Research on Multimodality of Mainstream Political News Video in

China Based on ELAN: Take the News Broadcast and Anchor Talk

Broadcast Columns of China Media Group as Examples

Yushan Liu

and Xiao Rao

Broadcasting and Anchoring School, Communication University of China, Beijing, China

Keywords: Elan, Multimodal Analysis, News Broadcast from CCTV Anchors, CCTV News.

Abstract: On January 1st, 1978, the program CCTV News was officially launched. Since its launch, the program has

been regarded as the most authoritative TV news program with information and media influence in China.

Although the news network has undergone several major revisions over the past 40 years, it has not changed

the core positioning of its programs. In order to adapt to the integrated media environment, the CCTV News

column has derived the News Broadcast from CCTV Anchors column while maintaining the original pro-

gram pattern unchanged. With the help of Elan (6.3), this paper puts forward a multimodal research path of

current political news video and short video, and makes an in-depth comparative analysis of the characteris-

tics of CCTV News and News Broadcast from CCTV Anchors.

1 INTRODUCTION

On January 1st, 1978, the program CCTV News was

officially launched. Since its launch, the program

has been regarded as the most authoritative TV news

program with information and media influence in

China. In order to adapt to the development of the

times, on July 29th, 2019, the column group derived

the column News Broadcast from CCTV Anchors

from the program CCTV News for news communi-

cation in the new media environment. Once the col-

umn was launched, it attracted the attention of many

audiences on the Internet and triggered extensive

discussion in academia and industry. The advent of

video products derived from CCTV News and other

programs based on CCTV News in the integrated

media environment is an important milestone in the

continuous reform process of CCTV News in the

decades since its birth. It can also be said to be a

successful and very leapfrog attempt. With the help

of Elan (6.3), this paper puts forward a multimodal

research path of current political news video and

short video, makes an in-depth comparative analysis

of the characteristics of CCTV News and News

Broadcast from CCTV Anchors, and interprets the

multimodal call characteristics of financial media

news short video, in order to enlighten the upgrading

and development of traditional media.

2 REVIEW OF RESEARCH

BACKGROUND

On New Year's day in 1978, based on the News

Bulletin and TV news, CCTV launched the CCTV

News program against the background of the CPC's

improving the quality of publicity. It has become the

most watched, watched and influential news pro-

gram in the world. (Mohan J, 2004) Since its official

launch, the program has been regarded as the TV

news program with almost the most authoritative

information and media influence in China. As the

mouthpiece of the Communist Party of China and

the government, it shoulders the important mission

of Journalism and communication under the socialist

system with Chinese characteristics. It has already

surpassed the scope of ordinary TV news in many

aspects, such as core positioning, production meth-

ods, and content, and more embodies the signifi-

cance of symbolic and ritual colors with the meta-

phorical significance of the national image, In recent

decades, it has played a mainstay role in China's

journalism and propaganda.

Looking at the torrent of media development in

the past few decades, over the past 44 years, CCTV

News has undergone countless modifications and

major revisions. The timeliness of its communica-

tion content is also increasing, and the content of its

Liu, Y. and Rao, X.

Research on Multimodality of Mainstream Political News Video in China Based on ELAN: Take the News Broadcast and Anchor Talk Broadcast Columns of China Media Group as Examples.

DOI: 10.5220/0011911000003613

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on New Media Development and Modernized Education (NMDME 2022), pages 301-307

ISBN: 978-989-758-630-9

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

301

report has become more and more diversified. With-

in the limited program duration, the depth and

breadth of the report of specific news have also con-

tinued to improve. Nevertheless, for a long time,

concept words such as "politics", "authority" and

"propaganda" seem to have been expressing the

audience's understanding of the CCTV News col-

umn. In recent years, the media environment has

changed rapidly. The inherent advantages of tradi-

tional media operated in traditional ways have been

seriously affected, and TV, radio, newspapers, mag-

azines and other media have been strongly impacted.

In today's media environment, it is almost impossi-

ble for the CCTV News column to regain the privi-

lege and decision advantage of starting major events

in 1982. Various media forms with higher timeliness

and interactivity are trying to gradually replace the

status of "the country's fastest chief press spokes-

man" of CCTV News. In the long-term practice of

news communication, journalists have gradually

realized that too strong propaganda color is not only

contrary to the law of communication, but also grad-

ually incompatible with the demand for the functions

of news products brought about by the changes of

social structure and international environment.

(Hiippala 2012) For a long time, CCTV News has

been constantly hovering and pulling between the

core positioning of the program and the audience,

but it has not achieved breakthrough and landmark

results.

It is imperative to change and conform to the de-

velopment trend of media. Many scholars believe

that as a ritual function of conveying national ideol-

ogy and strengthening national identity, news net-

work is the foundation of the program. Therefore, in

the process of many revisions of the CCTV News

column, although many major changes have taken

place in its program positioning, procedures, dis-

course form and picture design, its core positioning

cannot be significantly changed. Zhou Yong and

Huang Yalan made a comprehensive and systematic

analysis of the evolution history of CCTV News in

the article "news broadcast: the return of media in-

formation to political ceremonies", and believed

that: Although the CCTV News column has made

great efforts to improve the "newsworthiness", the

CCTV News has not fundamentally changed the

communication mode to the direction of "news char-

acteristics". And this paper systematically disassem-

bles the symbolic system of CCTV News, and

comes to the conclusion that CCTV News constructs

the viewing mode of TV viewers with a repetitive

language and image symbols, as well as the under-

standing of CCTV News itself and the country. In

the article "sample analysis and research of news

broadcast", Zhou Xiaopu and Xu Fujian analyzed

the content and samples of CCTV News and con-

cluded that CCTV News has a good brand image in

China and has played an important role in publiciz-

ing the party's principles and policies, national direc-

tives, guiding public opinion, disseminating infor-

mation, etc., but at the same time, the use of written

language is often contrary to the language require-

ments of listeners who are accustomed to "listening",

The conclusion that the amount of picture infor-

mation is small, and monotony is caused by continu-

ous simple repetition. On the other hand, with the

prosperity and development of new media and many

other media, the audience who turn on the TV on

time at 19:00 every night and watch CCTV News on

time on the CCTV channel is becoming less and

less, which is a true portrayal of the impact and limi-

tations of traditional TV media. Indeed, the use of

news content in traditional and new media reflect

complementarity in media consumption. The search

for news information in a specific content area

drives the consumption of specific news types across

different media outlets and categories. (Zhou,

Huang, 2015)

Compared with TV media, audiences

are more willing to spend time on platforms such as

Tiktok, Weibo, wechat official account, etc. This is

because the use of news content in traditional media

and new media reflects the complementarity in me-

dia consumption. According to the development

trend of media, News Broadcast from CCTV An-

chors accurately hits the acceptance habits and

methods of the current audience, and operates on

major new media and social media platforms. These

are the reasons why for a long time, the revision of

newscast cannot fully adapt to the new media envi-

ronment and easily change the core positioning of

the program, but at the same time, it is difficult to

integrate the new media environment.

In 2019, China Media Group also complied with

the trend, faced up to the media development in

today's profound and rapid changes in the media,

and carried out a series of drastic innovations and

reforms according to the current situation of the

industry, so as to enhance the influence of China

Media Group as China's national mainstream media.

Therefore, the News Broadcast from CCTV Anchors

and its News Simulcast + concept product derived

from the program CCTV News came into being.

Produced in the form of a vertical screen short vid-

eo, News Broadcast from CCTV Anchors combines

current events that are widely concerned by the soci-

ety or comments on important news in news Simul-

cast, and it is a new media product released on many

NMDME 2022 - The International Conference on New Media Development and Modernized Education

302

official new media platforms of CCTV news. Since

its launch, the works of News Broadcast from CCTV

Anchors have frequently been on the hot search,

making the voice of the mainstream media recog-

nized and accepted by more audiences through new

media channels, opening up a new public opinion

position for news Simulcast. (Li 2020)

The emer-

gence of News Broadcast from CCTV Anchors is an

important milestone in the continuous reform pro-

cess of CCTV News in the decades since its birth. It

can also be said to be a successful and leapfrog at-

tempt. The data shows that only 24 hours after the

official Tiktok account of the column was officially

opened on August 24, 2019, the attention of this

account has reached nearly 15million fans. (Chen,

Deng, 2020)

This beautiful turnaround is a powerful

answer to the innovation of news products in the

field of new media in the face of profound changes

in the media industry.

3 THEORETICAL BASIS AND

RESEARCH DESIGN OF

MULTIMODAL ANALYSIS

3.1 Theoretical Basis of Multimodal

Analysis

Multimodal analysis refers to the technology or

method of using computer programs to analyze the

digital video stream containing audio loaded with

multimodal activities. (Gao 2021) Its theoretical

basis is systemic functional linguistics. Language is

a social symbol and meaning interpretation. Other

symbol systems other than language also have the

function of expressing meaning. (Gu 2007) Multi-

modal analysis is based on systemic functional lin-

guistics and social semiotics of Halliday, a Sydney

school, and visual grammar of Kress & Van Leeu-

wen. (Zhu 2007) Domestic research mainly intro-

duces the theoretical framework of multimodal dis-

course, involving the application analysis of adver-

tising, news, film and television, etc. (Zhang 2009)

When introducing the core theoretical concept of

multimodality, Jewitt described the general charac-

teristics of this field as follows: multimodality de-

scribes the method of understanding the characteris-

tics of communication and expression, which is not

only about language, but also pays attention to the

various forms of communication used by people -

images, gestures, gaze, posture, etc. - and the rela-

tionship between them. (Hu 2007)

There are various modal forms of discourse. For

a long time, human cognition of the world has al-

ways existed in a multimodal way. The discourse

with only one mode of communication is called

"single mode discourse", such as the radio you listen

to in your hand or the letter you read. If more than

two modes are used, such discourse is called "mul-

timodal discourse". For example, students need to

listen with their ears, look with their eyes, speak

with their mouth and type with their hands when

they are online in Tencent meetings. With the con-

tinuous development of media, human communica-

tion mode has gradually expanded from simple lan-

guage as the media to many complex media, such as

language, image, sound, color, body language and so

on. The situation that language is the only mode of

human communication has been broken with the

continuous electronization and informatization of

human communication. Because of this, multimodal

discourse analysis technology has developed very

rapidly in recent years. Multimodal analysis has

been widely used in semiotics, philosophy, journal-

ism, psychology, aesthetics and other fields. The

research object has also expanded from the original

language to the study of music, images and other

social symbol systems. (Zhou & Xu, 2002)

3.2 Theoretical Basis of Multimodal

Analysis

3.2.1 Research Object and Content

This paper intercepts 10 episodes of News Broadcast

from CCTV Anchors program and 1 episode of

CCTV News program obtained by random sampling,

and establishes a small corpus respectively. Among

them, News Broadcast from CCTV Anchors was 18

minutes and 47 seconds. The duration of CCTV

News is 30 minutes and 07 seconds.

3.2.2 Research Framework and Analysis

Tools

The "modal types" of multimodal discourse media

system can be divided into three types, namely "lan-

guage", "companion language" and "non language".

According to Zhang Delu's point of view, this paper

proposes the following multimodal analysis frame-

work combined with the characteristics of the two

programs CCTV News and News Broadcast from

CCTV Anchors.

Research on Multimodality of Mainstream Political News Video in China Based on ELAN: Take the News Broadcast and Anchor Talk

Broadcast Columns of China Media Group as Examples

303

Table 1. Multimodal analysis framework proposed in this paper

Modes at all levels Meaning Coding Meaning Coding Meaning Coding Meaning

Cod-

ing

Pure

language

Compan-

ion lan-

guage

non-

verbal

language

Pronun-

ciation

coding

Stress PS

Rising

tone

PRT Falling tone PFT Pause PP

Typeface

coding

Typeface TT Subtitle TS

Expres-

sion

coding

Smile ES1 Serious ES2 Sadness ES3 Sympathy ES4

Gesture

coding

Figurative

gesture

Metaphor-

ical ges-

tures

Deictic

gesture

Rhythmic

gesture

Emphasize

estures

Other

estures

Behavior

codin

Nod BH Shake BS Move left BL

Move

Music

coding

Music MU

Sound-

trac

Other

codin

Emoticon OM

Insert

icture

This study is based on quantitative research, sup-

plemented by qualitative research. The research tool

is elan-6.3 (EUDICO linguistics annotator-6.3) anal-

ysis software developed by Max Planck Institute of

psycholinguistics in the Netherlands. The software is

an open source annotation tool, which allows users

to independently create, edit, visualize and search

annotations of video and audio data. Users can freely

define language types and levels in ELAN, and an-

notate a series of videos. They can analyze and study

audio / video through annotation, segmentation,

transcription, synchronization and linear interleaving

modes, and can synchronously export data for fur-

ther analysis. The specific annotation process is as

follows:

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of annotation process of small corpora involved in this paper

NMDME 2022 - The International Conference on New Media Development and Modernized Education

304

4 RESULTS AND ANALYSIS OF

MULTIMODAL DATA

Based on the above multimodal analysis, the data

results of the two small corpora obtained in this

study are shown in the following table (Table 2). In

the following table, each code is ranked by the hit

times of the column of News Broadcast from CCTV

Anchors from high to low, showing the hit times,

frequency, average duration, time proportion and

recovery time data of each mode. Among them, "-"

means that this mode does not appear in the small

corpora. If the code assignment in Table 1 does not

appear, it means that this mode does not appear in

the two small corpora, and some infinite or non cy-

clic decimals retain 7 digits after the decimal point.

Table 2. Data results of small corpora involved in this paper

Cod-

ing

The anchor said the network broadcast CCTV News

The

target hit

Frequency

Average

duration

Time

propor-

tion

Recovery

time

The

target hit

Frequen-

Average

duration

Time pro-

portion

Re-

covery

time

PS 130 0.1257196 1.031

0.129616

14.932 108

0.055789

1.22928

0.0685818 32.838

GH 59 0.0570573

2.467457

0.140786

1.56 — — — — —

BH 57 0.0551232

1.438771

0.079309

11.505 — — — — —

ES1 33 0.0319134

4.458636

0.142290

1.97 8

0.004132

5.06512

0.0209320 26.74

BS 30 0.0290122

2.145333

0.062240

9.89 8

0.004132

2.30625 0.0095307 47.721

GM 29 0.0280451

3.413448

0.095730

8.85 — — — — —

ES2 26 0.0251439

2.235769

0.056216

61.81 — — — — —

TT 23 0.0222427 41.6

0.925296

0.0 — — — — —

TS 19 0.0183744

3.103473

0.057024

105.509 — — — — —

PFT 15 0.0145061 2.516

0.036497

34.011 3

0.001549

2.25933

0.0035013 28.98

PP 13 0.0125719

0.208461

0.002620

16.358 18

0.009298

0.35627

0.0033127 38.507

PRT 13 0.0125719

2.866923

0.036042

28.085 12

0.006198

3.392 0.0210265 34.825

GI 10 0.0096707 2.852

0.027580

2.94 — — — — —

GP 10 0.0096707 2.075

0.020066

91.516 — — — — —

OP 9 0.0087036 19.043

0.165743

12.85 7

0.003616

132.962

0.4807948

265.10

Research on Multimodality of Mainstream Political News Video in China Based on ELAN: Take the News Broadcast and Anchor Talk

Broadcast Columns of China Media Group as Examples

305

GR 8 0.0077365 2.185

0.016904

138.726 — — — — —

MB 7 0.0067695

112.0557

0.758563

3.31 — — — — —

GE 5 0.0048353 2.436

0.011778

394.542 — — — — —

BL 3 0.0029012

2.253333

0.006537

2.61 — — — — —

BH 1 9.6707403 7.54

0.007291

965.534 19

0.009814

1.60157

0.0157193 19.777

BR 1 9.6707403 3.5

0.003384

724.65 — — — — —

ES4 1 9.6707403 1.5

0.001450

339.567 — — — — —

— — — — — 3

0.001549

29.0123

0.0449609 0.0

From the above table, it can be found that in

terms of the number of modes, the types of modes

used by the announcer and the host in News Broad-

cast from CCTV Anchors are generally more than

those in CCTV News. This feature is reflected in the

body language and expression of the announcer and

the host, as well as the font and score in the produc-

tion of the program. In the same mode, the frequen-

cy of "anchor says simulcast" is also generally high.

For example, in "anchor says simulcast", the an-

nouncer host's gestures are relatively rich. Other

gestures (GH) hit a total of 59 times, metaphorical

gestures (GM) hit a total of 29 times, concrete ges-

tures (GI) and indicating gestures (GP) hit 10 times

respectively. At the same time, the announcer host's

body shaking frequency is also high, and there is no

gesture in the news simulcast, Except for nodding

(BH), other body language of announcer and host

rarely appears. In terms of expression, the announcer

and the host maintain a serious (ES2) mood, whether

it is the program of News Broadcast from CCTV

Anchors or CCTV News, but the expression of

News Broadcast from CCTV Anchors is richer,

involving smile (Es1), sympathy (Es4), etc. on the

whole, the emotional changes of News Broadcast

from CCTV Anchors are more and more obvious. In

addition, the study also found that the program News

Broadcast from CCTV Anchors has richer sound

forms, which is reflected in more obvious stress

(PS), and higher frequencies of rising tones (PRT),

falling tones (PFT) and pauses (PP). These are close-

ly related to the innovation and reform carried out by

the Central Radio and television station in accord-

ance with the integrated media environment.

5 CONCLUSION

Based on the modal analysis theory and the charac-

teristics of Chinese mainstream political news video,

this paper proposes a multimodal analysis frame-

work suitable for Chinese political news video prod-

ucts. Combined with the two programs of CCTV

News and News Broadcast from CCTV Anchors, a

small corpus was created, and a detailed multimodal

study was carried out by using the segmentation,

layering and annotation functions of Elan analysis

software in a combination of quantitative and quali-

tative research. From the perspective of multimodal

theory, this paper makes an in-depth comparative

study on the characteristics of CCTV News and

News Broadcast from CCTV Anchors, which re-

flects the progressive significance of News Broad-

cast from CCTV Anchors compared with CCTV

News, and plays an important role in enlightening

the innovation and development of other columns in

the new media era. In the follow-up research, it is

expected that more scholars can conduct a more

detailed discussion by combining qualitative re-

search and quantitative means with the front line of

news communication work in a more in-depth and

detailed manner, so as to promote the multi-modal

research of media video based on elan.

NMDME 2022 - The International Conference on New Media Development and Modernized Education

306

REFERENCES

Chen Lidan and Deng Haixia, The production strategy of

mainstream media news short video in the mobile In-

ternet Era -- Taking News Broadcast from CCTV An-

chors as an example. Television Research, Vol. 04,

2020, pp. 39 – 42

Gao Fei, News Broadcast from CCTV Anchors: Research

on the discourse expression of news commentary in

the era of short video, Yunnan Normal University,

2021. CNKI,

https://doi.org/10.27459/d.cnki.gynfc.2021.000506.

Gu Yueguo, Analysis of multimedia and multimodal

learning. Technology Enhanced Foreign Language

Education, Vol. 02, 2007, pp. 3 – 12

Hu Zhuanglin, Multimodality in social semiotics research.

Language Teaching and Linguistic Studies, Vol. 01,

2007, pp. 1 – 10

Hiippala T. (2012). Reading paths and visual perception in

multimodal research, psychology and brain sciences.

Journal of Pragmatics, 44(3), 315-327.

Li Xiao, The construction of character image in TV news

programs from the perspective of idols, Hunan Normal

University, 2020. CNKI,

https://doi.org/10.27137/d.cnki.ghusu.2020.002047.

Mohan J. Dutta-Bergman. (2004). Complementarity in

Consumption of News Types Across Traditional and

New Media. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic

Media, 48(1), 41-60.

Zhang Delu, Exploration of the comprehensive theoretical

framework of multimodal discourse analysis. Foreign

Languages in China, Vol. 6, Vol. 01, 2009, pp. 24 – 30

Zhou Yong and Huang Yalan, CCTV News: the return

from information media to political ceremonies. Chi-

nese Journal of Journalism & Communication, Vol.

37, Vol. 11, 2015, pp. 105 – 24. CNKI,

https://doi.org/10.13495/j.cnki.cjjc.2015.11.009.

Zhu Yongsheng, Theoretical basis and research methods

of multimodal discourse analysis. Foreign Language

Research, Vol. 05, 2007, pp. 82 – 86. CNKI,

https://doi.org/10.16263/j.cnki.23-

1071/h.2007.05.034.

Zhou Xiaopu & Xu Fujian. (2002). Sample analysis and

study of the CCTV News. 《Modern Communication

》, (03), 23-27.

Research on Multimodality of Mainstream Political News Video in China Based on ELAN: Take the News Broadcast and Anchor Talk

Broadcast Columns of China Media Group as Examples

307