Department of Informatics and Media Master's
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Department of Informatics and Media Master’s Programme in Social Sciences, Digital Media and Society specialization Two-year Master’s Thesis Pastoral Nostalgia and Digital Media: A Case Study Exploring Nostalgia Communication in Li Ziqi’s Online Short Videos Student: Jinpei Deng Supervisor: Helga Sadowski August 2020 Abstract The primary goal of this study is to observe how the meaning of nostalgia is negotiated and remediated in Li Ziqi’s short videos, and understand the construction and expression of pastoral images in the video, by examining its social modality of the audiencing site and the compositional and social modalities of the image site through a Critical Visual Approach(CVA). Except for CVA, Remix as a thinking tool helps to frame data selection, mixed methods and theories throughout. To be specific, the aim of this study is to examine Li Ziqi’s communication of nostalgia online via short videos, showcases how the pastoral characteristics are evoked in the videos and the relationship between nostalgia of pastoral life and short videos. Moreover, it is of interest to think about what nostalgia communication on short videos say about society. When it comes to the two sites, firstly, an ethnographic method of thick descriptions is used to study media text and selected comments on the audiencing site. Secondly, on the image site, compositional analysis on selected visual materials is used to examine its compositions and then signs and meanings embedded in them are analyzed through semiotic analysis and interpreted by thick descriptions. As for theories, nostalgia and media, the logic of social acceleration, remediation and new media, and simulacra and simulation are applied to facilitate discussion. Keywords: Nostalgia, pastoral nostalgia, short videos, new media, Li Ziqi, communication, critical visual analysis, semiotics, remix, Sina Weibo, online videos, digital 1 Table of Contents Abstract 1 Table of Contents 2 List of Figures and Tables 4 Preface 5 1 Introduction 6 1.1 Background: Li Ziqi’s Online Short Videos 6 1.1.1 Li Ziqi and the Chinese Rural Life Published Through MCN 8 1.1.2 Arguments Concerning the Authenticity of Her Pastoral Life 10 1.2 Defining Nostalgia 10 1.3 New Media of Short Videos in China as a Product of a Fast-Paced Lifestyle 12 1.4 Aim and Research Questions 13 1.5 Disposition 14 2 Literature Review 15 2.1 Studies on Nostalgia and Media 15 2.2 Reasons to Study Pastoral Nostalgia 19 3 Theoretical Framework 20 3.1 Types of Nostalgia and Media 21 3.2 The Logic of Social Acceleration and Temporal Structure 22 3.3 Remediation and New Media 24 3.4 Simulacra and Simulation 25 4 Methodology 26 4.1 A Critical Framework and Remix Method 27 4.1.1 A Critical Approach 27 4.1.2 Remix: a Tool of Thinking About Methods 28 4.2 Mixed Method 30 4.2.1 Methodological Tools and Selection of Methods 30 4.2.2 An Ethnographic Method of ‘Thick Description’ 32 4.2.3 Compositional Interpretation and Semiotics 34 4.3 Data Selection 36 4.4 Data Sampling 38 4.5 Coding and Analytical Procedure 44 2 4.6 Ethics 46 5 Results and Analysis 47 5.1 An Overview 48 5.2 Through the Image Site of CVM 48 5.2.1 Content: 48 5.2.2 Color: 52 5.2.3 Spatial Organization: 56 5.3 A Mixture of Studying Audiencing Site of CVM and Media Text 61 5.3.1 The Audiencing Site of CVM and Media Text Study: Nostalgic Narratives 61 5.3.2 Media Text Study: A Simulacrum of Ideal Life 69 6 Discussion and Concluding Remarks 72 6.1 Critical Discussion 73 6.1.1 A Critical Discussion of the Image Site 73 6.1.2 A Critical Discussion of Studying Media Text 75 6.2 Research Questions Reiterated 77 6.3 Limitations and Implications for Future Research 79 References 82 Appendices 89 Appendix 1: A Mind Map of the Methodological Framework 89 Appendix 2: A Screenshot of Compositional Analysis to the Video 90 Appendix 3: A Screenshot of Comment Analysis 91 3 List of Figures and Tables Figure 1.1.........................................................................................................................................7 Figure 4.1.......................................................................................................................................41 Figure 4.2.......................................................................................................................................41 Figure 4.3.......................................................................................................................................46 Figure 5.1.......................................................................................................................................52 Figure 5.2.......................................................................................................................................55 Figure 5.3.......................................................................................................................................64 Figure 5.4.......................................................................................................................................66 Table 4.1........................................................................................................................................32 Table 4.2........................................................................................................................................38 Table 4.3........................................................................................................................................42 4 Preface First and foremost, I am thankful to my supervisor Helga Sadowski for her thoughtful comments and recommendations on this thesis. I would like to express my gratitude to my examiner Martina Ladendorf for guiding me to develop critical discussion and for her feedback on thesis revision. I would like to thank Sarah Schwarz from the Department of Scandinavian Languages at Uppsala University for helping me with written and spoken English. I would like to thank Ylva Ekström and Bóas Hallgrímsson from the Department of Informatics and Media for the considerate guidance and support. I am eternally grateful to have my dear friends: Xingxing, Benzhong, Aji, Tanling and May in my life for always listening to me, supporting me and encouraging me. To conclude, I cannot forget to thank my family for the unconditional support in my entire academic journey. 5 1 Introduction 1.1 Background: Li Ziqi’s Online Short Videos Li Ziqi’s short video ‘Childhood Taste: Snacks for Spring Festival in Memories’ on Sina Weibo (published on the 30th Jan 2019) begins with an image of chestnuts on the ground and a rustling sound from leaves and footsteps, followed by the scene of Li Ziqi backpacking a bamboo pack basket and searching for chestnuts in the open. She is surrounded by two puppies and a sheep. The above scenes seem to display an ordinary day in the countryside. After picking up chestnuts, she takes the puppies and lamb home. At this time, a high-angle shot shows Li Ziqi, with small animals behind her, going home along the wind-blown weeds, giving people a feeling of peace in the vast world (see Figure 1.1). At 40 seconds into the clip, Li Ziqi returns to the yard, calling out affectionately to her 'grandma' who is warming up around the bonfire in the yard, waiting for her. Except for communicating with her grandma, she hardly speaks anymore or deliberately looks into the camera. The puppies and lambs that follow her all the time surrounded her feet. She skillfully pours out the chestnuts that she has just picked up in the mountains from the back cage and uses tongs to remove the thorns wrapped around the chestnuts while sitting on a small bench in the yard. Two plates are quickly filled with chestnuts. Then the camera moves, she takes the chestnuts to the kitty oven she made, scoops out the charcoal fire with a shovel, and starts roasting the chestnuts. The camera turns again. The lamb is eating radish leaves in the yard. At this time, Li Ziqi is already holding stalks of wheat, wooden sticks, and vise to prepare the ingredients for rock candied haws. The next ingredients are already placed in front of the small table. Next is the cleaning part. She sits at the table where she always prepares food, red bacon and sausages hanging on the wall and green plants decorating the background. It gives the audience a sense of tranquility and simplicity. She cooks one dish methodically and quietly, brings it to the table, and goes back to the kitchen for the next dish. At the end of the video, the scene returns to her and her grandmother again. This is the most common scene in Li Ziqi's video since the end of 2017. She 6 carefully arranges the food on the plate and shares it with the grandma, surrounded by the puppy and lamb by the bonfire. The video ends with a burst of harmonious laughter. This is also a typical scene in the video of Li Ziqi, the subject of this article. The video tries its best to express the tranquility and beauty of rural life in terms of content, sound, and spatial organization. At the same time, the young woman in the video is elegant and agile. It brings a sense of nostalgia to the tranquility of an ancient hideaway and a calming feeling by staying away from the hustle and bustle of the city. If the audience is attentive enough, they can already find out many objects that symbolize nostalgia in the video, such as baskets, kitchen utensils, cauldrons, and objects referencing pastoral life used by Li Ziqi. But at the same time, among other doubts and debates brought up by social media,