CCTV ‘dialogue’ = speaking + listening: a case analysis of a prestigious CCTV talk show series Dialogue

This article discusses the findings of a case study of a talk show in the Dialogueseries, produced and screened by China Central Television. On the surface, the talk show is much more sophisticated in form and presentation, more inclusive in terms of topics and speakers and more enthusiastic about generating dialogue than past talk shows on Chinese television. However, through a textual analysis of aspects of the talk show ranging from formal characteristics, to its content, to its narrative structure, the case study finds that, under the camouflage of greater sophistication, the ‘dialogue’ staged by the talk show is a deceptive game as it is a reinvented one-way passage of messages from the center to the periphery, from the speakers to the listeners, from the instructors to the pupils and then to the pupils of the pupils. On the basis of the analysis, there is insufficient evidence to substantiate claims that Chinese television, represented by the Dialogueseries, is liberalized or democratized as a viewer-friendly participatory mass medium.