In the 1995 award-winning movie To Die For, Nicole Kidman plays an ambitious but obsessed woman determined to be a TV anchorwoman. She struggles to climb up the slippery career ladder from being a weather reporter. She even lures three teenagers into a scheme to murder her husband. Her character's mantra is: "You're not anybody in America unless you're on TV.
"On TV it's where we learn about who we really are. Because what's the point of doing anything worthwhile if nobody's watching? And if people are watching, it makes you a better person."
The movie may be a fiction about an obsessed woman, but it has a grain of truth that applies to Taiwan as well.
Last week, Next Magazine (壹週刊) spotted and photographed celebrity anchor woman Patty Ho (侯佩岑) and Sean Lien (連勝文), son of Chinese Nationalist Party Chairman Lien Chan (連戰), kissing in Lien's car. The news made headlines in major Chinese-language newspapers for the next three days. Even a week later, the media is still following up the story.
Ho is the most popular anchorwoman on Era TV News (年代新聞). Her name is frequently in the entertainment pages and she has, more than once been voted by Internet polls as the dream girl of Taiwanese men, especially among those in military service.
As for Lien, he is an executive at several investment banks. It is estimated that his properties are worth more than NT$2 billion.
Although there are heartbroken fans of Patty Ho calling Lien a pig (Lien weighs 100kg) and claiming it's unfair just because he is rich, the news about the couple is still hotly chased.
"In Taiwan, anchorwomen have been marketed as an embellishment of the news shows with the aim of stimulating more ratings," said Sun Mine-ping (孫曼蘋), associate professor in journalism at National Cheng-chi University.
What shocked Sun most about the Ho and Lien affair is that the two major, non-tabloid newspapers China Times (中國實報) and United Daily News (聯合報) treated the news as front-page stories.
On the same day, there was news about Iran releasing UK servicemen and US aiding North Korea. "I was stunned. Is a hostage problem in the Middle-East less important than the dating of Ho and Lien? This proves that the major papers have also been `tabloidized,'" she said.
In Taiwan, TV anchors are trained and developed following the model of three major US broadcasting networks, Sun said.
When a news anchorwoman first appears on TV, the TV station publishes PR releases to all the major media, detailing her height, educational background, hobbies and her personality. Then, during major Chinese festivals, such as the Dragon Boat Festival or the Lunar New Year, there will be another bunch of PR pictures of the anchors eating zhongzi or posing holding Spring Festival couplets.
And if the anchor gets to interview celebrity politicians, or finally gets out of the newsroom to cover a story at the scene, there will be another bunch of news releases.
The TV stations treat their anchorwomen as celebrities. In response, the newspapers also report about them as celebrities. In Chinese-language newspapers such as the China Times, United Daily News and the Liberty Times (自由時報) there are reporters who are assigned specifically to the so-called "anchorwomen beat."
"Our daily job is to write the gossip about these women," said Daniel Ku (who did not want to give his Chinese name), an entertainment reporter from the Liberty Times.
"The way we deal with them is like dealing with TV actresses. You have to observe details of what they wear, their make-up, earrings, hair-do. Check if they're single, or seeing anyone, and if yes, are they doing `the splits' (劈腿) -- meaning dating two people at the same time, etc."
"Although we think of them as air-headed bimbos, when we talk to them we definitely cannot show that. We have to first compliment their professional skills, praising their enunciation, or reporting style. Then we will chat about their new mascara or recent dates," Ku said.
Ku said there was a policy of not writing about older anchorwomen "because they have no news value."
Some anchorwomen take full advantage of being a celebrity. The famous Kelly Hsue (薛楷莉) scandal last year is an example. A former TVBS anchor woman, there was a complaint that was made public about Hsue taking gifts from a rich Japanese businessman worth NT$2 million, including a diamond ring and a Chanel dress.
Obviously the Japanese businessman mistook her for an escort lady, but Hsue was found to have been taking similar expensive gifts from the rich and powerful for a long time. The scandal forced her to leave TVBS. Now Hsue is a hostess on radio and TV talk shows for Eastern Networks (
Keen competition among TV news channels is one key factor that makes TV stations put more emphasis on marketing anchorwomen as beautiful celebrities, instead of emphasizing their professional abilities, said Vincent Lin, former news executive of Super TV.
"Before, we used to adopt the BBC model, using anchorwomen as a values-free news reader. And there were very few marketing campaigns to do with the anchors," he said.
But in the past 10 years, many cable TV channels specializing in news have increasingly paraded their glossy-looking anchors.
"One of the problems of Taiwan's TV stations is that they developed too fast and commercialized too quickly," said Hsu Chih-chia (許志嘉), associate professor in Mass Communication at Mingchuan University.
"Because the competition is keen, any TV show having a rating exceeding 1.0 is considered very high. It is, then, natural for all channels to present all kinds of marketing campaigns to solicit ratings. Focusing on anchorwomen is a common strategy," Hsu said.
The link between anchorwomen and celebrity (instead of professional journalism) has had a wider effect in society, apparent at Mingchuan University. In a survey of mass communications students, the most desired work environment is TV, accounting for more than 30 percent of responses. And of the female students, eight out of 10 hope to become anchorwomen when they graduate.
Among the celebrity anchor women, the most admired is, of course, Patty Ho, the alleged girlfriend of Sean Lien. Second is Momoko Tao (Tao-tzi, 陶子), who is an entertainment show hostess, not even a news anchorwoman.
"It [the stardom of anchor women] has become a phenomena reflecting a social trend. In the near future, it will continue to exist," said Hsu Chih-chia.
Gateway to the rich and powerful
Name: Chen Ai-ling
Formely anchorimg for: TTV
Married to: Tsai Ming-chung - president of Fubon Financial Group
Name: Chen Chao-ru
Formely anchorimg for: TTV
Married to: Chiao Yu-heng - president of Hua-hsin Technology Group
Name: Tang Ke-shan
Formely anchorimg for: Formosa TV
Married to: Ma Wei-chien - son of the president of Yuan-ta financial Group
Name: Chiang Ya-chi
Formely anchorimg for: TVBS
Married to: Kuan Heng-chun - son the the president of China Petrol Corp
Name: Lu Hsiu-fang<
Formely anchorimg for: CTS
Married to: Hsu Chih-yi - son of former vice premier Hsu Li-te
Name: Hsiao Yi-fen
Formely anchorimg for: CTTV
Married to: Hsu Yi-hong - son of former Examination Yuan President Hsu Shui-te
Name: Lee Pei-hsuan
Formely anchorimg for: Formosa TV
Married to: Wang Wei-ta - Kuan Chuan Food Corp
Name: Tsuei Tsi-fen
Formely anchorimg for: CTS
Married to: Chung Chiung-liang - president of NOVA group
Source: The Great News Daily
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