China Cuts 'Excessive Entertainment' From TV 336
An anonymous reader writes "Chinese broadcasters have axed two-thirds of popular TV shows in line with a government directive to curb 'excessive entertainment.' From the article: 'The rule, first announced in October, is targeted at what Chinese regulators have called "excessive entertainment and a trend toward low taste," to address the rise of talent shows, dating shows and other such programming aired by China's tightly regulated, but increasingly competitive, regional satellite broadcasters. Authorities also encouraged broadcasters to air more news and educational programming.' according to local media reports."
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re:All power to China (Score:2, Informative)
Flynn Effect [discovery.com] (Link didn't work the first time)
Errm, IQ Scores are always centered at 100 by definition. Ergo average IQ score can't go up or down, only the raw survey scores can. Who would have thought that the very channel you praise for not dumbing down the populace would dumb down that fact.
Re:All power to China (Score:5, Informative)
Flynn Effect [discovery.com]
(Link didn't work the first time)
Errm, IQ Scores are always centered at 100 by definition. Ergo average IQ score can't go up or down, only the raw survey scores can. Who would have thought that the very channel you praise for not dumbing down the populace would dumb down that fact.
Erm, no, sorry. IQ Scores are NOT always centered at 100 by definition. As raw scores shift higher, IQ scores will likewise shift higher until the the raw-score-to-IQ-score conversion process is renormalized. How often are they normalized? It wasn't an easy question to answer, but I found one website that claims they are only normalized "every 10 or so years".
http://www.psychpage.com/learning/library/intell/culture_iq_notes_5.html [psychpage.com]
Also, it seems that before the Flynn effect was discovered, there was no such periodic renormalizaion (which makes sense...why would you renormalize before anybody has even discovered that they've become unnormalized). Therefore at the time the Flynn effect was defined, scores were not normalized, and the Flynn effect was indeed described as IQ scores increasing over time. Look around the web. Every single reference to the Flynn effect I can find, even those from reputable sources, describe it as an increase in IQ scores over time. For instance, here's a page on it from a Psychology Professor at Indiana University:
http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/flynneffect.shtml [indiana.edu]
But congratulations on getting a +5 Informative for posting incorrect information. Maybe you should watch more Discovery Channel.
Re:And Yet (Score:5, Informative)
No, it would not at all.
Note that what happened to the Soviets was NOTHING like what happened in China. In the Soviet model, (Perestroika) over a century of oppression was simply dropped and a totally closed society was suddenly and without warning thrown open to the world. The ensuing reaction was almost predictable; Complete chaos and collapse of the Soviet regime.
Let us not forget that there WAS some violence that followed. Unfortunately for the soviets, their military decided to side with the people over the government. Tanks showing up at the gates of the Kremlin to close down the government rather than defend it ended the revolution with a victory for Freedom rather quickly and mostly bloodlessly.
The Chinese noted these events and decided that they wanted nothing to do with it. Remember that the Tienanmen Square incident was right around the same time. For a short time it appeared that Communism was collapsing all over the world all at once. (it was a great moment to live in, let me tell you.)
Sadly, the Chicoms had no intention to go quietly. They had a very different relationship with their military, and the military rolled Tanks into the square to defend the government and drive out the protestors. The crackdown afterwards was BRUTAL.
I had a college roommate who was in Tienanmen Square that day. Afterwards he fled China and was accepted into the US under political asylum. He told me how many of his friends "disappeared" before they could escape. That's how bad it was in those days.
The Chinese later began to loosen things up, but only incrementally, and ALWAYS under government control. Even after foreign companies were allowed in China, it was always under very strict rules. If you didn't play along, they booted you out. (even McDonalds got kicked out.) Over time these rules have loosened, but control has always been in the governments hands.
What westernization they have allowed has always been with a single goal: To keep the people COMPLACENT. Give them minor luxuries, allow them to keep a small modicum of their natural freedoms and let them get comfortable and lazy. Otherwise, keep them too busy working and living their lives to have time for revolution. (Why do you think they have essentially created an "Island" Internet via the "Great Firewall of China"? To keep revolutionary ideas out while still allowing controlled financial interaction with the rest of the world.)
It's an ingenious formula and has worked very well to keep the Chicoms in power. If NK decides to follow this model, don't expect a revolution.