Cultural dissemination and model innovation of cultural and blog variety shows

Author: Wang Shuo

In recent years, cultural and bo variety shows can be called the "darling" of cultural variety shows. At the end of 2017, the broadcast of "National Treasure" opened the curtain of innovation in cultural and blog variety shows. After that, a large number of cultural and blog variety shows with their own characteristics emerged. While such programs are disseminating culture, the form is also constantly breaking through.

Cultural dissemination value of cultural and blog variety shows

First of all, let the cultural relics "come alive" and tell the Chinese story well. The report of the Nineteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that it is necessary to "tell the Chinese story well, show a true, three-dimensional and comprehensive China, and improve the soft power of national culture." Cultural resources contain a wealth of Chinese stories, and to tell Chinese stories well, it is necessary to dig deep into the humanistic history behind cultural relics. A series of cultural and cultural variety shows represented by "National Treasures" and "Shangxin • Forbidden City", while digging deep into the humanistic value behind cultural relics, they also conform to the context of new media communication, innovate expression methods, and adopt flexible and diverse marketing means to make cultural and cultural variety shows lively, vivid and story-oriented, tell the stories behind cultural relics in a relaxed and lively atmosphere, let cultural relics truly enter the lives of the masses from the warehouse in the museum, and let the cultural relics "live". Taking "National Treasure" as an example, the program adopts the cultural relics "Legends of Past Lives" based on the reasonable imagination of historical materials, explores the historical truth behind the cultural relics, and tells the Story of China with interesting philosophical stories and profound humanistic feelings. At the same time, senior researchers who are related to cultural relics or in a certain field are selected to tell the stories of this life, and through the form of historical dialogue, let the audience explore the Chinese civilization carried by cultural relics when listening to the stories of cultural relics, and stimulate the sense of responsibility for inheriting China's excellent history and culture.

Second, build a three-dimensional cultural communication industry chain. In the era of traditional media, information is disseminated in one direction, and each link is separated. In the era of integrated media communication, with the help of the characteristics of personalized, scenario-based and interactive communication of the Internet, it breaks through the single communication circle and sets off secondary communication, so the program content should consider the entire cultural communication industry chain process when planning. For example, after the broadcast of "National Treasure", the passenger flow of the Henan Provincial Museum increased by 30%. The "Changxin" series of pajamas that appeared in "Shangxin Forbidden City" exceeded 10 million yuan in crowdfunding, exceeding the original target by 200 times. "I am waiting for you in the Summer Palace" integrates the "punch card" form that young people like to hear, and creates a national tide IP and boosts brand realization through the new way of planting grass of "star + craftsman + cargo master". In addition, the cultural and cultural industry has also joined forces with Internet giants to build a cultural communication industry chain. In 2016, Alibaba and the Palace Museum launched a strategic cooperation on the three sections of the Palace Museum, namely tickets, cultural creation and publishing, and the Palace Museum opened an official flagship store on the Taobao platform. From peripheral cross-border cooperation to core content innovation, to the online communication and offline layout of the media platform, the implementation of the cultural and creative sales strategy, the cultural and creative variety shows with the help of the advantages of media communication, fully integrate and take advantage of the industries involved in the industrial chain, build a comprehensive and three-dimensional marketing system, and establish a dynamic and benign feedback of the cultural communication industry chain.

Finally, carry forward the national culture and enhance cultural self-confidence. As a popular form of communication for the public, television programs have a strong color of the times. Contemporary China is moving toward a new goal of struggle at a new historical starting point, and the role of culture is more profound and extensive. The people's demand for television programs is not just pure entertainment, but also puts forward higher spiritual needs. Taking the special program "The Water of the Yellow River - National Treasure Concert" as an example, a representative cultural relics are selected from 9 provinces and regions in the Yellow River Basin, telling its origins with the Yellow River civilization, and interpreting the connotation, spiritual essence and era value of the Yellow River culture from multiple perspectives. The curators of 48 museums in 9 provinces and regions of the Yellow River Basin took out the Yellow River water collected in different locations in turn, telling the story of each section of water intake and the Yellow River, pushing the atmosphere of the whole program to a climax, allowing the audience to experience the endless historical accumulation and cultural inheritance of Chinese civilization in the story of the Yellow River, thus strengthening cultural self-confidence. The recent emergence of this batch of cultural and bo variety shows not only has a strong originality, but also leads to a wide range of historical knowledge behind each cultural relic, which can not only let the audience realize the profundity of China's culture, but also enhance national pride and self-confidence.

The path innovation of cultural and blog variety shows

First, innovate the narrative mode of the program. Compared with the bland and dull "didactic" explanations of traditional cultural and blog programs, cultural and blog variety shows adopt storytelling expressions that are closer to young people in content design. "National Treasure" and "Shangxin Forbidden City", both programs take traditional culture as the core, take variety shows as the cloak, and take the recorded language as the clue to complete the story expression. "National Treasure" designs two story lines of "one ancient and one modern", allowing the audience to realize dialogue with history in the passage of ancient and modern stories. The ancient story of cultural relics is based on historical materials for artistic processing and creation, and let the stars perform them on the spot. The modern story of cultural relics is to tell the contemporary story related to cultural relics. "Shangxin • Forbidden City" also adopts the narrative logic of two story lines, one is unfolded as "The Secret of the Forbidden City", allowing guests to explore secrets on the ground, attracting the audience's interest by setting up suspense, and the other in the form of small theater performances, allowing guests to restore historical stories in their interpretation. Both programs are designed through story lines, advancing layer by layer, and completing the theme expression in edutainment. From the perspective of formal design, the new era of cultural and bo variety shows have made bold breakthroughs and innovations, adopting the form of "record + variety show", interpreting through small theaters, and showing the cultural relics story to the audience.

Second, innovate the content of the program. Compared with traditional cultural and cultural programs that focus on cultural relics or pay attention to historical backgrounds, the content of cultural and cultural variety shows in recent years is more diversified. For example, "National Treasures" is not limited to telling the story of cultural relics, but through the past and present lives of cultural relics, it pays attention to the inheritance of history and reality, so that the audience can understand the spiritual core of the civilization and the continuation of Chinese culture carried by cultural relics, and arouse the public's attention to the protection of cultural relics. "Shangxin • Forbidden City" is to create cultural and creative IP as the main content, its main content is the guests and designers for the Forbidden City to create cultural and creative peripherals, each episode starts from the history of the Forbidden City, ending with cultural and creative products, through the Forbidden City cultural and creative products to trace the historical and cultural elements, so that the Forbidden City culture is brought home by more young people, to achieve the integration of history into the present, let art into life. In addition, under the background of the current integration of culture and tourism, the driving effect of cultural and cultural variety shows on museums and cultural scenic spots is becoming more and more obvious, and "cultural and expo programs + tourism promotion" has also become a new direction for the innovation of cultural and cultural variety shows. Taking the Cultural Expo Exploration Experience Program "I Love Museum" as an example, through the form of museum recommenders and recorders leading the audience to visit different museums, some niche museums have entered the audience's field of vision. After the broadcast, there are primary and secondary schools and enterprises and institutions to contact the column group, hoping to follow the column group to "punch in" the museum. Similarly, after the broadcast of "Meet the Temple of Heaven", the content of the program has been on Weibo hot search many times, which has enhanced the awareness of the Temple of Heaven as a world cultural heritage and a national key cultural relics protection unit among young people.

Finally, innovate the way of communication. The widespread use of the Internet has brought society into the era of integrated media, and it has also brought great changes to the way TELEVISION programs are disseminated. The new era of cultural and blog variety shows fully conform to the trend of the times, adopt the discourse expression methods that young people like to hear, and pay attention to the publicity of the network platform, and link up with social media platforms such as online media apps, various public accounts, mainstream video websites, Weibo, and Douyin to form a powerful multi-level communication matrix to optimize the communication effect. For example, "If the National Treasure Can Talk" uses a short duration of 5 minutes, which is in line with the characteristics of "short, flat and fast" in the Internet dissemination, and is more suitable for the viewing habits of young people, and the first season of Douban score is as high as 9.4 points. In terms of integrating communication resources, after "If National Treasures Could Talk" was broadcast on the CCTV documentary channel, posters with traditional charm and online fun were also released on social platforms such as Weibo, attracting a lot of attention with the "contrast" of national treasures. In the context of new media, the audience no longer passively and unilaterally receives information, but also can express their views through multiple platforms and make secondary creations to increase the popularity of the program. For example, "National Treasure" landed on the Bilibili website, the number of bullet screens showed a blowout trend, and there was a phenomenon of netizens spontaneously producing English subtitles to spread.

(The author is Wang Shuo, lecturer at the School of Arts, Shandong Institute of Management)

Source: China Culture Daily