Global Format and Local Knowledge: Ethnographic Exploration of a TV Production Community

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Chinese Journal of Journalism & Communication ›› 2016, Vol. 38 ›› Issue (7) : 138-149.

ZHANG Xiaoxiao is an associate professor of the School of Journalism and Communication at Jinan University, Guangzhou. She received her PhD degree from the School of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Email: xiaoshaw50@gmail.com.Anthony Fung is a professor of the School of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and also serves as the Pearl River Chair Professor of the School of Journalism and Communication at Jinan University, Guangzhou. He received his PhD degree from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota. Email: anthonyfung@cuhk. edu.hk. This paper was supported by the Philosophy and Social Sciences Grant of Guangdong Province: The twelfth Five-year Plan in 2013 (GD13YXW01), part of its research data was once published at Television & New Media (Vol. 15, No. 6).

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Abstract

This study is an ethnography of localization of the Ugly Betty format in China and the daily practices of its production community. The production of the TV drama reflects the contradictions of the global television format and local knowledge in China. Universal know-how of the Ugly Betty format guided local producers to successfully reproduce the original program. Simultaneously, they had to modify the controversial elements in light of local knowledge. Adoration, negotiation, and abandoning were important common strategies adopted by local producers in such format adaptation. Television format adaptation, franchising and translation resulted in a specifc form of cultural hybridity in China.

Key words

production community / global TV formats / local knowledge / cultural hybridity

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ZHANG Xiaoxiao, Anthony Fung. Global Format and Local Knowledge: Ethnographic Exploration of a TV Production Community[J]. Chinese Journal of Journalism & Communication. 2016, 38(7): 138-149

Funding

This paper was supported by the Philosophy and Social Sciences Grant of Guangdong Province: The twelfth Five-year Plan in 2013 (GD13YXW01), part of its research data was once published at Television & New Media (Vol. 15, No. 6).