A domineering CEO has a sadomasochistic love affair, a housewife returns with a gorgeous transformation and returns with revenge, a girl travels through ancient times and becomes a princess...Have you ever watched such an online mini-series?

　　Less foreshadowing, more twists, novel plots, and dense entertainment... Nowadays, online micro-short dramas have become the "electronic mustard" for many young people. Although some of the content is very vulgar and embarrassing, it makes people addicted. However, the content of some online micro-short dramas is clichéd, the values ​​are distorted, and they are "cool" for the sake of "cool", constantly challenging the audience's bottom line.

　　What do young people think of online micro-short dramas? What kind of online micro-series are they looking forward to seeing? In the new program "Parameters" produced by China Youth Daily, several young people shared their views on online micro-short dramas.

Eye-catching online mini-drama

　　"Online micro-short dramas can give me a lot of different content in a short period of time, and also save me time in obtaining information." In the view of 21-year-old college student Deng Luxuan, online micro-short dramas are fast-paced and rich in content. , and the story is short and concise, so the audience can quickly understand the plot without having to think too hard.

　　Wang Junyu, a 16-year-old high school student this year, found that the process of watching online micro-series is full of unknowns. "Scrolling up will reveal another exciting drama plot, which is relatively random."

　　"The duration is short, there are many twists and turns, and there is not much correlation between each episode, which is in line with the fragmented viewing style of young people today." Liu Yating, a college student born after 2000, will habitually turn on her mobile phone and watch a few episodes on the Internet while riding the subway. Mini drama. She believes that compared to traditional TV series, online mini-series are more in line with her viewing habits.

　　Ou Lifeng, a college student born in the 2000s, likes to watch online micro-short dramas adapted from online texts. She feels that compared with online texts, online micro-short dramas can present the plot more intuitively and allow the audience to gain more "experience". Some online micro-short dramas respect The original work extracts the most exciting parts, and the actors' acting skills are online and their appearance is "eye-catching". But she also discovered that in order to attract attention and cater to vulgar jokes, some online mini-series not only extensively revised the original works, but also added many vulgar plots and nonsensical plots, "just to stimulate the senses and use vulgar plots to gain traffic."

　　Shi Tianyang, a junior high school student born in 2005, noticed that some of his classmates did not have a good grasp of the "tempo" when watching micro-short dramas. They often watched until midnight, which delayed homework, and also caused lack of sleep, affecting the next day's study.

　　Shi Tianyang feels that young people's values ​​have not yet been fully formed and their minds have not yet matured, making them more susceptible to being misled by negative information conveyed by online micro-drama. Indecent words and extreme plots are often mixed in the drama, which may cause young people to be confused by the superficial phenomena of online micro-short dramas and unable to form a correct understanding.

　　A survey conducted by the China Youth Daily Social Survey Center showed that 35.5% of the young people surveyed believed that the quality of current online micro-short dramas was uneven.

"Electronic mustard" has gone bad

　　"Currently, the production cost of online micro-short dramas is low, and the content of the scripts is rough. At the same time, some actors' acting skills are exaggerated, the plots are embarrassing, and the stories have no logic." Chen Nuo, a post-2000 college student, noticed that many "brainless dramas" are full of them. In the micro-short drama market.

　　Chen Nuo analyzed that the audience for online micro-short dramas has low requirements for plots and is more interested in "watching for fun". "As 'electronic mustard', online micro-short dramas cater to the audience's entertainment needs. The audience wants to rely on entertainment." Play to free yourself from heavy work and schoolwork and seek short-term relaxation."

　　A survey conducted by the China Youth Daily Social Survey Center showed that 52.4% of the young people surveyed believed that online micro-short dramas were poorly produced and could not withstand scrutiny.

　　Wu Hang, 23 years old this year, said frankly that the nutritional content of many online micro-short dramas is not high, and there is no gain after watching them. "It is easy to live in a dream if you watch too much."

　　Nowadays, there are many "weird" plots in online mini-series. On the one hand, the protagonist has his own "protagonist halo", and his identity is either a domineering CEO, a "princess in distress" or an invisible rich man. The character setting is divorced from reality and easily makes the audience indulge in fantasy; on the other hand, some plots deliberately provoke Opposition, such as advocating using money to measure people's social status, dividing people into three, six, nine, etc.

　　Ou Lifeng believes that the creative atmosphere in the online micro-short drama industry is unhealthy. Practitioners blindly want to capture users and abandon quality in order to chase traffic. "The more outrageous the plot, the more intense the conflict, the more viewers will be." This makes conflicts deliberately created, and even Moral violations are widely spread.

　　In addition to the novelty of the plot and the subversion of three views, some online micro-series will also deliberately leave suspense by taking advantage of the user's unfinished psychology when the story reaches its climax, requiring money to be unlocked before continuing to watch. Wu Hang is particularly disgusted with the platform’s charging mechanism. “Many micro-short dramas require VIP to watch, but the content is not high-quality.” Users can easily fall into a payment chain.

　　In response to the chaos in the field of online micro-short dramas, the State Administration of Radio and Television proposed to speed up the formulation of the "Detailed Rules for the Creation, Production and Content Review of Online Micro-Short Dramas" and issued a number of management measures. In November 2023, the State Administration of Radio and Television launched a month-long special rectification work on online micro-short dramas. Major short video platforms responded one after another and removed a large number of illegal works with poor value orientation.

Young people call for high-quality online micro-short dramas

　　"High-quality micro-short dramas should not only attract people with their plots, but also be close to life." In Shi Tianyang's view, although online micro-short dramas are small in size, they often involve various social phenomena and interpersonal relationships. He hopes to reveal them through Understand the larger world through the window of online micro-series.

　　Ou Lifeng hopes that there will be more down-to-earth online micro-series on the market that reflect urban life. "At the same time, they are slightly higher than reality, more dramatic than ordinary people's experiences, and can bring fun to ordinary life."

　　Wang Junyu believes that online short dramas, as a channel for people to relax and have fun, should be lively and humorous. "But it is not humor for the sake of humor, it must be meaningful."

　　Liu Yating believes that high-quality micro-short plays may not be very beautifully produced, but they must be done with care. At present, many online micro-short dramas are the same, with serious homogeneity. They are remade using similar templates, "changing the soup without changing the medicine." I hope to see works that are innovative and eye-catching.

　　A survey conducted by the China Youth Daily Social Survey Center showed that 63.7% of the young people surveyed believed that in order to regulate the healthy development of online micro-short dramas, we must adhere to the bottom line of creation and advocate positive values.

　　Deng Luxuan said that high-quality micro-short dramas can encourage audiences to face life with a positive attitude and can also guide society to develop in a better direction.

　　The "China Online Audiovisual Development Research Report (2023)" shows that as of December 2022, the number of short video users in China has reached 1.012 billion, of which more than half of the short video users have watched micro-short dramas and instant noodles that are less than 3 minutes in length. etc., the viewing proportion of users aged 19 and under exceeds 50%.

　　Facing a huge audience, practitioners of online micro-short dramas need to establish correct values ​​​​in their works and spread positive energy. Liu Yating said bluntly, "The significance of education does not need to be so profound, but it must eliminate backward ideas that demean disadvantaged groups and promote opposing concepts."

　　Wang Junyu hopes that the platform should increase the screening of online micro-short dramas and jointly boycott illegal works. "If the entire Internet atmosphere is healthy and uplifting, those micro-short dramas that are low-quality, vulgar, and spread bad information will also converge."

　　Wang Junyu recently watched the online mini-series "Escape from the British Museum". She believes that this drama spreads China's unique traditional cultural heritage and makes people better understand Chinese culture. Compared with those assembly-line works, such online mini-series The play is more informative.

　　"I think online micro-short dramas should not only have exciting dramas that make people 'top', but also have some in-depth plot content that can promote our country's excellent traditional culture." Chen Nuo hopes that the screenwriters will calm down and patiently polish the scripts. Instead of focusing on earthy and vulgar content, we should draw nutrients from life and enhance the cultural connotation of our works. This is also the appeal of many young people today.

　　China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily reporter Xu Danyang Baiyang intern Liu Dexi Source: China Youth Daily