Factors influencing the popularity of variety shows in the all-

media era and countermeasures

By
Juan Li
Ph.D, Ph.D, Candidate, Arts Performance Communication, School of Liberal Arts,
Shinawatra University
Email: [email protected]

Dr. Manoon Tho-ard

Asst. Prof. Dr., School of Liberal Arts, Shinawatra University
Email: [email protected]

Abstract
The article discusses the psychological mechanism of the audience behavior of popular
all-media variety shows, tries to put forward the problems and room for improvement of the
current popular all-media variety shows from the perspective of program ontology and
audience, and puts forward some suggestions for the development of popular all-media variety
shows. In general, All-media variety shows should pay attention to the following aspects:
meeting the diversified needs of the audience by subdividing content; improving content
quality and innovating content forms; strengthening scientific and technological empowerment
in an all-round way; innovating the all-media business model; optimizing community
operations by maintaining in-depth interaction; and by strengthening platform management.
Optimize platform performance. These suggestions provide a new perspective for future
research on the audience of cultural products in the all-media era.

Keywords: All Media Variety Show, Psychological Mechanism ,Communication Psychology

,Digital Media Platform

Introduction
Since the beginning of the 21st century, the media form has undergone unprecedented
changes. Different from last century when the three major media forms of paper media, radio
and television were in the dominant position for a long time。In the past, it was basically a
luxury stage, A-lister participation, and several months of recording. , Now it is accompanied
by the differentiation of users' attention and the "reducing costs and increasing benefits" in
the public opinion environment that makes creators more cautious, whether the variety shows
are popular or not, And its number of plays, top trending topics, etc., have become the key
factors for success or failure, which is relying on the support of all-media forms. China's
variety shows have developed rapidly in recent years, which not only affects people's cultural
life, but also promotes the development of the tertiary industry and produces a large-scale
industrial chain cluster. If the broadcast of variety shows does not take into account changes
in the all-media structure, it will inevitably cause a huge loss of human capital and economic
costs for producers and investors. Therefore, it has become the most urgent proposition at
present to realize the integration of variety shows and new media platforms, innovate
program forms, strengthen their own brand construction, and complete their own
transformation to achieve the long-term development of ecological balance of all-media
variety shows.

Published/ publié in Res Militaris (resmilitaris.net), vol.12, n°6, Winter 2022

The concept of all-media and its impact on traditional media
What is all-media?
At present, scholars have discussed many aspects of all-media. In the process of
continuous discussion and definition, the concept of all-media has gradually developed
dynamically. The concept of all-media has been put forward very early (English) Generally
speaking, "all-media" refers to the use of text, sound, image, animation, web pages and other
media expression means (multimedia), radio, television, audio-visual, film, publishing,
newspapers, magazines, websites and other different media forms (media integration). ),
through radio and television networks, telecommunications networks and Internet networks
(three-network integration), users can finally complete the integration and reception of
information (three-screen integration) through TV, computer, mobile phone and other
terminals, so that anyone, at any time, at any place, and at any terminal. 【 Source: Radio and
Television Technology No. 4, 2010 56-56, 58-62】. From this technical perspective, some
researchers believe that all media is a multi-characteristic electronic communication media
group based on wireless communication technology and computer processing technology,
including mobile phone and Internet media and mobile media (Xue Feng, 2014, pp. 105-107).
All media mainly has the characteristics of integration, diversity, systematization and other
aspects. The so-called integration means that the nature of all-media does not refer to the simple
superposition of different media, let alone the complete replacement between the media, but
the organic integration of the respective characteristics of different media, so as to achieve the
overall effect of performance "1+1>2". Diversity means that there is no fixed form of all media.
Systemic refers to all media in function.

The impact of all media on the development of traditional media

Since this century, with the challenges and opportunities brought about by the
development of the Internet, all-media has become a development trend, which is bound to
have a great impact on traditional media, which are mainly manifested in two aspects:

First, all media compresses the living space of traditional media.

All media has strong information search and integration capabilities, especially
breaking the gap between different media, thus providing the audience with the richest possible
information, so that the audience can have the possibility and freedom of "choice", which
compresses the living space of traditional media to a certain extent. Take newspapers as an
example. In the past, many citizens used an evening newspaper as their main source of local
information, but the information in the newspaper was sent to readers by editors and journalists,
and readers had no choice. However, in today's digital and online era, people can obtain
information through digital newspapers, mobile newspapers, official accounts and other forms,
which poses a great challenge to traditional print newspapers and puts most enterprises that
make a living on paper newspaper at risk.Second, the all-media era also provides the possibility
and direction for the transformation of traditional media.All-media is not rigid, has various
forms, and its content is richer and more personalized, which also provides a future
development direction for traditional media - traditional media itself is full-media. The so-
called all-mediaization of traditional media itself mainly refers to the closeness or
transformation of traditional media to all-media from the perspective of process, industrial
chain, enterprise operation, etc. In this regard, the Research Report on the Development of
China Media All-Media released by the research group of Xinhua News Agency and Research
Institute comprehensively summarizes the current situation, trends and countermeasures of the
transformation of traditional media such as newspapers, radio and television to all-media (Liu
Guangniu, 2010, pp. 81-87).

Res Militaris, vol.12, n°6, Winter 2022 1877

All-media has promoted the further popularity of variety shows
Since the 1980s, China's mainland TV variety shows (abbreviated as variety shows) have
gone through nearly 40 years of development. The rapid change of program types and the short
cycle of rebirth and decline cannot but attract attention. Variety shows mainly use a unique
expression of TV through certain electronic technology means, such as light and shadow effects,
free conversion of time and space, etc., to skillfully integrate a variety of artistic or non-artistic
elements. The primary purpose of variety shows is to entertain the audience. The audience is the
most worth studying as the basis and foothold for examining the performance and economic
benefits of the program. Some researchers analyzed the behavior dimension of variety show
audiences from the perspective of behavior, and found that the ratings of variety shows that have
reached Nash equilibrium are high, and the difference between reality and expected TV programs
reflects the "limited behavior law" and "thumb rule" (Goettler, Shachar, 2001, pp. 624-656).

Because the audience of all-media variety shows has more space and more time to devote
to the show, on the one hand, they will have their own inspection of the quality and novel
entertainment of all-media variety shows, and on the other hand, they will also have their own
popular all-media variety shows from the perspective of their own emotional and information
needs. It is considered whether the values reached are consistent with their own values.

This means that the viewing experience of the audience of all-media variety shows will
have a great impact on the audience's viewing attitude and behavior. Not only that, during the
process of viewing, the audience also constantly rejudging the value of the show. If the audience's
needs continue to be met and get a better experience, it will affect the form of the all-media variety
show they watch. Become a habit of watching and choose to continue watching. Conversely, if the
audience feels that the quality has declined or is inconsistent with their own values and has a bad
experience, they may choose not to watch it again. Because in today's cultural life, there are other
alternative variety shows or cultural products such as movies and TV series.

From exposure to external marketing information to the completion of purchasing behavior,

consumers can be divided into four consecutive stages: attention, interest, desire and action according
to their degree of response. This is the AIDA model. (Lu Xiong wen, 2013, p. 66). It can be seen that
if you want to explore the factors that affect the audience stickiness of variety shows, you must first
consider the adoption behavior of the audience. Whether a variety show can attract audiences depends
on whether the audience adopts and approves its program content. If the audience has been watching
variety shows for a longer time and generates new perceptual benefits, continue to choose to watch
and gradually form a fixed viewing habit, this is the behavior of continuous viewing.

There are two main research perspectives on variety shows and audiences:
First, from the perspective of the audience, explore the direction of variety shows as a
whole. For example, Zhao Jing believes that the positive development of variety shows requires
the cooperation of various stakeholders in the society to actively build a social environment
that conforms to the higher aesthetic interests of the audience, and promotes that variety shows
can better play to social functions (Zhao Jing) , 2017, pp. 82-84).

Second, take a specific variety show as the research object, conduct in-depth analysis, and
combine specific communication or aesthetic theory to interpret the program text and audience
needs to a certain extent. For example, Wang Xiao min and Luo Wen chao deeply analyzed the
operation mode of the "Do you remember" program, and summarized that from the perspective of
the audience psychology, they innovated in preemptive opportunities, program style, content and
other aspects, and achieved good results (Wang Xiao min, Luo Wen chao, 2010, pp. 76-77).
Res Militaris, vol.12, n°6, Winter 2022 1878
 Foreign research on TV programs and TV audiences has actually begun very early. The
development of communication theory in the 20th century is an important field to explore the
psychology of TV audiences. In the process of research, there were two main camps, the
experiential school of communication and the critical school. The empirical school experienced
the two extreme stages of the media omnipotent period and the limited effect theory, followed
by moderate effect theory such as agenda setting theory and cultivation theory, as well as a
powerful effect theory represented by a silent spiral. The audience image in the eyes of the
critical school has gradually developed from a vulnerable group image clamped by the cultural
industry to a productive audience image that actively participates in meaning construction
(Chen Xu guang, 2010, p.24).Later, the cultural research school believes that the audience has
multiple identities, which can be the audience that actively interprets, the audience that creates
the meaning of the text, and the audience as the rebels of the preset meaning of the text. This
opens a new starting point for audience research, especially as a consumer of cultural product
content. This preset audience has three characteristics: shallow participation, infantilization and
entertainment (Wu Hong yu, 2009, p. 111).

Analysis and research on the audience of all-media variety shows

based on grounded theory
Research Objects
In order to deeply explore the audience behavior and influencing factors of the popular
all-media variety show, through in-depth and detailed interviews, the intentional sampling
method was adopted to select 18-29 years old, in the current popular all-media variety show
official faithful users with more than 20 messages and messages on the media platform or more
than 50 messages are research samples.

The determination of the number of purposeful sample samples follows the principle of
theoretical saturation, that is, until the information provided by the new sample is repeated, new
information cannot be provided, so that the theory of the study is close to the degree of saturation.
Through in-depth and detailed data collection of these 22 interviewees, it is enough to provide
the required information for this study. The specific situation of the subjects is as follows:

Number of
Index proportion
samples
male 12 55%
gender
Female 10 45%
under 18 1 5%
18-22 years old 8 36%
age
23-32 years old 10 45%
31-42 years old 3 14%
Master degree and above 6 27
education level Undergraduate 14 64
Specialist and below 2 9
Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and
11 50
place of residence Shenzhen
other cities 11 50
1 year - 2 years 2 9
2 years - 3 years 8 36
Experience
3 years - 5 years 8 36
5+ years 4 18
Res Militaris, vol.12, n°6, Winter 2022 1879
Main contents of the study
The study analyzed and summarized the 46 initial categories obtained by open coding,
and finally formed six main categories, namely cognitive needs, emotional experience, content
factors, social drivers, platform conditions and situational factors. The following shows:

relationship
typical relationship meaning
structure
Intention to use is an internal variable of
Willingness to use - behavior
causation behavior, and intention to use leads to user
of use
behavior
Cognitive needs - Individual cognitive needs can directly affect
causation
willingness to use users' willingness to use
Emotional experience - Individual emotional experience can directly
causation
willingness to use affect users' willingness to use
The content factor of variety shows will adjust
Content Factors - Intention moderating the strength and direction of the user's
to Use relationship willingness to use, and indirectly affect the
user's use behavior
Social drivers can modulate the strength of
Social Drive - Willingness to moderating
users' willingness to use, thereby affecting user
Use relationship
behavior
moderating Platform conditions can adjust the strength and
Platform Conditions -
relationship direction of users’ willingness to use, indirectly
Willingness to Use
Affect user behavior
Situational factors - performance Contextual factors cause users to behave
willingness to use relationship differently

All-media era,The audience's selection criteria for information have also changed.
Based on their original knowledge framework and emotional foundation, the audience will
have certain expectations before receiving the information, and will choose and judge the
information according to this expectation standard. The same is true for variety shows. The
audience's expectation vision for variety shows is complex, and the reasons for complexity are
also diverse. The audience not only wants to get entertainment from it, but also to get emotional
release from it, and there are new standards for judging the show. Based on the original
knowledge framework and emotional foundation, the audience will have certain expectations
for the information, and will choose and evaluate it independently, and then analyze and
interpret whether to accept it or not. In this process, autonomous initiative and creativity are
the two characteristics of audience self-selective selection and judgment.

Autonomic initiative is a state in which the audience is self-deceived and can respond
actively from the perspective of the object. It can be reflected in both consciousness and
behavior. In this process, the audience can choose and evaluate media and content. Creative
characteristics are the most important feature of audience subjectivity. This feature is also an
important criterion to test the effectiveness of the program's dissemination. Creative
characteristics show that the audience realizes pioneering and innovating from the perceived
behavior in the face of objective objects. In this process, the audience comes out of the program
and returns to real life, and can generate deeper thinking about psychological changes, such as
self-exploration or self-doubt. With the change of consciousness, the audience will explore and
innovate their behaviors according to their own ideas, and form new expectations for society
and themselves, and truly realize the change of consciousness to behavioral change.
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Conclusions of the study
According to the three-level coding process of grounded theory, this study conducts
coding analysis on interview data, forms initial concepts through open coding, extracts main
categories through spindle coding, and establishes logical relationships through selective
coding, from internal direct driving factors and external indirect influences From two aspects,
the influencing factor model of user behavior of Chinese variety shows is constructed. The
research results show that users' usage behavior includes continuous viewing behavior,
interactive discussion behavior, sharing recommendation behavior and the act of rearranging
the program. The results show that the main factors that affect audience's usage behavior
mainly include internal variables and external variables.User's cognitive needs and emotional
experience are the internal variables of user's intention to use. which positively affects the user's
willingness to use, which in turn affects the user's use behavior. Users' cognitive needs mainly
include expanding knowledge, supplementing interests, gaining experience and understanding
industry trends. Content factors, platform conditions, social drivers and situational factors are
external and indirect factors affecting the behavior of the audience. Content factors include
content quality, content duration and content proximity; social drivers include interpersonal
influence and social interaction, platform conditions include platform performance and
platform management, and situational factors include time and location attributes. Direct and
indirect factors jointly affect the use behavior of variety show users.

According to the results of this study, in general there are many similarities in the
audience's viewing behavior of the current popular all-media variety shows, but there are
certain differences in the psychological mechanism of the behavior.Several major factors such
as audience perception (reliability, ease of use, value), user needs and satisfaction (emotional
needs, information needs), and habits are affecting the behavior of the audiences of current
popular all-media variety shows.

Response principles and measures

The audience is a diverse group, and their expectations also have personality in the
commonality, and there is a commonality in thepersonality. The program group can only create
programs that they like from the perspective of the audience. Research shows that the audience
seeks personal needs in the "simulated" interpersonal relationships in the program and the
feeling of interacting with the society in the media situation, and comprehends the relationship
between self and self, self and the world. Audiences look forward to watching variety shows
that are both entertaining and aesthetically pleasing, and they must not lose the entertainment
of variety shows because they pursue "slowness" too much. Only by correctly understanding
the audience's aesthetic expectations for variety shows can we ensure that my country's variety
shows will have a long-term development path in the future. To this end, attention should be
paid to the following aspects:

Pay attention to content segmentation to meet diverse needs

The consumer research report shows that among the user groups who watch variety
shows, 86.4% of the users have a bachelor's degree or above, and 41.2% of the users have a
monthly income of more than 10,000 yuan. 68.2% of the user groups live in first-tier cities and
new first-tier cities. From these data, it can be seen that compared with other Internet media
user portraits, the audience of variety shows is obviously more "elite". Even if the audience of
variety shows is increasing, it still does not break through the circle. This also shows that
variety shows are not diversified enough. It can only meet the needs of existing users and
cannot attract more users. In view of these aspects, variety show creators should subdivide the

Res Militaris, vol.12, n°6, Winter 2022 1881

content. By subdividing the existing content, clarify the current popular demand, and produce
relatively weak content types to meet the needs of a wider range of users. For more users, it
will produce more entertaining and down-to-earth content, provide more refined and vertical
content, and focus on the knowledge and service of the content. Meet the diverse and
personalized needs of the audience.

Innovate business models and expand market scope

At present, the profit model of variety shows is relatively simple. The main profit
method is realized in the form of commercial advertisements. Variety advertisements can be
roughly divided into two types. One is the advertisement patch and oral broadcast, that is, the
oral advertisement is broadcast at the beginning or middle of the program. It is customized for
the entire program, and the content is customized according to the core theme that the company
wants to express. At present, more and more brands are advertising in variety shows, and some
brands use variety shows as a form of media matrix to transmit information and build brand
images. Some leading variety shows have tried another monetization model, which is to export
their own program production capabilities to plan and produce programs for brands. At present,
the middle and tail programs can only maintain operations through user rewards or livingstream
market。It is necessary for Chinese variety shows to explore more monetization models and
expand the market scope. First of all, it is necessary to innovate profit models, such as
developing a monetization path for content payment. As people pay more attention to
knowledge and copyright, the investment in spiritual and cultural consumption will be higher
and higher. Secondly, in the process of commercialization, it is necessary to establish a mature
advertising agency mechanism. By reaching a cooperation mechanism with the corresponding
advertising agency, with the help of the advertising agency's influence in the market, it can
help variety shows build a mature business model.

In addition, the advertising model of variety shows should be developed in the direction
of programming and automation, and explore quantifiable solutions for variety shows. Due to
the particularity of videos, it is very difficult for advertisers to intelligently and content-related
positioning of variety shows. Well-known Internet information in the United States Statistics
company Comscore and video advertising technology company Adswizz teamed up to launch
variety show solution Podscribe to solve this problem. Podscribe uses the best transcription
technology of its kind to convert the video content of variety shows into text content, making
the content more transparent and checkable.

Optimize community operations and maintain deep interaction

Social interaction is of great significance for enhancing audience stickiness and
cultivating loyal audiences. Some researchers have compared variety shows to a digital video
version of a cultural salon. Variety plays the role of social adhesive and thought catalysts. On
the basis of allowing the audience to bystand, they expand a small family living room to an
unlimited number of people. The lecture hall, and the comment area has become a sub-large
salon composed of spectators. This elimination of the boundary between privacy and the public
brings together private views into public discourse and flows to the audience. In the process of
joint discussion and sharing, the process of self-identification and group identity has been
completed.

Therefore, the Chinese variety show platform must first provide a comment function to
promote long-term and deep connection and interaction between the anchor, the audience and
the variety show platform, as well as between the audience and the audience. Improved the
way of user comments. A like progress bar is set on the playback page. The audience can tell
at a glance which time period is the most liked in a program. Secondly, the timestamp of the
Res Militaris, vol.12, n°6, Winter 2022 1882
comment area has been added, and users can mark a specific segment. Timestamp and
comment. The anchor point of this timeline is an important visual coordinate for the audience,
which increases the probability of interaction with the same fans. In addition, the platform will
smoothly arrange the comments according to the time stamp, so that the audience can quickly
find the group that resonates with the feelings. Audience community activated.

Breaking the Variety Show Barriers: Multimedia Dissemination from All Perspectives
Under the impact of the Internet tide, traditional TV media began to lose some young
audience groups. When audiences make media contact choices due to their personal needs and
motivations, they often choose Internet media first, and TV media gradually withdraw from
the priority value sequence of media contact in the minds of audiences. . Under such an era
background, music variety shows born in the TV media should make effective decisions, and
"idol development" is one of the decisions made to comply with this media integration trend.
The concept of " Taiwan Network Integration" allows a program to give full play to the
advantages of multiple media and learn from others' strengths.In the future development
process of variety shows, we should also take advantage of media integration to synthesize the
functional attributes of different media platforms,let the source of program information
dissemination form an information "central kitchen", maximize the dissemination effect of the
program, and break the time and space. To achieve all-weather information coverage, let the
"cultivation department" program take the initiative to spread in the field of all media. In
addition, we should also make full use of the advanced technology of the current media
integration platform to develop the innovation potential of the majority of we-media users,
speed up the pace of media integration and the process of program content reform, so that
program promotion and promotion can be targeted, and realize the multi-polarity of the same
content. optimization of the propagation.

Use and Satisfaction" Innovation Empowerment: Immersive Viewing Experience

With the rapid development of science and technology, the function of media has
gradually changed from the initial information dissemination to a "quality" life experience. The
video playback platform no longer regards the transmission of information as the only function
of the product, but through the innovation of media technology, develops a media fusion type
Immersive viewing experience, this innovation will optimize the audience's viewing
experience of idol variety shows. According to the arguments in the previous chapters, the
theory of use and satisfaction has been fully confirmed in idol variety shows. The audience of
current idol variety shows no longer passively accept information, but actively select
information that can meet their personal needs and motivations.To sum up, the diversification
of program dissemination is the right choice under the background of media integration. The
evolution of product functions will eventually make the audience's viewing experience more
real and immersive, as if they are in the scene of idol performances, which is conducive to
strengthening idols to a certain extent. The dissemination of variety shows is also a new
technological direction for the localization of idol variety shows.

Pay attention to the sense of experience and skillfully handle advertising placement
From a certain point of view, the dissemination of advertising is also a cultural activity.
The similarity between the content of advertising dissemination and the audience is a cultural
identity, which includes values, behavior patterns and so on. The higher the identity, the closer
the heart-to-heart distance between the same audience, and the better the communication effect
of advertisements and even programs. Therefore, the importance of advertising cannot be
ignored in slow variety shows. Although the concept of sponsors and program groups trying to
achieve mutual benefit and win-win through advertisement placement has been known by the
audience, slow variety shows still need to pay attention to the audience's sense of experience.
Res Militaris, vol.12, n°6, Winter 2022 1883
How to establish emotional connection with the audience through rational propaganda is the
current slow variety show needs to solve question.

Create a new program model based on local characteristics

If we want to achieve long-term development, model innovation is an inevitable trend.
The introduction model will not only be limited in terms of policy, but also will be affected to
a certain extent in terms of audience acceptance. For China's variety show industry, how to
localize the excellent foreign program paradigms is a major focus and a difficulty.Variety
shows must always adhere to their original development intentions, adhere to the creative idea
of integrating mature humanistic feelings and peaceful lifestyles, and integrate traditional
cultural values with realistic attitudes to life, so as to provide more meaningful program content
for the audience, and help them build fun while meeting the audience's aesthetic expectations.
View and positive attitude parttowards life. Variety shows need to keep in mind their mission
of dissemination. The value of their programs should not only be reflected in market interests,
but also reflected in the external communication of domestic living habits, customs, regional
characteristics and other cultural phenomena. On the road of future development, variety shows
should always pay attention to the changes in the audience's aesthetic expectations, and strive
to meet the audience's expectations. In terms of program content, it is necessary to closely
integrate local characteristics, identify the program market positioning, and enhance the
humanistic connotation of the program. , a stable development path.

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