Information Dissemination In Population Flow In Western Desertification Area

With the access to mass media and new media technology in rural society, rural communication mode has changed from the original mouth-to-mouth to the modern electronic communication. While China has been undergoing rapid social transformation, this access would inevitably lead to tremendous changes, of which the most obvious one is the frequent movement of the population, In the remote area of northwest China, especially those characterized with desertification, what role has television-the most popularized modern medium played in this process? How did people communicated with each other while moving? What influences have such migration created to village development? These questions concerned with "localization" of communication are worth studying.An ethnographic method is employed which emphasizes participant observation and in-depth interview. An investigation is conducted concerning a Han community called Huanghui in Minqin County of northwest China. This study attempts to describe and identify the information communication factors of population migration in this northwest desertified village, including the mass media and interpersonal communication channels. The study intends to analyze the relationship between population shift and communication, and the influence of media had on environment protection.The findings of this study suggest that TV has laid the psychological foundation for rural population migration, and helped with the elimination of the sense of insecurity and alienation. Interpersonal communication remains the major communication approach. Furthermore, new media such as smart-phone and internet affect the daily communication of rural population as well. Consequently, the interpersonal communication begins to integrate with new media. TV, served as one of the ideological machine, failed to play a full role in the process of ecological immigration. Those ecological immigrants showed negative tendency towards media utilization and as a result, TV is acting as an "electronic nanny" in this area.