

As can be seen in Table 12, the results indicated the most differences between regular viewers and casual viewers in all of the 12 factors except for Attitudes towards risk-taking.

Table 12

Impact Factors Ratings by How Many American TV Shows Regularly Watched Now

Regular /Casual viewers

Regular Casual t df

Television Affinity 3.5866 2.1215 6.493*** 159

Knowledge-English proficiency 5.1998 3.8807 6.673*** 159

Knowledge-America 4.2638 3.4492 4.698*** 160

Positive Beliefs 4.3397 3.7100 3.211** 160

Belief-American open-mindedness 5.0784 4.4722 3.041** 160

Belief-Parent-child Relationship 5.5441 4.9667 3.110** 160

Attitudes towards America 4.4033 3.7667 4.238*** 161

Attitudes-go to America 5.0915 4.2740 3.452*** 97.392

Attitudes towards risk taking 4.3007 3.9080 1.705 158

Attitudes towards humor 5.3573 4.8692 2.747** 98.798

Behavior-cultural products 3.9423 3.3992 2.938** 160

Behavior-expression 4.1667 3.6025 2.376* 161

Note. * = p ≤ .05, ** = p ≤ .01, *** = p ≤ .001.

CHAPTER FIVE

DISCUSSION

The present study has sought to examine the viewing of American Television

among Chinese college students and the relationship between American TV viewing and

its impact in terms of value, knowledge, belief, attitude and behavior. To answer the

research questions, 279 participants were recruited to finish the online questionnaire

which explored the students’ media exposure, viewing habit and perceived impact. This

chapter discusses the findings, limitations, and recommendations for future research in

detail.

Significance of the Results

The Participants

As discussed in method section, snowball sampling was used and thus the

representativeness of the sample is not guaranteed. The researcher has little control over

the sampling process. The initial subjects were asked to post the link on their social

network homepage or forward the link to others, therefore it is highly possible that the subjects share the same traits and characteristics since they are somehow connected by the same social network. Thus, it is possible that the sample obtained is only a small subgroup of the entire population. Majority (62.7%) of the participants is graduate student and 50.4% are 24 years old and older. The lack of age variety is probably because students tend to be friends with their own age group and since the researcher is a graduate student, the starting point was not exactly ideal.

Among the 279 participants, 80.8% are from urban area while 19.2% are from rural area. Yet, according to the government released numbers, college students who came from rural areas account for only 17.7% of overall number of college students.

Therefore, the low percentage of rural college students is acceptable.

Viewing Pattern

For the first research question, I think the data gathered pretty much provided enough information to draw a clear picture of Chinese college students’ viewing pattern.

Among the 234 participants, 86.3% watch American TV shows. Chi-square test was used to examine the composition of viewers using the demographic variables. The results indicated that female students and students from urban areas are more likely to watch

American TV shows.

Regarding the exposure questions such as amount of time spent, viewing channel, preference in different genres, gratification sought and obtained and so forth, interesting results were found as discussed in the result section. The results confirmed some of the speculations: a large amount of college students (86.3%) watch American TV shows and many of them can be categorized as heavy/regular/long-term/high viewers; Chinese viewers least watch American TV shows through TV broadcasting, instead, the Internet has become the most popular platform for American TV; In terms of the forms of the programs, most viewers prefer subtitles to dubbing, which should have drawn more attention from the policy makers in the general office of Broadcasting and Television.

Moreover, Chinese viewer’s preference in genre is different from American viewers.

According to Nielsen ratings, reality TV shows such as American Idol are extremely popular among American viewers, while comedy is most popular among Chinese viewers.

What also should be noticed is that most college student viewers watch American TV for

English learning and relaxation, which could be a possible explanation for the different preference in genre. Finally, plot or story line is definitely the most important factor that

45 affects the Chinese viewer’s choice in American TV shows as well as the most appealing characteristic of American TV.

Cultural Values

Forty Chinese values were listed in the questionnaire and the participants were asked to rate how important those to them were on a 9 point Likert-like scale. Once the data collecting phase is over, descriptive data analysis was utilized ranking all of the value items, and then factor analysis was used indicating the two dimensions underlying the CVS items. It was interesting to see that the two dimensions retained are at the different ends of the value ranking. Trustworthiness, self-cultivation, sincerity which belong to the first factor- universal values were rated the most important while non- competitive, being conservative, few desires which belong to the second factor (Chinese traditional values) were rated least important.

CVS is a valid set of values which has been supported by previous studies with samples of different nationalities. Researchers found assorted factor structures based on their own data. For example 4 factors (Integration; Confucian work dynamism; Human- heartedness; Moral Discipline); 5 factors (Work Ethics; Moral Virtues; Temperament;

Human relations; Social Prestige); 2 factors (Personal harmony and Social harmony). The two factor retained in this study are somehow similar to what Zhang & Harwood (2002) found which are called Interpersonal harmony and Hierarchy, and interestingly the sample that they used is also Chinese college student.

What needs the special attention is that the Chinese Value Survey is not designed specifically for Chinese people. The value items were developed using the lists provided by Chinese social scientists of “fundamental and basic values for Chines people”.

However, when CVS was first tested, mainland China was not even in the list of 22

counties that were sampled back in 1987. The value items in CVS have various levels of

importance around the world instead of being exclusive to Chinese. Taking a closer look

at the two factors retained based on this study, the second set of the values is highly

traditional in a way that those values are probably more highly regarded in some

traditional society compared to modern society in sociological terms. In contrast, the first

set of values has more of a global, universal and modern sense. Thus other names were

also suggested for those two factors such as liberal and conservative, cosmopolitan and

traditional.

Undoubtedly, we can conclude from the results that traditional values with a sense

of hierarchy and conservativeness are less important to college students nowadays while

the universal value highly regarded across nations is gaining its importance, which fits

the model of hybridity.

Cultivation Effects

After grouping of heavy/light (time spent per week), long-term/short term (how

long have been watching), high viewers/low viewers (number of shows ever watched),

and regular/casual viewers (number of shows currently watched), independent T-test was

performed to examine whether the exposure to American TV shows would make a

significant difference in cultural values. The results indicated that there was a significant

difference between long-term American TV viewers and short-term American TV

viewers in terms of the universal values while other exposure measures did not show any significant relationship with the two value factors. Values are fundamental and deeply rooted in people’s mind and thus are hard to change. Yet the fact that long-term and

short-term making a difference in values definitely suggested that the length of watching

American TV is the most powerful exposure indicator in cultivation, which is perfectly

explained by the cultivation theory, which requires long term exposure for the effects to take place.

Sixty-six other cultivation items were created based on qualitative data and

adaptation from existing scales, to measure the impact of foreign television on local

audience in terms of knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and behavior. Twelve factors extracted

based on factor analysis, were named: TV affinity, Knowledge-English proficiency,

Knowledge-America, Belief-open-mindedness, Belief-positive, Belief-Parent-child

relationship, Attitude-America, Attitude-go to America, Attitude-risk taking, Attitude-

humor, Behavior-culture, and Behavior-expression. As can be seen from the names, there

are 2 factors regarding knowledge and 3 factors regarding beliefs, 4 factors regarding

attitudes, and 2 factors regarding behavior.

Independent T-test was performed to examine whether the exposure to American

TV shows would make a significant difference in those cultivation factors. The results

indicated that substantial significant differences were found between viewing groups as

discussed in the result section (also see the Table 15).

In conclusion, we can speculate based on the data from Chinese college students,

values are hard to change by American television. Compared to cultural values,

knowledge, attitude and behavior are relatively influenced easily by the American TV

exposure. Yet long term viewing could change viewer’s’ endorsement of universal

values, and thus the most powerful indicator in cultivation.

Table 15

Significant Finding Summary

Exposure Measures

Time Length Number/ever Number/now Total

Television Affinity 1 1 1 1 4

Knowledge-English 1 1 1 1 4

Knowledge-America 1 1 1 1 4

Positive Beliefs 0 0 0 1 1

Belief-Open-mindedness 0 1 1 1 3

Belief-Parent-child 0 1 0 1 2

Attitudes towards America 1 0 1 1 3

Attitudes-go to America 1 1 1 1 4

Attitudes towards risk taking 0 0 0 0 0

Attitudes towards humor 0 1 1 1 3

Behavior-cultural products 1 1 1 1 4

Behavior-expression 0 1 1 1 3

Universal values 0 1 0 0 1

Chinese traditional values 0 0 0 0 0

Total 6 10 9 11 36

Note. 1 means there is a significant difference between viewer groups and the relative cultivation factor. 0 means there is no significant difference between viewer groups in terms of the cultivation factor.

Limitations and Recommendation

First of all, there have been not many studies in the past with quantitative data that dealt with foreign television and its impact. One of the reasons might be obvious that it is always hard to conduct researches overseas. Random sampling seems impossible for this kind of study thus snowball sampling was employed. As discussed earlier, the representativeness of the sample is not guaranteed and therefore there are issues with generalizability with the findings.

Secondly, media exposure is the central variable for much of mass communication research, whether that research addresses effects of exposure to deliberate communication campaigns or effects of exposure to routine media content.

However, the researchers have not been able to reach a consensus about the best measurement for media exposure. In this study, the focus is on a relatively specific kind of media and thus the exposure is less complex. Four different ways of measuring exposure were employed; however, no one can state that those measures are perfect indicators with 100 percent confidence.

Ideally, the starting point of cultivation analysis should be done to study the content that the viewers are exposed to However, we realized that it’s getting nowadays under the circumstances that channels and programs that viewers than choose from are of variety. Especially with the spread of the Internet, various kinds of information are floating around and there are not homogeneous viewing groups of any kind. Assumptions of what is being portrayed in the media are not scientifically valid to speculate the cultivation effects. To solve this problem, pilot interviews were conducted and the 64

50 cultivation items are supposed to help relating the possible cultivation effects to the content in American TV shows.

Moreover, it is stated in Cultivation theory that for the effects to occur, it requires long term and heavy viewership and the impacts are on the subconscious level.

Therefore, using cross sectional survey and depend on participants’ self-report responses to draw conclusions can cause some problems. Also, some researchers argue that in order to establish causality, especially when culture is involved, longitudinal study is preferred.

Thus, both observational and longitudinal methods are recommended for future study.

Finally, Chinese Value Survey is a useful and valid tool to explore individual endorsement for traditional Chinese values. However, as discussed in the findings, few studies were found using Chinese sample. It would be interesting to gather data from

Chinese suing CVS to analyze the current Chinese value system.

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Appendix A Descriptive CVS Ratings

N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Trustworthiness 187 2 9 8.25 1.211 Filial piety 186 2 9 8.05 1.442 Self-cultivation 185 2 9 7.97 1.367 Sincerity 184 2 9 7.78 1.410 Persistence 187 2 9 7.72 1.406 Education 186 2 9 7.70 1.572 Intimate friend 186 2 9 7.66 1.549 Courtesy 185 2 9 7.62 1.507 Adaptability 187 2 9 7.59 1.519 Righteousness 185 2 9 7.57 1.545 Patience 183 2 9 7.36 1.541 Rituals 185 1 9 7.24 1.649 Sense of shame 185 1 9 7.22 1.769 Kindness 183 1 9 7.22 1.802 Industry/hardworking 185 2 9 7.16 1.666 Harmony with others 186 1 9 7.13 1.619 Personal steadiness and stability 184 1 9 7.05 1.733 Humbleness 184 1 9 7.05 1.700 Tolerance 184 1 9 6.86 1.891 Resist corruption 186 1 9 6.85 1.919 Solidarity 183 1 9 6.79 1.834 Patriotism 184 1 9 6.72 2.275 Reciprocation 184 1 9 6.68 1.752 Wealth 184 1 9 6.68 1.899 Prudence 183 1 9 6.47 1.904 Respect for tradition 186 1 9 6.11 2.011 Thrift 184 1 9 6.01 2.116 Chastity in women 183 1 9 5.99 2.382 Relationships by status 186 1 9 5.83 2.301 Benevolent authority 185 1 9 5.82 2.168 Moderation 184 1 9 5.80 2.064 Repayment of actions 185 1 9 5.78 2.051 Contentedness 184 1 9 5.54 2.165 Protect face 187 1 9 5.52 2.067 Cultural superiority 185 1 9 5.49 2.248 Loyalty to superiors 184 1 9 5.27 2.158 Noncompetitiveness 183 1 9 4.99 2.205 Being conservative 184 1 9 4.80 2.194 Few desires 183 1 9 4.76 2.272 Disinterested and pure 185 1 9 4.75 2.365 Valid N (listwise) 168

Appendix B Length of watching American TV long-term viewers/ short term viewers

Levene's Test for Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means 95% Confidence Interval Sig. (2- of the Difference F Sig. t df tailed) Lower Upper

final-television EV assumed .748 .388 3.955 160 .000 .48159 1.44248 affinity scale EV not assumed 4.079 129.069 .000 .49536 1.42871 final-knowledge- EV assumed 1.780 .184 4.215 160 .000 .47741 1.31900 z English proficiency EV not assumed 3.982 97.772 .000 .45057 1.34584 final-knowledge- EV assumed .085 .772 2.976 161 .003 .18369 .90804 America EV not assumed 3.016 115.896 .003 .18734 .90440 final-belief-positive EV assumed 1.423 .235 1.237 161 .218 -.15025 .65444

EV not assumed 1.176 101.356 .242 -.17323 .67742 final-Belief- EV assumed .182 .670 2.361 161 .019 .07913 .88887 American open- EV not assumed 2.312 108.126 .023 .06910 .89890 mindedness final-Belief-parent- EV assumed 2.835 .094 2.251 161 .026 .05204 .79749 children relationship EV not assumed 2.146 102.369 .034 .03216 .81738 final-Attitudes- EV assumed 2.485 .117 1.521 163 .130 -.07229 .55740 towards America EV not assumed 1.420 98.011 .159 -.09645 .58156 final-Attitudes-go to EV assumed 6.311 .013 2.174 160 .031 .04558 .94956 America EV not assumed 2.045 98.448 .044 .01466 .98048 final-Attitudes- EV assumed .053 .818 .371 159 .711 -.37606 .54987 towards risk taking EV not assumed .373 114.758 .709 -.37404 .54785 final-Attitudes- EV assumed .026 .872 2.323 162 .021 .05875 .72398 towards humor EV not assumed 2.288 112.162 .024 .05239 .73034 final-Behavior- EV assumed .345 .558 2.672 161 .008 .13111 .87334 cultural products EV not assumed 2.583 106.498 .011 .11677 .88768 final-Behavior- EV assumed 1.028 .312 2.087 162 .038 .02709 .98071 expression EV not assumed 2.139 126.077 .034 .03780 .97000 final-universal value EV assumed 1.807 .181 2.833 189 .005 .14964 .83604 EV not assumed 2.716 124.495 .008 .13375 .85192 final-Chinese EV assumed 1.484 .225 -.122 185 .903 -.49529 .43766 traditional value EV not assumed -.126 158.664 .900 -.47905 .42141

Amount of time spent on American television heavy viewers/light viewers

Levene's Test for Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means

95% Confidence Interval of the Sig. (2- Difference F Sig. t df tailed) Lower Upper final-television EV assumed 5.507 .020 6.784 159 .000 1.04470 1.90276 affinity scale EV not assumed 6.549 124.641 .000 1.02836 1.91910 final-knowledge- EV assumed .239 .626 3.424 159 .001 .30450 1.13452 English proficiency EV not assumed 3.483 156.221 .001 .31148 1.12753 final-knowledge- EV assumed 2.195 .140 2.378 160 .019 .07147 .77165 America EV not assumed 2.334 137.167 .021 .06446 .77866 final-belief-positive EV assumed .053 .819 .796 160 .427 -.23423 .55078 EV not assumed .801 149.583 .424 -.23223 .54878 final-Belief- EV assumed 2.058 .153 1.105 160 .271 -.17388 .61521 American open- EV not assumed 1.087 137.242 .279 -.18083 .62215 mindedness final-Belief-parent- EV assumed .033 .856 1.232 160 .220 -.13807 .59607 children EV not assumed 1.224 143.149 .223 -.14072 .59872 relationship final-Attitudes- EV assumed 2.260 .135 2.595 161 .010 .09476 .69832 towards America EV not assumed 2.563 139.608 .011 .09061 .70247 final-Attitudes-go to EV assumed 1.479 .226 3.371 159 .001 .30235 1.15779 America EV not assumed 3.407 151.876 .001 .30672 1.15342 final-Attitudes- EV assumed .556 .457 1.254 158 .212 -.16294 .72937 towards risktaking EV not assumed 1.252 145.601 .213 -.16400 .73044 final-Attitudes- EV assumed .085 .771 1.639 161 .103 -.05550 .59712 towards humor EV not assumed 1.628 142.942 .106 -.05803 .59964 final-Behavior- EV assumed 1.396 .239 1.992 160 .048 .00312 .72756 cultural products EV not assumed 1.975 141.852 .050 -.00034 .73102 final-Behavior- EV assumed 3.579 .060 .221 161 .825 -.41829 .52375 expression EV not assumed .217 136.020 .829 -.42774 .53320 final-universal EV assumed .068 .795 -.014 184 .989 -.34407 .33936 value EV not assumed -.014 164.572 .989 -.34630 .34160 final-Chinese EV assumed 1.865 .174 -.946 180 .345 -.68550 .24113 traditional value EV not assumed -.931 155.228 .353 -.69353 .24915

Number of programs ever been watched high viewers/low viewers

Levene's Test for Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means

95% Confidence Interval Sig. (2- of the Difference F Sig. t df tailed) Lower Upper final-television EV assumed 1.556 .214 5.412 154 .000 .81965 1.76208 affinity scale EV not assumed 5.723 118.594 .000 .84421 1.73752 final-knowledge- EV assumed 1.507 .221 5.785 154 .000 .80350 1.63683 English proficiency EV not assumed 5.444 85.205 .000 .77452 1.66581 final-knowledge- EV assumed .057 .811 3.876 155 .000 .35410 1.09032 America EV not assumed 3.870 98.423 .000 .35187 1.09254 final-belief-positive EV assumed .970 .326 1.944 155 .054 -.00659 .82917 EV not assumed 1.844 88.935 .068 -.03179 .85437 final-Belief- EV assumed .050 .823 2.662 155 .009 .14552 .98245 American open- EV not assumed 2.692 104.816 .008 .14857 .97939 mindedness final-Belief-parent- EV assumed .650 .422 1.539 155 .126 -.08717 .70115 children EV not assumed 1.492 93.931 .139 -.10164 .71562 relationship final-Attitudes- EV assumed .247 .620 3.182 156 .002 .19574 .83668 towards America EV not assumed 3.028 91.710 .003 .17761 .85481 final-Attitudes-go to EV assumed 5.544 .020 2.641 154 .009 .15750 1.09250 America EV not assumed 2.465 85.556 .016 .12088 1.12912 final-Attitudes- EV assumed 1.349 .247 .869 153 .386 -.27086 .69626 towards risk taking EV not assumed .826 85.139 .411 -.29944 .72484 final-Attitudes- EV assumed .375 .541 3.894 156 .000 .32625 .99796 towards humor EV not assumed 3.729 90.861 .000 .30942 1.01478 final-Behavior- EV assumed .068 .795 3.200 155 .002 .23659 .99991 cultural products EV not assumed 3.123 95.492 .002 .22520 1.01130 final-Behavior- EV assumed .532 .467 2.277 156 .024 .07553 1.06364 expression EV not assumed 2.303 107.648 .023 .07933 1.05984 final-universal EV assumed 2.034 .155 1.072 181 .285 -.16316 .55166 value EV not assumed 1.016 114.609 .312 -.18464 .57314 final-Chinese EV assumed .006 .937 -.316 177 .752 -.55742 .40345 traditional value EV not assumed -.318 132.018 .751 -.55645 .40248

Number of programs regularly watched regular viewers/casual viewers

Levene's Test for Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means

95% Confidence Interval Sig. (2- of the Difference F Sig. t df tailed) Lower Upper final-television affinity EV assumed 2.279 .133 6.493 159 .000 1.01950 1.91077 scale EV not assumed 6.809 138.981 .000 1.03969 1.89057 final-knowledge- EV assumed 2.666 .104 6.673 159 .000 .92870 1.70948 English proficiency EV not assumed 6.241 96.894 .000 .89961 1.73857 final-knowledge- EV assumed .279 .598 4.698 160 .000 .47217 1.15703 America EV not assumed 4.580 111.897 .000 .46222 1.16698 final-belief-positive EV assumed 1.695 .195 3.211 160 .002 .24244 1.01698 EV not assumed 3.056 105.804 .003 .22115 1.03827 final-Belief-American EV assumed .769 .382 3.041 160 .003 .21246 .99996 open-mindedness EV not assumed 2.940 111.287 .004 .19759 1.01483 final-Belief-parent- EV assumed .954 .330 3.110 160 .002 .21082 .94408 children relationship EV not assumed 3.054 116.923 .003 .20303 .95187 final-Attitudes- EV assumed .146 .703 4.238 161 .000 .33999 .93322 towards America EV not assumed 4.126 115.967 .000 .33104 .94216 final-Attitudes-go to EV assumed 8.455 .004 3.705 159 .000 .38175 1.25323 America EV not assumed 3.452 97.392 .001 .34749 1.28749 final-Attitudes- EV assumed .518 .473 1.705 158 .090 -.06225 .84747 towards risk taking EV not assumed 1.658 109.103 .100 -.07657 .86179 final-Attitudes- EV assumed 5.803 .017 2.951 161 .004 .16145 .81478 towards humor EV not assumed 2.747 98.798 .007 .13553 .84070 final-Behavior-cultural EV assumed .001 .970 2.938 160 .004 .17809 .90821 products EV not assumed 2.945 124.636 .004 .17810 .90821 final-Behavior- EV assumed .007 .934 2.376 161 .019 .09523 1.03319 expression EV not assumed 2.361 123.913 .020 .09123 1.03719

final-universal value EV assumed 1.604 .207 1.785 187 .076 -.03240 .64860 EV not assumed 1.740 146.607 .084 -.04177 .65798 final-Chinese EV assumed 2.003 .159 .300 183 .764 -.39281 .53385 traditional value EV not assumed .309 170.949 .758 -.37982 .52085

Appendix C

Questionnaire‐English

Section 1:

1. What gender are you? 1.  Male 2.  Female

2. What is your age? 1.  18 2.  19 3.  20 4.  21 5.  22 6.  23 7.  24 or older

3. What is your current year in college? 1.  Freshman 2.  Sophomore 3.  Junior 4.  Senior 5.  Graduate student

4. How would you describe your proficiency in English on the following scale:

1 = Beginner and 10 = Native Speaker

______

5. Where are you from? 1.  Urban 2.  Rural

6. Do you have prior experience overseas (exchange programs; travel etc.)? 1.  yes 2.  no

7. What’s your major?

______

Section 2:

8. In general, how often are you exposed to the following media? 1 = Never and 7 = Very Often

Newspaper 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Radio 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Television 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

The Internet 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Magazines 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Mobile device 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Other Please specify______1 2 3 4 5 6 7

9. In general, how often are you exposed to the following media content? 1 = Never and 7 = Very Often

News 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Sports 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Music 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Education 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Economy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Entertainment 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Other 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Please specify______

10. Approximately how many hours per week do you spend on watching TV shows of all kinds in any medium, including those from Mainland China, Korean, Hong Kong, American TV shows etc.? 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5………………30; more than 30-Please specify______

11. Do you watch American TV shows? 1.  yes 2.  no (if not, go to Section 4)

12. Approximately how many hours do you spend on watching American TV show per week? 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5………………30; more than 30-Please specify______

13. How long have you been watching American TV shows? 1.  0-3months 2.  3-6 months 3.  6-12 months 4.  1-2 years 5.  2-3 years 6.  3-4 years 7.  4-5 years 8.  more than 5 years Please specify______

14. How many American TV shows have you ever watched? 0, 1, 2, 3…..10 & more than 10 Please specify______

15. How many American TV shows do you watch regularly now? 0, 1, 2, 3…..10 & more than 10 Please specify______

16. Please list your favorite American TV show (top three)?

______

Section 3:

17. To what degree the following kind of American TV show interests you (1: not interested at all, 6: very much interested)?

1) Comedy 1 2 3 4 5 6

2) Crime 1 2 3 4 5 6

3) Fantasy 1 2 3 4 5 6

4) Reality 1 2 3 4 5 6

5) Medical 1 2 3 4 5 6

6) Drama 1 2 3 4 5 6

7) Legal 1 2 3 4 5 6

8) Idol 1 2 3 4 5 6

9) Other Please specify ______1 2 3 4 5 6

Choose any answers that are applicable to you.

18. How do you watch American TV show (channel) usually? 1) Watch online 2) Download 3) Interactive Personality TV (PPS; PPlive etc.) 4) DVD 5) TV 6) Other Please specify______

19. How do you usually watch American TV shows? 1) TV show with dubbing

2) TV show without dubbing 3) TV show with English subtitles 4) TV show with Chinese subtitles 5) TV show with both English and Chinese subtitles 6) TV show without subtitles

20. How do you choose which American TV show to watch? 1) Recommendation by others 2) Advertisements 3) Discussions on the Internet 4) Category 5) Plot 6) Cast 7) Other Please specify______

21. Why do you want to watch American TV show? 1) Learn English 2) Learn about America 3) Learn about a certain field (medical, crime etc.) 4) Pass time 5) Follow the trend 6) Have more topics in discussions with others 7) Relaxation 8) Other Please specify______

22. After watching American TV shows, what do you get from it? 1) Learn English 2) Learn about America 3) Learn about a certain field (medical, crime etc.) 4) Pass time 5) Follow the trend 6) Have more topics in discussions with others 7) Relaxation 8) Other Please specify______

23. Why are American TV shows appealing to you? 66

1) Interesting plot 2) Variety of themes 3) Fast development (of the story) 4) Well-produced/professional 5) different cultural experience 6) different language environment 7) Fashionable/trendy 8) Interesting Characters 9) Cast 10) No better choices 11) Other Please specify______

24. If you stop watching a show, it was probably because: 1) The show was cut 2) The story line does not interest me anymore 3) I don’t have enough free time 4) It’s hard to watch American TV shows in China 5) I found some better shows 6) Other Please specify______

Section 4:

25. Please indicate how important to you is each of the 40 items. To express your opinions, imagine an Importance Scale that varies from 1 to 9. 1 stands for “of no importance to me at all”, and 9 stands for “of supreme importance to me”

Filial piety 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Tolerance 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Humbleness 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Rituals 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Kindness 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Solidarity 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Self-cultivation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Righteousness 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Noncompetitiveness 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Resist corruption 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Sincerity 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Thrift 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Patience 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Cultural superiority 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Prudence 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Sense of shame 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Contentedness 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Protect face 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Chastity in women 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Respect for tradition 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Industry/hardworking 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Harmony with others 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Loyalty to superiors 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Reciprocation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Education 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Moderation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Relationships by status 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Benevolent authority 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Personal steadiness and stability 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Patriotism 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Disinterested and pure 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Persistence 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Repayment of actions 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Adaptability 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Wealth 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Trustworthiness 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Courtesy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Being conservative 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Intimate friend 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Few desires 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

How much does this statement apply to you? (1: not apply at all 7: definitely apply)

26. TV lets me see how other 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 people live.

27. Television presents things as 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 they really are in life.

28. TV does not show life as it 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 really is.

29. I would be devastated if I can’t watch American TV 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 shows any more. 30. I will feel lost without 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 American TV to watch. 31. Watching American TV shows is very important to 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 my life. 32. I could easily do without 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 American TV shows. 33. My English has been improved after watching 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 American TV shows. 34. My vocabulary has broadened after watching 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 American TV shows. 35. My English listening skills have been improved after 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 watching American TV shows. 36. My English speaking skills have been improved after 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 watching American TV shows. 37. I know about American culture from American TV 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 shows. 38. I know about American 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 traditions.

39. I know about the way how 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Americans live.

40. I know about American education system/political 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 system/legal system/medical system. 41. I think Americans are open- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 minded.

42. I think Americans are open 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 to new things.

43. I think Americans are 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 receptive to new ideas.

44. I think many Americans are 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 rich.

45. I think many Americans have 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 guns.

46. I think many Americans are 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 open with sex.

47. I think many Americans are 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 religious.

48. I think many Americans are 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 competitive.

49. I think many Americans are 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 selfish.

50. I think many Americans are 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 shallow.

51. I think many Americans are 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 well-educated.

52. I think many Americans are 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 humorous.

53. I think many Americans are 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 talented.

54. I think that a lot of dreams 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 are realized in America.

55. I think there is a lot of crime 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 in America.

56. I think that there are a lot of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 legal disputes in America.

57. I think that parents and children should be able to 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 have open discussions. 58. I don't think that children should be afraid to discuss 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 problems with their parents. 59. I think that children should be willing to ask their parents for advice when 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 dealing with relationship problems.

60. I like American food. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

61. I like American fashion. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

62. I like American music. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

63. I like America as a country. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

64. I like American people. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

65. I don’t like American 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 culture.

66. I want to study in the US. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

67. I want to travel to America. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

68. I want to experience what I’ve seen in the show. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

69. I have positive attitude 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 towards life.

70. When I see a long line at checkout, I wouldn’t be 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 devastated.

71. There are not so many things 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 that can let me down. 72. When the weather is not as good as I thought it would 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 be, I will still have a good mood.

73. I tend to take risks in life. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

74. I prefer taking risks to living 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 a stable life.

75. I’m willing to take chances. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

76. I want to have a sense of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 humor.

77. I like telling jokes. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

78. I laugh a lot when people are 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 telling jokes.

79. I appreciate people’s humor. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

80. I like people with a sense of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 humor. 81. I tend to buy American products when I am given 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 options.

82. I eat American food a lot. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

83. I listen to American music a 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 lot.

84. I dress like Americans. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

85. I celebrate some of American 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 holidays.

86. Sometimes I act like 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Americans, e.g. shrugging. 87. Sometimes I use gestures commonly used by 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Americans to express myself, e.g. air quote. 88. Sometimes I use facial expressions commonly used 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 by Americans to express myself, e.g. eyebrow lift. 89. Sometimes I use catchy phrases commonly used by 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Americans to express myself, e.g. oh my God.

90. Optional: Do you think American TV shows have influenced you? Can you simply describe how American TV shows impact you?

______

Appendix D

Questionnaire‐Chinese

第一部分：

1. 你的性别? 1.  男 2.  女

2. 你的年龄? 1.  18 2.  19 3.  20 4.  21 5.  22 6.  23 7.  24 及以上

3. 你的年级? 1.  大一 2.  大二 3.  大三 4.  大四 5.  研究生

4. 从 1 分（初学者）到 10 分（母语程度），你给自己的英语水平打几分？

______

5. 你的家乡在: 1.  城镇 2.  非城镇

6. 你有没有出国经验（留学交流，旅游等等）? 1.  有 2.  没有

7. 你的专业?

______

第二部分：

8. 一般来说，你对于以下媒体的使用频繁么？（1：从不 7：很经常）

报纸 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

广播 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

电视 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

互联网 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

杂志 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

手机 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

其它 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 （请注明______）

9. 一般来说，你对以下的媒体内容接触频繁么？（1：从不 7：很经常）

时政 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

体育 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

音乐 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

教育 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

经济 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

综艺娱乐 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

其它 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 （请注明______）

10. 一般来说，每周你花多少个小时看电视剧（包括国产剧，港剧，日剧，韩剧，美剧等等） 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5………………30; 多于 30-请注明______

11. 你看美剧吗? 1.  看 2.  不看 (请跳到第四部分)

12. 一般来说，你每周花多少个小时看美剧? 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5………………30; 多于 30-请注明______

13. 你看美剧多久了?

1.  0-3 个月 2.  3-6 个月 3.  6-12 个月 4.  1-2 年 5.  2-3 年 6.  3-4 年 7.  4-5 年 8.  多于 5 年请注明______

14. 你大概看过多少部美剧？ 0, 1, 2, 3…..10 & 多于 10 请注明______

15. 你现在经常看的美剧有几部? 0, 1, 2, 3…..10 & 多于 10 请注明______

16. 请列出你最喜欢的三部美剧?

______

第三部分：

17. 你对以下不同类型的美剧感兴趣的程度是？（1 代表一点都不感兴趣； 7 代表非常感兴趣）

喜剧类 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

罪案类 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

科幻类 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

真人秀 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

医务类 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

剧情类 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

律政类 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

青春偶像剧 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

其它请注明 ______1 2 3 4 5 6 7

以下问题为多选，你可以选择一个或多个选项：

18. 你看美剧的渠道是什么? 1) 在线观看（土豆，搜狐，优酷，迅雷看看等） 2) 下载（BT，电驴，迅雷等） 3) 网络电视（PPStream；PPlive 等） 4) DVD 5) 电视 6) 其它请注明 ______

19. 你经常看的美剧是? 1) 有中文配音

2) 无中文配音 3) 有英文字幕 4) 有中文字幕 5) 有中英文字幕 6) 无字幕

20. 以下哪些会影响你对美剧的选择呢? 1) 他人推荐 2) 广告宣传 3) 网络讨论 4) 题材 5) 剧情 6) 演员 7) 其它请注明 ______

21. 你为什么要看美剧? 1) 为了提高英语水平 2) 为了了解美国 3) 为了了解某个领域（比如医务，罪案等） 4) 为了打发时间 5) 为了紧跟潮流 6) 为了和别人讨论的时候多些话题 7) 为了放松身心 8) 其它请注明______

22. 看美剧之后你觉得有什么收获? 1) 提高了英语水平 2) 了解了美国 3) 了解了某个领域（比如医务，罪案等） 4) 打发了时间 5) 跟上了潮流 6) 和别人讨论的时候多了些话题 7) 放松了身心 8) 其它请注明______

23. 美剧为什么能够吸引你? 1) 情节吸引人 2) 题材多样 3) 剧情节奏快 4) 制作精良 5) 体验不同文化 6) 体验不同语言环境 7) 时尚流行 8) 剧中人物吸引人 9) 喜欢剧集演员 10) 没有更好的选择 11) 其它请注明______

24. 什么原因会让你不再看一部美剧？ 1) 这部剧已停播 2) 情节已经不再吸引我 3) 我没有时间看 4) 很难找到这部剧的更新 5) 发现了更好看的剧集 6) 其它请注明______

第四部分：

25. 从 1 分（一点都不重要）到 9 分（极其重要），请标明以下四十条对你的重要性。（请标明以下四十条对你的重要性-random）

孝 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

容忍 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

谦虚 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

礼仪 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

仁爱 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

团结 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

修养 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

正义感 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

不重竞争 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

廉洁 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

诚恳 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

俭 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

耐心 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

文化优越感 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

小心/慎 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

知耻 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

安分守己 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

面子 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

贞洁 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

尊重传统 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

勤劳 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

随和 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

忠于上司 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

礼尚往来 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

学识（教育） 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

中庸之道 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

尊卑有序 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

恩威并施 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

稳重 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

爱国 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

清高 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

耐力（毅力） 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

报恩与报仇 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

适应环境 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

财富 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

信用 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

有礼貌 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

保守 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

知己知交 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

寡欲 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

从 1 分（一点都不赞同）到 7 分（非常赞同），请对以下句子打分。（你赞同以下说法吗？random）

26. 电视剧让我了解其他人的生活 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

27. 电视剧呈现的是人们真实的生活 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

28. 电视剧没有呈现生活原有的样子 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

29. 如果不再能看美剧，我会崩溃 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

30. 如果没有美剧看我会无所适从 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

31. 看美剧对我的生活很重要 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

32. 我可以轻松地过没有美剧的生活 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

33. 我的英语能力在看美剧之后有所 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 提高

34. 我的词汇量在看美剧之后有所扩 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 展

35. 我的英语听力在看美剧之后有所 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 长进

36. 我的英语口语能力在看美剧之后 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 有所提高

37. 我从美剧当中了解了美国文化 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

38. .我了解美国的传统 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

39. 我了解美国人的生活方式 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

40. 我了解美国教育系统/司法系统/医 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 疗系统…

41. 我认为美国人很开明 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

42. 我认为美国人能乐于接受新事物 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

43. 我认为美国人很乐于接受新思想 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

44. 我认为很多美国人很富有 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

45. 认为很多美国人拥有枪支 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

46. 我认为很多美国人对性开放 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

47. 我认为很多美国人有信仰 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

48. 我认为很多美国人很爱竞争 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

49. 我认为很多美国人很自私 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

50. 我认为很多美国人都很肤浅 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

51. 我认为很多美国人都收到过良好 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 的教育

52. 我认为很多美国人都很幽默 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

53. 我认为很多美国人都很有才华 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

54. 我认为很多梦想能在美国实现 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

55. 我认为美国犯罪率很高 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

56. 我认为美国有很多法律纠纷 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

57. 我认为父母和孩子可以开诚布公 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 地聊天

58. 我认为孩子不应该害怕跟父母讨 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 论问题

59. 在遇到恋爱中的难题时，我认为 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 孩子可以从父母那里得到建议

60. 我喜欢美国食物 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

61. 我喜欢美国的时尚 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

62. 我喜欢美国的音乐 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

63. 我喜欢美国这个国家 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

64. 我喜欢美国人 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

65. 我不喜欢美国文化 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

66. 我想去美国深造 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

67. 我想去美国旅游 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

68. 我想要体验一下电视剧里的生活 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

69. 我的生活态度是积极的 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

70. 当我看到排队的人很多的时候， 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 会觉得很抓狂

71. 生活中没有很多事情会让我心情 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 不好

72. 如果天气不如我预期的理想，我 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 的心情依然很好

73. 我喜欢冒险 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

74. 相较于安稳的过日子，我更喜欢 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 惊险刺激的生活

75. 我勇于冒险尝试 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

76. 我想有幽默感 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

77. 我喜欢开玩笑 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

78. 别人开玩笑的时候我会笑个不停 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

79. 我懂得欣赏别人的幽默 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

80. 我喜欢有幽默感的人 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

81. 如果有选择的话我会更倾向于买 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 美国的商品

82. 我经常吃美国食品 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

83. 我经常听美国的音乐 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

84. 我穿衣风格比较欧美 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

85. 我过一些美国的节日 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

86. 有时我做一些美国人的小动作， 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 比如耸肩

87. 有时我会用美国人常用的手势， 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 比如在空中打引号

88. 有时我会用美国人常用的表情， 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 比如抬眉

89. 有时我会用美国人常用的口头 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 禅，比如 Oh my God

90. （optional）你认为美剧对你有正面/负面影响吗？请简单描述一下这些影响。

——————————————————————————————

Appendix E

Institutional Review Board Wake Forest University – Reynolda Campus

The Impact of American Television on Chinese College Students

This online survey is investigating the viewing of television shows from the United States and other countries. Your answers will be used to learn more about Chinese audience’s media exposure especially to American television and its perceived impact. On the following pages, you will be asked to complete four sections of questions related to: (1) demographic information (2) media exposure (3) viewing habit (4) impact. The questionnaire will take approximately fifteen minutes to complete. Your participation in this study is completely voluntary. You may discontinue your participation at any time without penalty. You may also choose not to answer any question(s) you do not wish to for any reason.

This study does not pose any risk from participation beyond what would normally be encountered in everyday life. While there are no direct benefits to you for participating, the study will aid our understanding of television viewing in China and its impact. The information that you provide in this study will be anonymous and no identifying information is being requested from you. All study records will be kept in a secure location, accessible only by the research team. The records will be kept as long as they are scientifically useful, but for at least three years, and then promptly destroyed.

If you have any questions regarding this survey please contact Dr. Michael David Hazen ([email protected]; 1‐336‐758‐5404) or Zixuan Zhou ([email protected]; 1‐336‐391‐1166; 86‐18621810550) in the Department of Communication at Wake Forest University. If you have any questions regarding your rights as a participant, contact the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs at 1‐336‐758‐5888.

Proceeding to answer the questions in this survey indicates your consent to participate in this study.

Appendix F

Institutional Review Board Wake Forest University – Reynolda Campus

美剧对中国大学生的影响

这份网络问卷是关于美国电视连续剧在中国的观看情况和其影响的研究。您的配合能够帮助我们来研究中国受众的媒体使用尤其是美剧的观看和影响。这份问卷包括四部分：一，背景信息；二，媒体使用情况；三，观看习惯；四，影响。完成此问卷大概需要十五分钟。参加此项研究完全是自愿性质，您可以在任何时侯退出，并无需承担任何责任。您也可以以任何理由选择不回答问卷中的任何问题。

这项研究不会对您构成任何风险。虽然参与研究并不能给您带来任何直接的收益，但是我们希望此项研究能够让我们了解更多关于中国大学生对美剧的观看及其影响。这份研究结束之后，欢迎您联系我们了解调查结果。

这项调查完全匿名，您的个人信息不会从您所提供的答案中被识别。相关数据将会保存在安全的地方，且只有研究小组的成员才能够接触。当调查数据不再作科学用途时，他们将会被销毁。

如果您对于这项研究有任何问题，您可以联系本研究的首席研究员，Michael Hazen（[email protected]）联系电话：1‐336‐758‐5404 和周子绚（[email protected]）联系电话 1‐336‐391‐1166; 86‐18621810550。如果您对于您作为调查对象的权益有任何问题，请致电 Office of Research and Sponsored Programs，联系电话：1‐336‐ 758‐5888。

如果您选择继续答题，这将表明您已同意参与这项调查。点击“下一页”按钮，您将进入网络调查问卷。

Appendix G

Appendix H

PROTOCOL

Study Title:

The Impact of American Television on Chinese College Age Students

Background and Purpose:

We are used to the fact that American brands such as McDonald’s, Starbucks, Nike and Disney have become global. America has been, for at least a century, the most powerful brand on the planet (Anholt, 2005). American‐labeled leisure products such as television programs have also spread around the world, reaching a large and diverse audience. Most media programming, imported in the world, originates in the United States (Harrington & Bielby, 2004; Atkin, 2003; Davis, 1999) even though significant amounts also originate in Europe, Latin America and parts of Asia (Banerjee, 2002). The topic of the impact of the imported television on domestic audiences throughout the world is one that has aroused a high degree of interest but a limited number of studies have resulted (Tan, Tan &Tan, 1985; Tan, Li & Simpson, 1986; Zaharopoulos, 2003). Unfortunately, the studies that exist are often also not very sophisticated methodologically (Elasmar & Hunter, 1997).

The status of imported television in China differs from countries like Brazil, Philippine or India, which early on imported US media. In China, the foreign media penetration was minimal for about 30 years after WWII. Even after China’s economic reforms, opening up in 1970s, and the joining the WTO in 2001, western television programming still was limited in China because of the government's tight control over media. However, with the rapid growth of the Internet, millions of the Chinese youth now spend their time consuming much of their entertainment online (Chu, 2010), and new means of watching foreign TV programs have evolved. According to the head of Film and Television Center of the Shanghai Media Group, it takes at least a year to get approval from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television after a show is aired in the US to appear on mainline Chinese television (Sina, 2007). The Internet, on the other hand, has drastically shortened the time between a program’s release in America and its availability to Chinese audiences. With the help of groups of volunteer translators, Chinese viewers can access American TV shows online, complete with Mandarin subtitles, within 12 hours of programs being aired in the US (Wen & Wang, 2007).

Therefore, due to the increasing popularity of American television in China, this study proposes to examine Chinese college age students’ exposure to American television programs and the subsequent influence on Chinese audiences.

Key Personnel:

Michael David Hazen, Professor of Communication at Wake Forest, is the Principal Investigator and thesis adviser for the project. Zixuan Zhou is a graduate student in the Department of Communication and this research is part of her thesis project. A Chinese version survey questionnaire will be provided for the participants. There are two translators involved, Chen Gao and Juanjuan Yan, two graduate students in the Communication Department who are native‐speakers in Chinese and are also fluent in English.

Research Sites

Data will be gathered from college students in China via an internet survey. The survey will be anonymous to protect the participants’ data.

Professor Hazen has conducted research in a number of international sites including China, Japan, Russia, and Europe. In addition, he has worked with a number of scholars in China and has authored several papers on Chinese communication. Zixuan Zhou is a graduate of Shanghai International Studies University in China and was born and raised in China. She is familiar with the Chinese culture and with norms related to research and human protection programs in China.

Human protections programs in China differ from the U.S. in several senses. General social science research has not tended to be covered by formal programs; only medical research has received such attention. In addition, there is a tradition in China of community‐assisted informed consent instead of individual informed consent even though this may be changing in the medical sciences (Zhai, 2011). Due to the general situation concerning human protections programs for social science research in China and also, since no one university is being used in China, the standards and protections of the Wake Forest University’s Reynolda Campus IRB committee will be applied to this study.

Participants

Students in China, currently 18 years of age or older will be recruited to participate in this study via internet sites and network sampling among college students. They will be asked to provide information about their media viewing habits. Students will voluntarily fill out an online survey and there are no systematic exclusion factors. A pool of participants, up to 200 in size, will be recruited. An online survey will be used in this study. A questionnaire will be posted through www.surveymonkey.com, an online survey provider. The URL link to the questionnaire will be posted online to reach the targeted population.

Methodology

Students will be asked to finish a Chinese‐language online survey. They will be given instructions on how to fill out the survey online and information about its risks and benefits. They will be given the option of taking the survey or withdrawing at any point. The questionnaire will contain four major parts: (1) questions about demographic information (2) questions about media exposure (3) questions about viewing habit (4) and questions about the impact of different kinds of viewing. The questionnaire will be anonymous and self‐administered, and will take no more than 15 minutes to complete.

The current questions and instructions were translated into Chinese by Zixuan Zhou. They were then back‐translated into English by Chen Gao and Juanjuan Yan. Both English language and Chinese language versions are attached.

The study involves no deception, medical procedures or minors. We anticipate no risks concerning physical, mental or social discomfort. Participant’s responses will be anonymous thereby eliminating any risk of negative consequences. The data will not be used for any other purposes than those of the study. We will ensure at that, at all points, the data collected will be securely archived on disks not available through internet connects, which will not be transferred to any parties beyond the researchers in this study.

Protection of Participants

There is less of a tradition of institutional review of human research and the use of informed consent in research in China, therefore, the research is being submitted through the Wake Forest IRB process to insure a high level of participant protection. A modified informed consent process where the essential information will be provided but a formal, signed, informed consent form will not be used since it would provide the only identifying links to participants. Thus, to insure anonymity, participants will indicate their consent to participate in the study by moving to the questions.

In the introduction to the study, participants will be given information about the study and provided with the required information about voluntary participation, the right to not answer questions, the right to discontinue participation at any time, and the risks involved in the study. In addition, they will be informed that continued with the survey will constitute their agreement to participate in the research.

For the online survey, the information will be anonymous and no individual identifying information will be requested from participants. All study records will be kept in a secure location, accessible only by the research team. The records will be kept as long as they are scientifically useful, but for at least three years, and then promptly destroyed.

Retention of Research Records

The investigators will keep the IRB letters of approval, and participant data for as long as they are scientifically valid.

References:

Anholt, S. (2007) Competitive Identity: The New Brand Management for Nations, Cities and Regions, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Atkin, D. J. (2003). The Americanization of global film. In K. Anokwa, C. A. Lin, and M. B. Salwen, (Eds.), International Communication (pps. 175‐189). Belmont, Ca: Wadsworth.

Banerjee, I. (2002). The locals strike back? Media globalization and localization in the new Asian television landscape. Gazette: The International Journal for Communication Studies, 64, 517–535.

Chu, S‐C. and Choi, S. M. (2010). Social capital and self‐presentation on social networking sites: a comparative study of Chinese and American young generations. Chinese Journal of Communication, 3, 402‐420.

Davis, L. L. (1999). Satellite‐based change in Mexican television programming and advertising. Journal of Popular Culture, 20, 9.

Elasmar, M. G. (2003). The Impact of International Television: A Paradigm Shift. Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum.

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Zhou, Zixuan

Education Wake Forest University Winston Salem, NC M.A. Communication May 2011

Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) Shanghai, China B.A. Journalism May 2009

Conference

NCA 96th Annual Convention San Francisco, CA Nov. 2010 Presented papers “An Ideological Analysis of China’s 60th Anniversary Parade” “The Role of Moderators in Regulating in Interaction in Online Communities.”