Co-construction of migrant workers’ identities on a TV talk show in China
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. The
study finds that the 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.