Paper short abstract:

This article examines how Hunan TV/Mango TV perform the dual roles of connecting users and conveying “socialist values.” Simultaneously, how it plays a role in the lives of the local youth - why they consume or do not-consume its programmes, and how the content interweave with their daily life.

Paper long abstract:

Although nowadays in China young people move some of their attention to the social media platforms, such as Douyin (known as Tiktok), almost every youth still is watching or has ever watched Hunan TV/Mango TV’s programmes. In 2020, the national coverage of Hunan TV had increased to 1.29 billion, which is close to 1.3 billion people approaching the country’s population. Mango TV, as Hunan TV’s online platform, has successfully platformized performing the dual roles of connecting users and conveying “Socialist Values” and competes against China’s “three digital technology giants” of Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent (BAT). Based on 15-month fieldwork in Hunan TV/Mango TV and a county called Posheng, I aim to offer a rounded account of how Hunan TV/Mango TV plays a role in the lives of the local youth. More specifically, I attend to why the young in the rural consume or not-consume some Hunan TV/Mango TV’s programmes, and how the programmes interweave with their daily life. I find that Hunan TV/Mango TV’s programmes practically play the role of both entertaining and teaching in Posheng, ideologically and practically, and they provide Posheng youths with an imagination of waimian (outside world), referring to the cities. They produce desires to live a better life, in turn making meaning of their own experience, imagining what they are experiencing in this world, and figuring out "who I am" being in a broader social discourse. This research also shows how broadcast television is adapting to digital and multi-platform environments and continues to thrive.