A symposium held by CCTV in July to gauge audience reactions found that people are quite attached to their evening ritual of sitting down in front of the television and watching Hai Xia or Luo Jing inform them of the day’s top domestic and international stories. In follow-up discussions, participants were asked a number of questions about their impression of the program and their reasons for watching:
* Why do you watch Network News?
Not much surprising here: it’s authoritative, it speaks for the central leadership, and besides, there’s nothing else on at 7:00pm. One respondent saw story selection as a reflection of the country’s development:I don’t know if you all have noticed, but the international news report has been getting shorter and shorter. It used to be five minutes long, but now it’s only three. I think this shows our country’s rising economic levels and our growing international stature.
* If you had to compare Network News to a person, what would that person be like?
It’s a teacher, a guide, a father figure. The answers in this section reveal something about gender roles in contemporary Chinese society: Network News is a man; the Weather Forecast program that follows it is most likely a middle-aged woman.
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