A Talent Show

全國高職學生 103 年度專題暨創意製作競賽
「專題組」決賽說明書
群別：外語群
參賽作品名稱：
A Talent Show – Show Yourself Off –
Nobody to Somebody
關鍵詞：
Talent shows, Contestants, Audience
Abstract
Presently, there are a variety of TV programs, and the talent show is absolutely
one of the most popular ones. Since nowadays more and more people like to show off
themselves, talent shows which provide a stage for the public to perform themselves
are flourishing. They also convey a message, “As long as you have talents, you can
show them in front of the public, and even become a star.” Talent shows are just the
perfect chances for the ordinary people to realize their dreams.
In this project, we tend to study the reasons why talent shows have become so
popular in recent years, and even stand a vital place among so many entertaining
programs. Besides, we want to know why the talent shows in foreign countries can
persist longer than those in Taiwan. Last but not least, the effects the talent shows
have on the audience and the contestants are also what we would like to investigate.
In order to make our study trustworthy and persuasive, we adopt the means of
literature review, phone interview and questionnaires. We hope through our study, we
can make people understand the effects of the talent shows on the audience and the
contestants. We also want to help the producers of the talent shows in Taiwan make
the programs of better quality, and thus strengthen the positive effects. With a fair and
better system of the program, Taiwan is sure to provide a platform for people to
perform themselves, realize their dreams, and even help them turn themselves from
“nobody” to “somebody!”
Key words: talent shows, contestants, audience
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Table of Contents
Abstract .................................................................................................................... i
Table of Contents ...................................................................................................... ii
I. Introduction............................................................................................................. 1
I.1. Motivation ...................................................................................................... 1
I.2. Background .................................................................................................... 1
I.3. Research Questions .......................................................................................... 2
II. Literature Review .................................................................................................. 2
II.1. Definition ...................................................................................................... 2
II.1.1. The Talent Show ................................................................................. 2
II.2. Origin, History, and Development of The Talent Shows................................. 2
II.3. Features of the Talent Shows Nowadays ........................................................ 3
II.3.1. Blind Audition .................................................................................... 3
II.3.2. Coaching System ................................................................................ 3
II.3.3. Special Composition of Judges ........................................................... 3
II.3.4. Multifarious Performances ................................................................ 3
III. Methods................................................................................................................ 4
III.1. Instruments .................................................................................................. 4
III.1.1.The Questionnaire .............................................................................. 4
III.1.2.The Phone Interview .......................................................................... 4
III.2. Participants ................................................................................................ 4
III.3. Procedures ................................................................................................... 5
IV. Results and Discussion.......................................................................................... 5
IV.1. Results of The Questionnaire ........................................................................ 5
IV.2. Results of The Phone Interview .................................................................... 8
V. Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 9
VI. References .......................................................................................................... 11
VII. Appendix........................................................................................................... 12
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I. Introduction
I.1. Motivation
People nowadays are more willing to show themselves off. With more and
more people becoming successful and even turning themselves into “somebody”
through the talent shows, people start to see attending a talent show as a common
access for them to realize their dreams. Talent shows have definitely drawn more
and more attention and caused quite a stir around the whole world.
In today’s modern world, everyone must encounter some challenges in his life,
especially when trying to pursue his dreams like us. One may then feel confused,
desperate or frustrated at times. Then, it is extremely an essential lesson for one to
learn how to confront the challenges and tackle the difficulties, which is just the
spirit of the contestants who participate in the talent shows and conquer every
challenge they meet. Therefore, we decided to conduct a research on the topic of
the talent shows and further investigate the reasons why they become so popular,
why the talent shows in foreign countries can persist longer than those in Taiwan,
and also what effects talent shows have on the contestants and the audience. As a
student in the Department of Applied Foreign Languages, reviewing the foreign
literature is also the chance for us to understand the foreign cultures and know the
cultural differences. To carry out our research, we applied all the skills we acquired
from the vocational high school these three years, including the presentation skills
from oral training courses, academic writing skills from writing training courses,
skills in searching for information, analyzing the data and teamwork from project
learning courses, and literature review skills from reading courses, into practical
use. With this research, we hope to encourage people of all ages, young and old, to
learn from the contestants’ spirit of never giving up, persisting in pursuing their
dreams and achieving their lifelong goals.
I.2. Background
With the rapid development of the mass media over the past years, modes of
the reality TV programs have changed significantly. A Talent show is one kind of
its versions, and has gradually caught the audience’s attention. Now, producers all
over the world are making more and more talent shows because of its great
popularity. The audience are also lured to watch the talent shows due to the sense of
the authenticity. Talent shows indeed become a platform for people to show their
talents, put their dreams into practice, and finally help them change from “nobody”
to “somebody.”
However, when comparing to the talent shows in Taiwan and those in other
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foreign countries, we found that the talent shows in foreign countries can last for
many years while the talent shows in Taiwan seem to get involved into the
circulation of in fashion and out of fashion. After a further comparison, there are
indeed some differences between them such as the evaluation system, which may
be the possible reasons for the success of the foreign talent shows.
Thus, in this study, we would like to investigate Taiwanese’s perspectives on
talent shows. We hope through this project, people can gain more knowledge about
talent shows, help the producers in Taiwan improve the quality of the shows,
lengthen their persistency, and provide a really fair stage for people to realize their
dreams.
I.3. Research Questions
To achieve the purposes above, three questions are formulated as followed.
1. Why do talent shows become so popular?
2.
3.
Why can the talent shows in foreign countries persist longer than those in
Taiwan?
What effects do talent shows have both on the contestants and the audience?
II. Literature Review
In order to obtain the related information about talent shows, we surfed the
Internet, and went to the library. We got lots of information and discussed it in the
following.
II.1. Definition
II.1.1. The Talent Show
A talent show is a genre of reality TV programs. It mainly offers the ordinary
people a platform for them to show off their talents such as singing, dancing,
imitation, etc. Usually the outstanding contestants can get the prize or reward.
Many talent shows are performances instead of contests (Wikipedia, 2013).
However, in this study, the talent shows imply the actual contests, which attract the
ordinary people or amateur artists to join the competition, and help them become
successful commercial entertainers.
II.2. Origin, History, and Development of the Talent Shows
The most long-lasting talent show may probably be “Eurovision.” It started
from 1956, and it is still held annually till now (Wikipedia, 2013). The earliest
talent show might be “Opportunity Knocks.” Its radio version was first released in
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1949, and then its TV version appeared in1956 (Jack Falconer, 2013). Later, one of
the well-known talent shows, Britain’s Got Talent, adopted most of the evaluation
system in “Opportunity Knocks,” in which the winner was not elected by the
professional judges, but by the audience. This kind of evaluation format also
becomes one of the main features in the popular talent shows worldwide now.
II.3. Features of the Talent Shows
In recent years, in order to prolong the existence of the talent shows and attract
more audience to watch them, the producers in the talent shows have started to
come up with new ideas such as blind audition, coaching system, special
composition of judges and the multifarious performance. The former three features
are adopted in the program “The Voice of China,” and the last one, in “Britain’s Got
Talent.” The above-mentioned features will be introduced below.
II.3.1. Blind Audition
“Blind Audition” refers to a musical audition where a contestant shows off his
talent behind the screen or a wall before performing it on the stage. The purpose of
this kind of audition is to prevent the judges from making evaluation based on the
contestant’s appearance (Wikipedia, 2012).
II.3.2. Coaching System
“Coaching System” means that all the contestants will be divided into several
groups according to the coaches teaching them. The coaches of the team will
dedicate themselves to giving the contestants advice, and helping them strengthen
their skills in the performance (Wikipedia, 2012).
II.3.3. Special Composition of Judges
Presently, to make the competition become fairer than it used to be, in some of
the talent shows, besides being evaluated by the professional judges, the champions
will also be selected by the mass media or the audience.
II.3.4. Multifarious Performances
In some of the talent shows, the contestants can perform any talents they have
such as dancing, magic performance, imitation, aerobatics, etc., which can give
ordinary people more chances to turn themselves from nobody to somebody.
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III. Methods
This study aims at examining the popularity of the talent shows, and the
effects the talent shows have on both the audience and the contestants. With the
purposes, we designed a questionnaire and distributed it to the public. In the
questionnaire, most of the questions are close-ended to facilitate the participants’
responses. Moreover, in order to collect the detailed information about the
contestants’ perspectives on the talent shows, the one-to-one interview was
conducted. Both of these two types of data are quantitatively and qualitatively
analyzed respectively.
III.1. Instruments
In order to achieve the purpose of this project, two instruments were designed,
including the questionnaire and the phone interview.
III.1.1.The Questionnaire
The questionnaire is divided into two parts. The first part is the background
information about the participants. The second part includes five questions related
to our research.
III.1.2.The Phone Interview
The interviews were given to the contestants who used to attend the talent
shows. We asked them about their experiences and feelings concerning their
participation in the talent shows.
III.2. Participants
With regard to the questionnaire, 150 people from the Internet or walking past
the Douliu Train Station were recruited randomly to fill out our questionnaire.
Their ages range from eleven to forty. We adopted them as subjects because we
believed all of them may be the possible group watching talent shows, and they
could provide more reliable information. There were 59 males, and 91 females.
However, here we didn’t subdivide the subjects according to gender.
What’s more, in this study, the reason why we picked the contestants to
participate in the interview was that they could give us more practical information
about the talent shows, and shared their experience with us, which might be helpful
for our research. Among all of the contestants, thirteen of them were involved in
this study.
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III.3. Procedures
To get more reliable information, we first distributed the questionnaire to the
randomly-selected pedestrians, and also made phone calls to interview the
contestants. Finally, we eliminated the invalid data, and adopted the complete
responses, and analyzed the results.
IV. Results and Discussion
The results of the questionnaire are presented and discussed below.
IV.1. Results of The Questionnaire
What kind of talent shows do you like most?
Multifarious
Performances
17%
Others
38%
Singing
30%
Dancing
15%
Figure 1. The audience’s preference for the types of the talent shows
First, with regard to the audience’s preference for the types of the talent
shows, it is found that the top two types of the talent shows Taiwanese like are the
singing and the multifarious performance. Therefore, based on the result, it
apparently shows that most Taiwanese prefer the singing talent shows to other types,
which is the reason why this type of the talent shows has been on the spotlight
mostly. The multifarious performance, in Figure 1, stands the second place, but in
Taiwan, at present, there is only one program called “Super Copy King,” which is
similar to this kind of show. Consequently, we strongly advise the producers to
make more shows of the multifarious performances to arouse the audience’s desire
to watch them.
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Being one of the audience, do you like the evaluation system of the "Blind
No
36%
Yes
64%
Figure 2. The degree of the audience’s preference for the evaluation system of
“the blind audition”
What’s more, as manifested in Figure 2, 64% of the people prefer the
evaluation system--- the blind audition. By adopting this system, people consider it
a fairer competition. What’s more, this evaluation system will let more people who
are not confident in their appearances dare to attend the shows, and have more
opportunity to win the contest. It can be inferred that most of the people nowadays
emphasize one’s talents more than one’s appearance. Nevertheless, still 36% of the
people dislike this kind of evaluation system. In their opinion, it is important for a
successful artist to have both talents and good appearance.
Have you ever thought about attending the talent shows and
becoming a star after watching those shows?
No
31%
Yes
69%
Figure 3. The audience’s desire to attend the shows, and become a star
According to Figure 3, it showed that 69% of the participants have the
motivation to pursue their dreams by seeing the contestants become popular
through attending the talent shows. Besides, seeing the contestants become
well-known through their participation in the talent shows, the audience will be
encouraged, and thus, have the incentive to pursue their dreams. In addition, the
audience will think that they can change from “nobody” into “somebody” as well,
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just like the contestants who have become successful.
Do you want to have the rights to decide whether the
contestants will be eliminated from the competitions ?
No
43%
Yes
57%
Figure 4. The degree of the audience’s willingness to have the right to decide whether to
eliminate the contestants
Furthermore, some other consequences are revealed in Figure 4 and Figure 5.
To begin with, in Figure 4, 57% of the participants want to have the right to make
an evaluation on the contestants, which can let them have a sense of participation in
the voting process. By doing this, the audience can show more concern about the
talent shows than they used to be. Also, they can indeed support the contestants
they are in favor of. What’s more, the results of the competition will be more
reliable and objective since the audience come from all parts of Taiwan and all
walks of life. It can also attract the audience to keep watching the shows, which
helps the shows persist longer. However, the evaluation made by the audience is
sometimes considered unprofessional.
Have you ever been fed up with the talent shows since talnet
shows are overwhelming in Taiwan now?
NO
26%
Yes
74%
Figure 5. The percentage of people who feel tired of the talent shows
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In addition, in Figure 5, it implies that 74% of the subjects start to feel tired
of watching talent shows due to the overwhelming occurrence of the talent shows.
Because of its growing popularity, more and more producers in Taiwan have made
the similar programs--- the talent shows focusing on singing only, and the
overexposure of these shows without any creativity begins to get the audience to be
fed up with them. In order to solve this problem, it is suggested that the producers
do the brainstorming, and make a big innovation so that the programs can be more
appealing and persistent. Then, more audience will be attracted to watch the talent
shows.
IV.2. Results of The Phone Interview
In this section, the contestants’ responses regarding their thoughts and
experience of taking part in the talent shows are presented. Some incomplete and
irrelevant responses of the contestants are eliminated, and finally only the complete
and related answers are kept and discussed.
First of all, in the interview, when the contestants were asked about their
original intention to attend the shows, most of them said that they hoped to be
famous, and eventually become super stars. Also, some of them expressed that they
wanted to show themselves off in front of the public to make more people
appreciate their talents.
Next, the second question related to how the contestants overcame the
hardship during their participation in the talent shows was asked. Many of them did
once think of giving up for the process was difficult and cruel. Some contestants
had difficulty coming up with new ideas to make their performances better. Others
were asked to make a big breakthrough. Still others were criticized for lacking
confidence, and not having much improvement in their performances. Nonetheless,
these contestants still hung on and did whatever they could do to satisfy both the
judges and the audience.
As for the result of the question 3, it demonstrates the effects that the talent
shows had on the contestants. Most of them thought that they gained more
knowledge about how to improve their skills in the performance, which helped
them make significant progress in the performing arts. Besides, some of them found
that they became more confident than they used to be. The contestants’ answers
indicated that talent shows did bring some benefits to the contestants such as
enhancing their confidence and strengthening their skills.
With regard to the question 4, it shows the contestants’ opinions on the reasons
why talent shows are so popular nowadays. Half of them thought that most of the
audience like to see the ordinary people become successful, popular and
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well-known after attending the show. For the people who have talents, they have
the same dream--- hoping to become a celebrity--- just as the contestants some day.
Besides, for the audience who are not so talented, but still hope to be successful in
some way, watching talent shows also gives them hope, courage and motivation to
pursue their own dreams. It is revealed that the participation of the ordinary people
in the talent shows shortens the distance between the audience and the contestants,
and this kind of talent show is really a possible access for a “nobody” to become a
“somebody.”
From the contestants’ responses, we knew that talent shows really help some
of them achieve their original goals such as being famous or becoming a star.
Although they might encounter some obstacles during the competition, they finally
overcame them and became more confident than they used to be. What’s more, by
attending the shows, their performances became better. There’s no doubt that the
talent shows provide ordinary people with a platform to show off their talents and
an access to shape themselves from “nobody” to “somebody.”
V. Conclusion
These years, many countries have faced lots of problems such as the economic
regression, the problems of global warming, the high unemployment rate of young
men, etc. It seems that people in the whole world can’t see their bright future. Then,
at this time, the talent shows emerge, and encourage people to dare to dream, and
persist in pursuing their dreams. It is apparently seen that talent shows affect some
people’s lives. Through our survey, we have gained some useful information and
the valuable insight into this issue from the perspectives of the contestants and the
audience. The ideas manifested below are some significant conclusions drawn from
our findings.
In terms of the perspectives of the audience, it is found that the type Taiwanese
like the most is the talent shows focusing only on singing. Therefore, it can be
speculated that this is the reason why the producers in Taiwan make so many
programs similar to this type of talent shows. However, when it comes to the
fairness of the competition, most of the participants thought that the champion
should be selected according to the contestants’ talents rather than their appearance.
It can fully explain that most people support the blind audition, which causes the
evaluation system of blind audition to be adopted in some of the talent shows
presently. What’s more, after watching the talent shows, the majority of the
participants have dreamed of attending the talent shows and becoming a star. Lured
by the former successful cases, the audience are braver and more willing to show
off their talents in front of the public. In this way, it can be inferred that talent
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shows do provide a stage for the ordinary people to realize their dreams.
Nevertheless, as there are so many similar types of talent shows, people begin to be
fed up with this kind of program. Therefore, to address this problem, we made
some suggestions to the producers of the talent shows in Taiwan, which will be
discussed in the later section.
What’s more, concerning the effects on the contestants, it showed the talent
shows do help some of them attain their original goals. Furthermore, after attending
the competition, they got some valuable experience and developed some useful
skills. Although they might encounter some obstacles in the process, they still
overcame them and became better than they used to be.
After completing this study, some suggestions were offered to the producers,
contestants and audience.
For the producers, it is advised that they set up a fair competition format and
clear criteria in evaluation, which can lure more people to attend the talent shows.
In addition, they should make an innovation or create various types of talent shows.
By doing so, it can attract more audience to watch the shows, and give people with
different talents more chances to show themselves off in front of the public.
As with the contestants, they should be braver to pursue their dreams no
matter what difficulties they may run into. What’s more, they ought to be more
confident and seize the opportunity to show off their talents on the stage. In this
way, they can strengthen their skills in the performance, and really become a
well-known and professional entertainer.
Regarding the audience, they should support the talent shows more. Also, after
watching the contestants’ performances, they can learn from the contestants’ spirit.
Thus, they will be more courageous to realize their own dreams, persist in
achieving their goals, and turn themselves from “nobody” to “somebody.”
Finally, in this study, some of the methodological limitations should be
pointed out. For instance, the subjects in the phone interview were only 13 of the
contestants, and the participants in the questionnaire were the people chosen
randomly from the Internet, and from the pedestrians walking by the Douliu Train
Station, which makes the representativity of the subjects and the generalizability of
the results under threat. Thus, the findings in this study are not conclusive. Further
research is needed.
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VI. References
1. Chinese Million Star (2013). Wikipedia. Retrieved October 17, 2013, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Million_Star
2. The Voice of Holland (2013). Wikipedia. Retrieved October 17, 2013, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Voice_of_Holland
3. Eurovision Song Contest (2013). Wikipedia. Retrieved October 17, 2013, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest
4. Opportunity Knocks (2013). Wikipedia. Retrieved October 17, 2013, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opportunity_Knocks_(UK_TV_series)
5. Reality Television (2013). Wikipedia. Retrieved October 30, 2013, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_television#Television
6. Talent Show (2013). Wikipedia. Retrieved October 31, 2013, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talent_show
7. Blind Audition (2012). Wikipedia. Retrieved December 28, 2013, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_audition
8. 銘傳大學新聞系邱瑞惠、顏彙燕(2012)。熱潮過後 歌唱選秀節目的轉型與
轉機。取自 http://tavis.tw/files/13-1000-13342.php
9. 李淑寧（譯）（2010）。夢想可以成真：蘇珊大嬸的美聲傳奇。臺北市：時
報出版。
10. Montgomery, A. (2010). Susan Boyle: Dreams Can Come True. New York:
Penguin Group USA
11. Falconer.J (2013). All-singing, all-dancing-TV talent shows from the UK. CAN
NEWSWORL, 55, 112.
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VII. Appendix
Questionnaire
Hello. We are students of Department of Applied Foreign Languages at National
Douliou Vocational High School. We are doing a research about talent shows. There
are two parts in the questionnaire. The first part is your background information. The
second part includes five questions in total, and all of them are multiple-choice
questions. We need your valuable opinions in order to have more contributive findings.
Thank you for your kindly help.
Teacher
Li Yu-Chi
Group Members Chiang Yu-Tzu, Hsu Li-Shin,
Liu Yi-Ju, Tsai Yun-Ying,
Hsu Yuen-Pin
Personal Information
1. Sex: □Male
□Female
2. Age: □11~20
□21~30
□31~40
□Over 41
Relative Questions
1. What kind of talent shows do you like most?
□Singing □Dancing
□Multifarious performances(combining singing, dancing, and so on)
□Others
2. Being one of the audience, do you like the evaluation system of the “Blind
Audition?”
□Yes
□No
3. Have you ever thought about attending the talent shows and becoming a star
after watching those shows?
□Yes
□No
4. Do you want to have the rights to decide whether the contestants will be
eliminated from the competitions?
□Yes
□No
5. Have you ever been fed up with the talent shows since talent shows are
overwhelming in Taiwan now?
□Yes
□No
This is the end of the questionnaire. Thanks for your participation.
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Phone Interview
1. What was your original intention to attend the talent shows?
2. Have you ever thought of giving up and how did you overcome it?
3. After attending the shows, what effects did it have on you?
4. Why do you think these talent shows are so famous and popular?
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