Image Construction of Child Star: A Case Study of Taiwan''s Child Talent Show, Famous Children

• Main Authors: Ssu-Han Yu, 游絲涵
• Other Authors: 王泰俐
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/98616114783494932408

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 新聞研究所 === 102 === Although talent show industries and child contestants appear glistening, they are often blemished by media criticism and scholar critiques: the industries are accused of damaging children''s development and destroying childhoods while child contestants carry condemnations of being precocious and acting like "small adults" along the shows. The competitors in Famous Children, a talent show aiming at children under 12, are no exceptions. Instead of simply echoing with the aforementioned criticism, I will study this issue by including ''the accused'' in my discussion, hoping to create a more complete picture of the program production of child talent shows and a better understanding of the debate on child stars. In this study, I first examined the child images of Famous Children by conducting a text analysis on the program and discussed how they conflict with the mainstream of child/childhood in Taiwanese culture. Next, by interviewing 7 child contestants, 7 parents and 3 media professionals behind the scene, I collected data for an analysis of their participation in the program production. Then applying Pierre Boudieu''s "Field theory" to the interview data enabled me to explore the interactions among actors and between the actors and the field. This research finds out two main child star images of Famous Children which challenge the existing and dominant "Romantic Childhood" but at the same time, reflect the changing landscape of the contemporary childhood. It also offers an insight into the production of the show, namely TV ratings as the "habitus" and the "symbolic violence" in this field.