A Study On The Power Relation In Chinese Job-seeking Reality Shows From The Perspective Of Turn-taking

A reality show is a genre of television program that casts ordinary people rather than professionally trained actors. In such a case, people are followed in a situation with certain rules to complete a performance and show the true selves. The new television program has dominated the global television screen and become the most competitive rating-contender since the20th century. Only you is a grand job-seeking reality show launched by Tianjin Television in October,2000. In each episode, a boss team composed of12company executives will interview four job-hunters.The thesis makes an overall summary of the development of job-seeking reality shows and gives a brief introduction of relevant researches on such kind of programs. The study selects six episodes of Only You as its data resource and employs both qualitative and quantitative analysis as its research methods. From the perspective of turn-taking, the thesis tries to study the power relation reflected in the interaction between the boss team and the interviewees. The thesis has three research questions: firstly, to analyze the characteristics of turn-taking in Only You; secondly, to study the differences in the use of turn-taking strategies between IRs and IEs; thirdly, to explore the power relation reflected in the above characteristics and differences.The research results show that in the respect of turn-construction, the boss team have more turns, while the turns of the interviewees are longer than those of the boss team; as for turn-allocation, either the interviewers allocate the turn to an interviewee or the interviewers self-select to get a turn; in terms of turn-taking strategies, the boss team use turn-claiming and turn-yielding more frequently, while the interviewees tend to use turn-holding; and the above characteristics and differences reveals the disparity in position between the two sides----the boss team is the one holding power. They control the whole conversation process of the program, decide how the interviewees should behave and make comments on their performance. The unbalanced power relation can be explained by the interactional goal of the program and the social identities of the participants.The thesis aims to reveal the power relations in job-seeking reality shows in the expectation of enriching and developing the relevant researches as well as providing certain guidance for both parties involved in the program, which will be helpful in promoting a more harmonious and effective communication between the two sides.