The educational function of folk customs

Folk custom, that is, folk custom, refers to the life culture created, enjoyed and passed down by the broad masses of people in a country or nation. Folklore originated from the needs of group life in human society, and constantly formed, expanded and evolved in a specific nation, era and region, serving people's daily life. Once folk customs are formed, they become the basic force to regulate people's behavior, language and psychology, and also an important way for people to acquire, inherit and accumulate cultural achievements. ①

No culture can be separated from communication, and folk culture is no exception. There are two ways to spread folklore, one is diachronic communication, that is, the inheritance of folklore, and the other is temporal communication, that is, the spread of folklore. Judging from the current situation of folk communication in China, both diachronic communication and temporal communication have encountered some problems, which require us to think deeply and find solutions. As far as diachronic communication is concerned, many traditional cultures in China are facing problems that are difficult to inherit. Judging from the spread of * * *, foreign folk culture has a great influence on us.

China's traditional folk culture is gradually formed and developed in the long social and historical development process, accompanied by nomadic and agricultural production and lifestyle, and the inheritance of folk customs mainly depends on interpersonal communication through word of mouth. Today, with the globalization of economy, politics and culture, the traditional way of production and life and the corresponding environment have changed, and the mass media are becoming more and more abundant, which makes the development and inheritance of folk culture that relies solely on interpersonal communication in the traditional sense face new problems and challenges. Therefore, we should pay more attention to the spreading process of folk culture, and use mass media to serve folk communication, so that folk communication can achieve better results.

Second, mass media and folk communication.

Mass media is all the material carriers used to convey all kinds of information to a wide audience. Traditionally, it refers to books, newspapers, magazines, radio, television, movies and other six widely spread media. Today's electronic media should be supplemented by emerging media such as the Internet and audio-visual publications developed by relying on information technology. In a narrow sense, mass media refers to newspapers, magazines, radio and television. ②

Contemporary society is a society based on media environment. Mass media has entered people's daily life in large quantities, and the information brought by the media is full of people's living space. How to graft mass media with folk communication and how to make better use of mass media to protect and inherit folk customs has become a problem that cannot be ignored in the field of folklore today. As Mr. Wu Bing 'an once mentioned in the Principles of Folklore: "The traditional form of' dissemination' of folk information is colliding with the form of' dissemination' of modern mass communication, which will inevitably attract close attention from folklore." ③

German folklore expert Bao? Singh discussed the relationship between modern media technology and folklore. He believes that the development of modern science and technology world has obviously created many conditions that are not conducive to the survival of folk culture. However, in reality, the sense of time in the modern scientific and technological world, the spatial leap caused by traffic and mass media, and the intensification of social differentiation have accelerated the pace of folk activities, provided a broader spatial coverage for folk customs, enabled them to spread to the trans-regional field through Internet communication technology, and provided opportunities for recognition and friendship among different communities. ④

Third, the role of mass media in folk communication.

Due to the development of social politics, economy and culture, the development of traditional folk culture in China, which involves folk beliefs, folk performing arts and other fields, can no longer rely solely on the traditional interpersonal communication mode of oral communication, but should be widely spread on a broader social network and a more complicated social level through the collection, collation, publication and distribution of mass media.

The Positive Role of Mass Media in Folk Communication

First, the mass media expresses folk life, and its media characteristics promote the inheritance of excellent folk customs. With its advanced communication means and technology, mass media can break through the limitation of time and space, and play an important role that interpersonal communication can't match in expanding the scope, prolonging the time and enriching the connotation of inheritance. ⑤ The "Dragon Brand" in Fan Zhuang is called the living fossil worshipped by loong by scholars. It is through the reports of the mass media that the folk activities that took place in a small village in Hebei were spread throughout China.

Second, by reporting folk activities, the mass media has aroused the attention and attention of the public and government functional departments to the excellent folk traditions.

Media reports can introduce the importance of protecting folk traditions, arouse public attention and the attention of government functional departments. "Dragon Brand" was a folk, spontaneous and regional folk activity before 1990s. With the intervention of mass media, today's "Dragon Board" attracts a large number of Chinese and foreign scholars to visit, and the number of ordinary people in the surrounding areas who participate in this activity is also increasing year by year.

The lack of mass media in the spread of folk culture

First, a considerable part of folk culture exists in intangible form, belonging to intangible ideas, concepts and other contents, especially folk activities such as "Dragon Brand", belonging to folk beliefs. Due to the limitation of technical means, it is difficult to completely save all information through mass media.

Second, the mass media will report folk culture unilaterally or distorted because of policies, funds, technology, communication channels and other reasons. When spreading folklore, the mass media will choose the starting point of folklore reporting according to the policy orientation and audience characteristics. For example, in the process of reporting "Dragon Board", sensitive issues in folk beliefs will be avoided and "Dragon Culture" will be the focus of the report. In order to cater to the audience's aesthetic taste, the paper media will use a lot of space to describe the novel and exciting legend of "Gulong White Moth", while the TV media will choose the lively and festive flower show as the focus of the report. For the audience who can't personally participate in the "Dragon Brand", they can only learn about these folk cultures that have lost their original flavor through the products of mass media.

Third, in order to pursue the effect of the picture or the integrity of the narrative, the mass media sometimes direct folk customs. Take "Dragon Brand" as an example. Before the Dragon Ancestral Temple dedicated to the Dragon Brand was built, the Dragon Brand was dedicated to the head of the duty meeting. During the "dragon card" period, the dragon card should be invited out of the meeting of the heads on duty. After traveling around the village for a week, please enter the "dragon shed" set up in advance. There is a complex set of rituals and procedures. After the Longzu Temple is repaired, there is no need to invite Longka in. In order to create a lively atmosphere and meet the needs of media shooting, there will still be a ceremony to carry dragon cards during the "Dragon Card" every year, which makes the sanctity of the activity gradually disappear and the color of "entertaining people" becomes stronger and stronger. Because some media failed to capture the ideal picture during the flower show performance, they sometimes asked to stop the performance and start again, making folk activities more and more performative.

Fourthly, the prospect and countermeasures of mass media spreading folk customs.

1. There will be more and more folk content spread through mass media, and the coverage will be wider and wider.

The affinity between mass media and folk customs is the need of the development of mass media in the future.

Mass communication should not only inherit traditional civilization, but also be based on the present and face the future; It is necessary to please and guide the audience. The mass media reproduces folk customs, which has an inexhaustible source in subject matter. Under the circumstances that the cultural aggression of developed countries forces the cultural convergence of developing countries, we need to inherit and carry forward the unique national culture. China's mass media should stand at the connection point of human culture, history and reality, and tap the unique charm of folk customs in real life based on China's national conditions and folk customs. In a word, mass media need to close the distance with the audience through folklore, improve their own taste and expand their competitive advantage.

② It is necessary to spread folk knowledge to the audience through mass media.

Mass media can break through the limitation of time and space, and at the same time, it has the characteristics of wide audience, diverse forms, wide coverage and strong appeal, and can achieve the communication effect that interpersonal communication can not achieve. We need to spread China's excellent traditional folk culture among social members, especially teenagers, and use mass media for publicity and education, which is a convenient and efficient way. The publicity and reports of mass media make the inheritance of traditional folk culture reflect national characteristics and have a broader mass base. Make full use of mass media to serve the spread of folk culture.

(1) Strengthen the connection between folk customs and modern life, and look for opportunities for spreading folk customs.

Folk culture is a part of popular traditional culture. In the process of its dissemination, we must find the convergence point between traditional folk culture and modern life, adopt the form of communication that conforms to modern people's understanding ability and aesthetic point of view, and constantly add new cultural elements and inheritance means that conform to the characteristics of modern society, so as to maintain the long-term vitality of folk culture development.

In addition, in the process of mass media spreading folk culture, we should look for a good opportunity to spread folk culture, so that the audience can understand the significance of a folk event more intuitively and deeply. For example, the common people all know the phrase "On February 2nd, the dragon looks up". During February 2nd every year, newspapers and TV in Hebei Province will report on "Dragon Brand", but they are only brief reports. If we can make a special program to introduce the story and activities of Dragon Board in detail, I believe it will play a very good role for the audience to understand this traditional folk activity.

② Strengthen theoretical guidance and carefully screen the content of folk communication.

In the complicated folk tradition, which folk events should be chosen to spread? This requires the practitioners of mass media to strengthen the study of folklore theory knowledge. In the choice of folk events, we should take the essence and discard the dross, and choose those folk events that are relatively complete, have a good mass base, are lively in form and strong in performance, are loved by the audience, best reflect the national cultural tradition and have a positive impact on real social life.

In addition, in the process of making folk programs, we should put them into the whole cultural space for comprehensive consideration, and under the guidance of relevant theories, comprehensively grasp the whole folk events and occupy as comprehensive folk materials as possible. Only in this way can we choose the most representative content that can best reflect the real folk life and spread it in the later stage of program production.

(3) Find a better way to communicate and achieve a good communication effect.

The audience of mass media is all "ordinary people" in society. No matter their gender, age, social status, occupation and educational level, they are members of the audience as long as they are exposed to the information spread by mass media. The universality of the audience means that mass communication is a large-scale communication activity aimed at meeting the information needs of most people in society, and it also means that it has a wide range of social influences across classes and groups. Therefore, the mass media should not only make great efforts in selecting materials, but also carefully choose the mode of communication to avoid blunt and didactic communication. Instead, we should work hard on visualization and popularization, and try our best to explain the more difficult content with popular sentences and complete pictures.

Today, with the formation of the "global village", social changes have intensified, and mass media have profoundly affected people's lives. People live in a specific folk culture environment, and folk culture still affects people's thinking habits and behaviors. With the increasing influence of foreign culture on our country, only by fully demonstrating our unique folk culture can the world truly understand us and fully retain the essence of our national culture.

In modern society, without mass media, it is difficult to inherit and protect folk culture. Today, the inheritance, expansion, protection and development of folk culture can not be separated from the intervention and role of mass media; However, in order to achieve "communication" and realize its own value, mass communication needs to choose the content, angle and mode of communication, fully consider and try to adapt to the psychological thinking habits of the audience, and mass communication is closely related to folk culture. Therefore, whether in theoretical research or operational practice, it is necessary to combine the two, carry out mass communication activities from the folk culture environment, and think about the protection, inheritance, expansion and promotion of folk culture from the perspective of mass communication.

To annotate ...

① Excerpted from Zhong Jingwen's Introduction to Folklore, Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, 2003 1, p. 1.

② Quoted from News and Mass Media, edited by Li Yongjian and Zhan Jiang, Renmin University of China Press, 10, 2003.

③ Quoted from Wu Bingan's Principles of Folklore, Liaoning Education Press 200 1, p. 279.

④ Quoted from Zhong Fulan's Folk Communication, Shanghai Culture Publishing House, September 2007, page 45 1.

⑤ Quoted from "The Role and Deficiency of Mass Media in the Inheritance of Intangible Cultural Heritage", published on April 29th, 2008 in China Folklore Network-Folklore Research.