Recently, the domestic family drama "Little Couple" has been broadcast on CCTV 8. The story is adapted from the novel "Stay-at-Home Dad" by writer and self-media person Mao Li, and the prototype is her husband Xiao Chen.
According to the book, Maori and Xiao Chen had an agreement a long time ago: whoever succeeds first in the future will go home to take care of the children. The opportunity to fulfill the promise was the successful operation of Maoli self-media, and the novel sold the copyright at a high price, earning more than one million yuan.
As a result, Xiao Chen became a full-time father, and Maori began to serialize her husband's work report on the official account every week.
In the play, the mother-in-law originally resolutely opposed Zhou Quan (played by Guo Jingfei) being a full-time father, worried that the family would lose its financial support, and asked her daughter, "Do you just rely on your manuscript fee?" So Che Li (played by Yin Tao) showed her the royalty contract of her novel, and the amount was "more than Zhou Quan's salary for half a year". Her official account is also constantly receiving advertisements, and a soft article can earn 100,000 yuan.
In addition to the discussion of the identity of "stay-at-home dad", "Little Couple" also brought "self-media people" to the center of the stage. Che Li has transformed from a stay-at-home mother to an Internet celebrity parenting blogger, which perfectly meets the public's imagination of wealth creation.
People have long embraced this narrative, and the wealth benefits brought by the success of self-media entrepreneurship are enough to subvert the identity structure of a family.
As a new profession born in the era of mobile Internet, self-media people are appearing more and more in film and television works. The public image presented by self-media people and the public's perception of it are also constantly changing.
From the early tool people, to the traffic manipulators with negative images, to the myths of wealth creation that have been incorporated into the mainstream, self-media people have quietly completed the "triple jump" of image.
Drama tool man
Before the flood of self-media, the image of reporters in traditional media has long been reduced to "tool people" in film and television works.
One of the most common shots in domestic dramas used to be when the protagonist was caught in a public opinion turmoil, and reporters flocked to it with cameras and microphones.
Regardless of whether the incident really attracts so much attention in real life, the journalist community only acts as a concrete pressure of public opinion, adding fuel to the fire when the protagonist encounters a dilemma, and when the incident is in a dilemma.
In "Search" directed by Chen Kaige in 2012, the heroine did not give up her seat to the elderly on the bus, and after being hyped and amplified by TV reporters, she became the target of online violence, which then caused a series of accidents.
Later, the self-media just took over the pot that was originally carried by the reporters.
In 2023, in "Keep You Safe" directed by Dapeng, the initiator of online violence has become self-media.
Unsolicited and unverified rumours led to the stigmatization of the girl after her death. The follow-up process of finding out the truth is also a personal follow-up, together with interviews and investigations from the media. Traditional media such as television and newspapers are completely invisible, and even in turn they are gaining popularity.
Compared with traditional media, most of the self-media with a low threshold have problems such as unclear sources and non-compliant operation methods, and it is easier to ridicule. The "nonsense" in the investigation process can enhance the drama, and the "unprofessional" can be regarded as excusable, which greatly reduces the difficulty of screenwriting. In addition, the scope of the attack is wide enough, and there is no need to worry about referring to any specific media outlets.
When we are the "wicked" in the media, it is a better safety card. In dramas involving anti-gang, officialdom, ecological governance and other themes, self-media can act as the "protective color" of traditional media.
A typical example is the environmental protection drama "The River is Sunrise".
In the early publicity, Suna (played by Guo Xiaoting) was originally set to be a professional reporter and news program host, but after the series started, she suddenly "transformed" into an environmental protection self-media blogger. But the role in the play is completely shaped according to the role of traditional media, which makes many of Suna's behaviors seem awkward and embarrassing, because self-media bloggers actually do not have the qualifications to interview and report current political news.
In the suspense drama "The Disappeared Eleventh Floor", a self-media person can hold a camera to chase the police in the mountains and forests to arrest people, can observe every step of the police's plan during the operation, and even question the deputy director of the Public Security Bureau after going down the mountain.
This qualification must be at least an officially accredited institutional media.
and in the anti-crime drama "Sweeping the Black Storm", Huang Xi, played by Jiang Shuying, pretended to be a woman who had lost her footing, sneaked into the Phoenix Nightclub, and investigated the evidence of the crime. At a critical moment, the TV station stopped broadcasting her news program. So she resigned angrily and exposed all the investigative reports on the public account she opened, which caused a strong response from the society.
But in reality, this is not only to be noticed by the authorities, but more likely to be seized and held accountable, which is completely impossible.
This kind of role, whether it is the original traditional media, or the self-media that later acted as a "replacement" or "protective color", has not jumped out of the tool man template, and only exists as a green leaf or even a background board. The function is clearly directed, and it is a necessary catalyst to promote the actions of the protagonist and promote the development of the plot.
Flow control hand
We-media is closely related to traffic, and the portrayal of self-media often contains reflection on traffic.
Compared with the "tool man" decorated with green leaves, this kind of film and television works push self-media people to the center of the stage.
For example, the tenth episode of "Broken Things Elite", "All for Traffic", depicts the editor-in-chief of a head self-media account who is well versed in traffic passwords.
The many eye-catching routines he dismantled on the public account are indeed very effective for the dissemination of articles; But at the same time, it also exposes its own "ugly appearance" when manipulating traffic: using positive and negative arguments to harvest two waves of traffic and cater to readers for extreme narratives.
In the Internet era, traffic is king. Chasing traffic is not only a professional instinct of self-media people, but also easy to fall into a moral paradox.
The narrative of this dilemma is closer to the writing of workplace dramas, and it is necessary to show more ways and processes of self-media operations.
In the face of the general trend of declining magazine sales, traditional media have also had to carry out new media transformation to regain a place in the era of traffic.
In the throes of business bottlenecks, can the principle of content be king? How many points are left of the journalistic ideal? How to find a balance between creation, customers, and readers is an urgent problem to be solved on the road to the survival of print media.
More and more young people are also entering the popular career track of self-media.
In "Youth Pie 2", Lin Miaomiao, starring Zhao Jinmai, is a young man who entered the self-media group after graduating from college.
At first, the direction of topic selection and operation space of self-media freedom had a positive impact. It is not easy for her to film the work of the delivery workers, and after the video was launched, the complaint rate of the local delivery workers was greatly reduced. She reported on the palliative care of terminal cancer patients, and also brought more social forces to the attention of terminally ill groups.
But traffic can also bring backlash. After Lin Miaomiao's video went viral, a large number of media reporters and video bloggers followed suit, affecting the normal operation of the palliative care hospital. Lin Miaomiao's boyfriend suffers from depression, and without his permission, the company made a big fuss and created a topic. Lin Miaomiao also strayed into the emotional entanglement of her friends, and was treated as a "little three" and was subjected to cyberbullying.
Those who manipulate traffic can also be caught up in the traffic storm and become part of the farce.
The movie "Hot Search" directed by Xin Yukun directly discusses the manipulation of public opinion by the media with the title of "How to Create Hot Searches".
Chen Miao, the editor-in-chief of self-media played by Zhou Dongyu, weaved a popular article with "campus bullying" as a gimmick based on a small video of pinching the head and removing the tail. In fact, the "bully" in the incident was the victim, and after the outbreak of public opinion, the person involved jumped off the building and committed suicide.
After learning the truth, Chen Miao decided to rehabilitate the girl, and dug up a bigger case of sexual assault of female students by a big guy behind it. Ironically, the group's public relations that tries to cover up the truth uses Chen Miao's set of "new media rules". used maliciously edited audio clips to smear girls, and dug up Chen Miao's family background for personal attacks.
In the new media era of flow-only theory, it is not the truth itself that is convincing, but the way of storytelling.
Whoever is better at mobilizing public opinion will have the right to speak. The two factions of self-media are in line with the big number of magic, and one "reversal of the case" a day, treating the onlookers as monkeys. The focus of the incident has become increasingly blurred.
Based on the criticism of the topic, this kind of self-media image is fuller and three-dimensional, with a strong internal conflict. Moreover, self-media people come with characteristics such as being good at expression, strong opinions, and sensitivity, and their images will be more distinct.
Create a new myth of wealth
Whether it is a tool person with a single function or an industry focus with a curious nature, they are still making a fuss in the category of "media".
The self-media people in film and television works have developed into the third form, further separated from the "media", and appeared in a more popular, diverse, and everyday image.
In the domestic emotional drama "Love is Delicious", the sweet-looking Fang Xin (played by Zhang Hanyun) is the anchor with goods.
In the youth film "Midsummer Future", also directed by Chen Zhengdao, high school student Zheng Yuxing (played by Wu Lei) is already a short video celebrity.
In this year's summer movie "Welcome to Me", the heroine Feng Jiannan (played by Wang Yinglu) is also a food blogger with millions of fans.
Yang Dashan (played by Wu Jiakai), the delivery man in "Retrograde Life", also has his own live broadcast account in addition to delivering takeaways.
As a regular profession, self-media has been widely accepted by the mainstream of society, and its national nature has also been widely recognized.
In the domestic drama "8090", which focuses on pension issues, the grandmother Hu Meng (played by Yang Qing) has also become a well-known Internet celebrity with her opera skills.
The "self-media" and "Internet celebrities" in these works only exist as the identity and occupation of the protagonists, which are ordinary and no longer the focus of discussion.
However, there are still obvious stereotypes about the shaping of this kind of image, and a common label is "wealth myth".
For example, Che Li in "Little Couple" is very in line with the self-media success in the eyes of the public: a full-time mother, by taking time out of taking care of her family to write an official account, sharing parenting experience and daily life, and then one day suddenly like to mention explosive articles, become famous overnight, and quickly accumulate wealth that is difficult for workers to achieve.
The recently concluded "Just in Time" also has a similar structure. Xu Mengan (played by Qin Hailu) is the director of operations of a new media company, an excellent strong woman, her husband was laid off in middle age, and she returned to the family to become a "cook".
In the May 1st box office champion "Spending Money at the End of the Road", Sha Baihu played by Xiao Shenyang is also a "soft eater", and his wife Liu Shasha (played by Yoko Rame) is a big Internet celebrity with strong economic strength, for the whole family to live in a luxury house and drive a luxury car.
In this type of narrative, self-media appears in the successful completion tense, and wealth seems to come easily. This is a new wealth creation myth that belongs exclusively to the media age, and the protagonist uses new media means to achieve a class jump.
Interestingly, most of these successful characters because of self-media are women. Because the working hours of self-media are flexible and flexible, and they are not limited by workstations, new media is the most suitable choice for a middle-aged woman who is married and has children to have a reasonable and successful career.
The wealth-making attributes of self-media are common to all ages, so they can also be placed on women of all ages.
Male characters often need to follow the social clock to have a "down-to-earth" job, and then the screenwriter moves out of the "big factory layoffs" when they are facing a midlife crisis.
The factors faced by women in the workplace are more complex and more difficult to be logical and self-consistent, and the "self-media" with luck can save a lot of trouble in setting. This is also essentially a kind of laziness in the play.
Moreover, the "strong output" attribute of self-media makes it easier to create an independent heroine image of "frequent golden sentences" and "sober speech". Che Li in "Little Couple", and her friend Meng Fei (played by Qi Xi), who helps Che Li run the official account and novels, are highly in line with this image.
epilogue
The new examination of self-media and public opinion in film and television works has distinctive characteristics of the times. The change in the image of self-media people in film and television dramas is also a change in the public's attitude towards the self-media industry, from onlookers to wanting to join it.
At the beginning of the rise of new media, many of the first batch of head self-media accounts had the roots of traditional media. Paper media reporters and elites from all walks of life have invested in the wave of self-media entrepreneurship. Now after the big waves, this group of people is still the mainstay.
In the early days, the public's perception of "self-media" will still be highly related to "media". Most of the reflections on traffic are also based on the observation of the professional ethics of journalism and the changes in the public opinion environment.
However, with the vigorous development of short videos, the elite attributes and creative barriers of self-media have been further broken down and pushed to the level of national carnival. Anyone at any age can be parachuted to the top of traffic with a 30-second abstract video, and no one can explain why.
The mainstream acceptance of self-media has been further improved, so that the identity of self-media in film and television dramas can be widely accepted without additional criticism.
Of course, the "triple jump" of self-media images is both progressive and coexists in stages. The expansion of the community coverage of self-media does not dissolve its internal complexity.
Therefore, when the plot needs it, the self-media can still be "used as a gunman" and "be a backstabber"; Public problems such as the manipulation of public opinion, the spread of rumors and vicious incidents, online violence, and doxing still exist in social incidents, and the self-media that fuels the flames in them cannot escape the blame.
However, film and television works have not yet achieved the "disenchantment" of self-media. In the endless "myth of wealth creation", self-media is still a wealth mine that everyone is eager to see, and it is a class springboard that may complete the overnight rich.
In the logic of success that advocates materialism, self-media influencers are essentially a star narrative with more fierce competition and a higher elimination rate, and only a few people at the top of the pyramid will be written, and no one cares about survivor bias.
[Text/Brynn]