Migrant workers' identities on a TV talk show

What is it about?

This study examines how identities of migrant workers (i.e. nongmingong) have been constructed and represented on a TV talk show program in China, called “China’s Nongmingong”, launched by Guizhou Satellite TV (GZSTV) in China in 2007. Drawing on narrative theories concerning interactions between narrative and identity, and a dramaturgical model of social interaction analysis, this study explores how the nongmingong’s personal life experiences are transformed into public discourse. It is proposed that there are three stages in this process of transformation, namely ‘off stage’, ‘back stage’, and ‘front stage’, through which the media prepares the participatory nongmingong for the live TV program.

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Why is it important?

The study finds that the TV program, in order to fulfil a specific social purpose, adopts various discursive practices to represent nongmingong’s identities as normal or even supernormal in contrast to the public discourse which depicts them as abnormal.