Light Cavalry and Main Battlefield: A Study of the New Mainstream Media Personal Studio System

The new pattern of international public opinion and the new development of in-depth media integration have put forward higher requirements for mainstream media to adhere to the correct political direction, value orientation, and public opinion guidance in internal and external communication, so it is imperative to build a new type of mainstream media. As China’s state news agency with global reach, Xinhua News Agency is exploring the development path of the mainstream media in the background of media integration and transformation. With the advantage of being small and fast, Xinhua has introduced the personal studio system to achieve remarkable results in both mainstream values transmissions internally and public opinion struggle externally. Taking Xinhua News Agency as an example, this paper analyzes the development characteristics and optimization path of the mainstream media personal studio system from the perspective of communication form, content, effect, and media management, to provide a reference for the transformation and development of mainstream media in the new era.

Agency (Xinhua) established the first agency-level personal studio "Zhang Yang Studio", which is on the same level as other departments of the agency, to make positive energy become large traffic.
Existing research shows that "Internet celebrity" reporters can simultaneously produce and disseminate media content (Chen Kai, 2022). Therefore, famous reporters, editors, and hosts have always been a magic weapon for media to build brands and enhance influence (Liu Yun, Chen Shimin, 2021). Therefore, the mainstream media's implementation of the studio system is not only conducive to resource combination and development for a better allocation (Wang Jingyu, 2022) but also can greatly tap the staff potential and increase the success rate of talent training (Liu Yun, Chen Shimin, 2021). At the same time, the studio system will also meet the dual expectations of the Chinese media management mode of "public institution, corporation management", and achieve a win-win situation between social and economic benefits. Taking the first batch of studios established by HNTV in 2018 as an example, it not only retained the size advantage of a large media group but also had the flexibility of a small team. Moreover, in the method of innovation + reward + competition mechanism, HNTV has formed a four-level management system and won more than 90% of channel revenue (Wu Mengyu, Wang Chaoqun, 2022).
However, at present, there are still many deficiencies in the personal studio system of Chinese mainstream media: in terms of innovation, most studios are replicas of the original producer system, and lack long-term strategic goals (Ren Longchan, 2020); in terms of market-oriented operation, some studios focus too much on brand marketing but ignore the content of programs, and still cannot escape the bottleneck of revenue; in terms of reward mechanism, some studios do not provide an assessment and incentive environment for team and content construction (Hua Shukai, 2017); in terms of media management, the reform measures and management services in the whole media are not in place, which makes the newly established studio in the original organizational structure have unclear positioning, so the current operating system appears unacceptable reality.
Meanwhile, in the actual operation and dissemination, the mainstream media represented by the central media still have weaknesses such as one-way communication, the weak interaction and insufficient personalization (Song Huanyu, 2022). Therefore, the study of the individual studio system with Chinese characteristics has practical significance and contemporary value for improving the communication effect of mainstream media.

History Review
In 1919, Walter Gropius founded the earliest studio for practical teaching and research, which is now widely used in media, education, the Internet and other industries.
The broadcasting and television department was the first to introduce the studio system in the Chinese media industry. In 2000, China's Tianjin Radio and TV Station took the lead in exploring and excavating new employment mechanisms, operation modes and incentive mechanisms through the "Liu Jie Studio" as an incubator to comply with the market-oriented reform. In 2013, the first host studio "Haiyang Studio" established by China National Radio (CNR) is an independent company, but it is managed by the CNR Metropolis (Beijing) Culture Media Co., Ltd. Thanks to the post responsibility system, the free studio mode stimulates creative vitality and content quality and completes the upgrade from broadcast programs to broadcast brands.
After that, local TV stations in China also began to introduce the studio system. In 2014, TV stations represented by Shanghai-based Dragon TV gave birth to the prototype of TV studios. By empowering producers to employ and distribute, they formed a "program team-based" reform model with independent producers as the core. In the following years, TV stations around the country have successively established studios of various styles with the characteristics of convergence media, professional categories and brand production.
2018 is a critical year for the innovative development of the studio system in China. Previously, the studio system was still in the stage of "crossing the river by feeling the stones". Could it form a new management system that conforms to China's national conditions or would it be suitable for the industry and shoulder the responsibility of innovation? The tasks were still unknown.
In 2018, HNTV vigorously implemented the first-line team studio system, which was centred on the producer. The studio proposes program topics and production ideas and reports to the operation management committee for review. After the review is passed, the studio will complete the production independently. Within a year, the 12 studios established and officially listed by HNTV had more than half of the director's talents on the stage, and the work results were profitable. According to data released by HNTV, from 2018 to 2019, 80% of its self-hosted programs were completed by the studio team, and the channel revenue was in the top 10%.
In 2019, the Documentary Center of Shanghai Media Group (SMG) formed a studio production mechanism with the person in charge as the core. Through the establishment of 13 independent responsible studios still belonging to SMG Documentary Center, and the integration of the highquality production forces within SMG, it intends to explore a path for the transformation of the documentary team based on the traditional radio and television system. [1] After SMG Documentary Center obtains the project, all studios are allowed to participate in the bidding to stimulate the competitiveness and creative vitality of the team; at the same time, the studio has the autonomy to directly look for projects in the market and increase revenue for the centre.
From 2018 to 2019, with the opening of HNTV and SMG Documentary Center, the studio system was fully rolled out all over the country. Traditional media such as TV stations and newspapers in various provinces and cities have established unique studios with their positioning as the fulcrum to realize the achievements of reform and innovation.
Since 2019, based on previous exploration, HNTV has taken the lead in releasing the key points of the studio system in the next stage. Improving the current system, HNTV pointed out the direction for the development of the studio in the new era. Zhou Xiong, Secretary of the Party Committee of HNTV, introduced that the studio aimed to stimulate creativity and talent vitality, so the upgraded studio system would strengthen the protection of talents, and establish a more fair, standardized and transparent system to improve the efficiency and fairness of resource matching.
In November 2020, issuing the Opinions on Accelerating the Deep Integration and Development of Radio and Television Media, the National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) called on the media to optimize the organizational structure and operating mechanism, to make good use of the content production organizations and operation methods including project system, studio and product division, and to grant necessary autonomy such as the use and control of people and property with flexible operation mechanisms. [2] This also means that the media studio system has been promoted and advocated by the country. After the initial construction of the all-level media's studio system, it is necessary to continuously optimize, innovate and improve the internal specific mechanism, develop in an in-depth direction, and explore a more mature studio system development path in the future.
In December of the same year, Xinhua responded to the call, and the first agency-level studio "Zhang Yang Studio" was deployed and established by Xinhua's Leading Party Group. The studio is at the same level as the existing Audio and Video Department and other departments in the agency. With the positioning "based on the national agency, targeting youth, freshening expression and increasing traffic", the studio combines the new era of communication forms and deeply cultivates the output of content and cultural value. In serious current political issues such as the Two Sessions, the studio has been exploring new communication channels and methods, making steady progress and successfully breaking the circle.
Also, in December of 2020, Xinhua established a personal studio for external reporter Xu Zeyu, which was a brand-new attempt by the agency to promote the building of international communication capabilities and to correct the misunderstanding of foreigners' perspectives of China. Through Vlog appearances and other forms, Xu shows a big vision with small incisions and uses his IP and first perspective to innovatively deal with the struggle of international public opinion. As of April 1, 2022, among the three major overseas social platforms, Twitter, YouTube, and Meta (formerly Facebook), the total number of fans of Xu Zeyu's accounts ranked first among the reporters of the central media in China.
The central mainstream media has also opened up new channels for external communication through the establishment of individual studios, including the China Global Television Network (CGTN) of China Media Group (CMG). In 2018, CMG proposed to build a multilingual network celebrity matrix. CGTN established studios for the representatives of hosts in different languages to accurately disseminate the real domestic news content to the target countries and all over the world, showing a true, comprehensive and three-dimensional China's image.

Case Study: Xinhua's Personal Studio Specializing in Internal and External Communication
In May 2020, during first China's Two Sessions after COVID-19, Xinhua released a series of videos named "Xinhua Belle's Vlog" on Bilibili, a leading online entertainment platform in China. Relying on the creative style that young audiences love and the outstanding personal image of three female journalists including Zhang Yang, Xinhua completed the first time to disseminate serious current political topics in the form of Vlogs, which was praised by a large number of young fans as "mastering the viewing password". As of March 31, 2022, search for keywords such as "Two Sessions Vlog" at Bilibili, and 3 of the top 5 videos are from Zhang.
Also, since May 2020, Xinhua has combined new media forms to try Vlog videos with journalists as the core characters and has gradually created new media products that conform to the trend of media integration development and personal IP innovation. In December of the same year, Xinhua responded to the call of the country and vigorously promoted the personal studio system. Under the deployment of Xinhua's Leading Party Group, "Zhang Yang Studio" was established, followed by "Xu Zeyu Studio". This paper takes these two studios, which belong to internal and external communication, as the main research objects, and intends to analyze the influence of personal studios on the communication power of mainstream media.

Zhang Yang Studio: Xinhua's first agency-level studio
In December 2020, after gaining a certain fan base, Xinhua established the first agency-level studio for Zhang Yang. Her Bilibili account "Lamb in the Flower House" was created simultaneously, and her first work was released on December 2. As shown in Figure 1, as of March 31, 2022, the account has released a total of 77 video works, mainly focusing on current politics, science and technology, Olympic events and other fields. With the resource support of Xinhua, Zhang Yang takes the events close to daily life as the incision with a relaxed and lively audio-visual language. Through the first perspective, personal experience and dialogue interviews, she provides high-quality Vlogs for netizens with a sense of knowledge, topic, interest and presence, which has subverted the previous modes of political dissemination. Among the 77 videos, the most effective one is the Vlog series of the National Two Sessions. In the past two years, a total of 13 episodes have been released, and the total views have reached 3.86 million. Among them, the first one in 2021 "Unboxing! See what I brought to the Two Sessions" has the highest number of views, at 938,000. In this video, Zhang Yang did not follow the usual ideas to preview and sort out the contents of the Two Sessions but used the "unboxing" that young people like nowadays as a starting point to reveal the needs of journalists in their work and life during political events. Moreover, the interspersed editing of different work scenes also enabled the audience to have a close understanding and eliminated serious feelings. It echoed the last video of the 2021 National Two Sessions "At this press conference, I asked a question", which reproduced Zhang Yang's questioning at the Prime Minister's Press Conference, showing the professional and capable nature of a national reporter. At the end of the video, she reviewed the important issues of the Sessions and people's livelihood concerns that year and encouraged many people to pay more attention to the political topics, further elevating the value and significance of the series of Vlogs.
In addition to the National Two Sessions, Zhang's team made full use of its resources and platform advantages to keep track of China's aerospace industry. From December 2020 to record the successful landing of Chang'e-5 probe to the moon, to February 2022 to reveal how the Shenzhou-13 spacecraft astronauts spent the Spring Festival in space, Zhang produced a total of 11 aerospace videos. In the video "What is the experience of watching a rocket launch?", she turned the camera to the crowd behind her, bringing netizens the closest on-the-spot observation, and being in the shocking scene of the rocket launch together.
During the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Games, Zhang's team mainly launched two types of videos, "100-second popular science" and "Face to face with Olympic champions". In the former, Zhang introduced a certain sport through a popular and funny "famous scene", interspersed with emoticons with dense funny bones, and interpreted the Olympic knowledge in a humorous and easy-tounderstand manner. At the same time, she invited several Olympic champions for interviews and interspersed with small competition games, such as the "water challenge" with Zhang Mengxue, the women's 10m air pistol champion of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, which satisfied the curiosity of the audience and also reflected the heavy training of Olympians.
Since the establishment of the studio in December 2020, the reporting resources and the video quality of Zhang's team have been significantly improved compared to before. Comparing the Vlogs of the National Two Sessions in 2020 and 2021, it can be found that the former was mostly selfportraited, edited in chronological order, and lacked topic tipping points and interesting content; but the latter, with the assistance of professionals, video shooting was superior, the picture quality was clearer and the content arrangement was more reasonable, which was mainly reflected in the focus of the single video. The content covered in the original one was gradually changed to three or four detailed descriptions, so the logic and coherence are improved. Specifically, the content extends from a single narrative of the Two Sessions to various fields such as science and technology, ecology, and sports, and the topics of its first-line visits and dialogues with famous professionals are also more and more abundant. Zhang also often plays on the spot, expressing her feelings about reporting events or being a reporter and showing a more vivid and professional image. Every time, the bullet screen will appear with blowout praise for her personal humanistic quality and career identity. It can be seen that these unprompted compliments are not only helpful to dispel the stylization of news broadcasts but also help to improve the overall social favorability of the reporters and the media they belong to.

Xu Zeyu Studio: Xinhua's first external communication studio
Xu Zeyu and Zhang Yang established their studios at the same time. During the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, rumours spread all over the world, and the "grey-black filter" of foreign media was pulled to the maximum. Xu Zeyu, an external reporter, went deep into Wuhan, Hubei, where the virus broke out and became the only full-time English reporter sent by Xinhua to Wuhan at that time. During the 80 days he was stationed, Xu released 13 English Vlogs "Wuhan Today" on the three major media platforms Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. The scenes including nucleic acid testing, medical shelter building and medical rescue, were broadcast right the first time to smash the false rumours that smeared China overseas. Until the unblocking of Wuhan, the views of the "Wuhan Today" series on the three oversea platforms exceeded 100 million. He not only gained a large number of overseas fans but also showed the potential to become an "international Internet celebrity" -as a Xinhua reporter, he quickly spoke out on major hot events in China and abroad on his overseas social media accounts, actively played a leading role in public opinion among overseas fan groups, and established China's image and spread Chinese stories positively and actively.
To this end, in December 2020, Xinhua specially set up "Xu Zeyu Studio", which is responsible for the planning of account content and promotion of overseas platforms. [3] The studio uses team capability and strengthens cross-departmental cooperation. Even chatting and interacting with netizens in the comment area has also become an official work. Since then, Xu's overseas interaction has been more strategically focused: building images on Facebook, speaking opinions on Twitter, and making content on YouTube. Coupled with Xu's English commentary, Vlog "Kashgar old town" has a movie-like western scenery and local customs, so cultural dissemination is silent; Vlog "My encounter with Living Buddha in Tibet" made a bold breakthrough in the topic selection, in which Xu visited temples, interviewed Living Buddha and revealed the mystery of religion in Tibet, and then received strong overseas responses. Thus, the establishment of Xu Zeyu Studio has successfully expanded diversified external communication channels and effectively improved the level of precise national communication.
In the international public opinion struggle, Xu's team rose to the challenge. The first is to hit the scene directly. In March 2021, the worldwide argument on Xinjiang cotton was rampant. Within a week, Xu investigated the cotton production process and working conditions in Xinjiang. Vlog "How Uygur's farm cotton in Xinjiang?" shot down the foreign media's rumours and corrected the name and endorsement of Xinjiang Cotton. The second is animation commentary to break down barriers. In July 2021, to celebrate the centenary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Xu released the video "Why CPC is China's most successful startup?" on the overseas platform to explain the organizational structure of CPC in hand-drawn animation.
Combined with international political hotspots, it's an effective way for Xu Zeyu studio to create inquiring and satirical comics in response to international smears. Xinhua's various platforms also forward what he posts simultaneously in China. In December 2021, on the occasion of the "Global Summit for Democracy" led by the USA, his studio created a cartoon "Democratic or not, I decide" full of details. It satirized the USA, which claimed to be a beacon of democracy but used democracy as a political tool to satisfy selfish desires, creating tearing and confrontation on a global scale. The studio highly grasped the timeliness. Thus, once it was released, more than 2 million foreign netizens came to watch it and had heated discussions on the meaning of the cartoon and the so-called democracy summit. The viral spread led to a consensus among the audience, which had quite a prominent effect. Xu Zeyu Studio has made full use of the distinctive, free and flexible characteristics of personal accounts to shape Xu to be an international Internet celebrity with strong overseas influence, especially among young audiences. Personalized perspectives and interactive style make Xu's accounts become the main force to advance into the overseas public opinion battlefield, and at the same time open up a new path for all media talents' external communication.
After the establishment of the studio, the text content of Xu's accounts has changed significantly, especially in terms of greater freedom and assertiveness in speech. Before December 2020, his Facebook account mostly shared clips of work and life; while after that, most of the graphs and content with facts have been used to fight back against foreign media's distortions and fabrications of China. For example, in March 2021, during the National Two Sessions, some foreign reporters used upside-down shots to "carefully" compose pictures, so that the Great Hall of the People was framed with an armed police soldier, deliberately creating an atmosphere of aggression and repression, while Xu shot at these Western reporters to reveal the secrets about how these photos were produced and directly pointed to the "good intentions" of foreign media.
From self-cutting to team-planning, from text output to video and comics, it is not difficult to find after the studio's establishment, special personnel are responsible for creative copywriting, video shooting and editing, post-production packaging, etc. The small but sophisticated team maximizes the professional advantages of each member so that Xu can ensure quality and quantity in external communication and establish his brand to build China's image. As of March 31, 2022, Xu's accounts have a total of 3.35 million fans on the three major overseas platforms, with the largest total overseas fans of a reporter from official state media in China.
Under the empowerment of mainstream media, Xu Zeyu and his team have rapidly grown into the opinion leader who can tell Chinese stories well, which has improved China's international public opinion environment from quantitative to qualitative change.

Comparative analysis
Comparing the studios of Zhang Yang and Xu Zeyu horizontally, their focuses and vertical fields of their work are different.
First, in terms of image and attitude, the former uses a gentle and intellectual image to the people, intensively cultivates domestic current affairs news, updates the reporting form, and attaches great importance to the flexible expression of "hard" news. Meanwhile, taking into account foreign English communication, she shortens the distance between domestic audiences and major hotspots such as the National Two Sessions, aerospace and Olympic events. The latter usually confronts conflicts and asks questions directly on overseas platforms. It can be seen from the comment area that the majority of overseas netizens recognize its responsible attitude and proof content.
Second, in terms of social interaction, Zhang Yang Studio has always maintained a dynamic cooperative relationship with Xinhua. For example, at Bilibili, the live broadcasts and video news of Zhang Yang's participation released by "Xinhua News Agency", "Xinhua Net" and "Lamb in the Flower House" accounts are different but complementary; while the interaction between Xu Zeyu Studio and Xinhua is realized through the reprinting of works, especially his original comic works are often directly forwarded to Xinhua's Weibo, Douyin and other domestic social platforms so that a win-win communication effect of two-way drainage has been achieved.
It can be seen that based on different strategic goals to achieve accurate communication for specific target groups, the two studios of Xinhua have embarked on paths with personal characteristics: for domestic audiences, especially the young generation, the new means of disseminating hard-core news can enhance the politics popularity and national identity; for external readers, in the face of discourse hegemony, the popular reporters should speak out and the international news content need adhere to China's standpoint, overcome cross-cultural barriers and is easy to resonate, which can better shape China's international image.

Boosting the Construction of New Mainstream Media
In 2021, Xi Jinping, general secretary of CPC emphasized the need to strengthen international communication capabilities and build new world-class mainstream media. The new mainstream media need to take into account the functions and attributes of emerging media and mainstream media to have strong strength, communication power, credibility and influence, and at the same time have various forms and advanced means. [4] However, the existing mainstream media still have weaknesses such as one-way communication, weak interaction and insufficient personalization. [5] At present, the in-depth integration of media is facing the era of digital communication, so the differentiated, vertical and diversified communication subjects make the traditional discourse system of mainstream media face multiple challenges. [6] In conclusion, it is the only way for the development of media integration to create a group of new mainstream media with strong influence and competitiveness, and the studio system is a major attempt to promote this kind of construction.

Tap the Infinite Potential of Personal Studios
In May 2020, Xinhua's Bilibili account released Two Sessions Vlogs from 3 female reporters for the first time. After that, Zhang Yang, who received the best response, set up a personal studio. By analyzing the characteristics of the audience, Zhang Yang Studio communicates with the young people with heart and emotion in a new form of work.
On the one hand, Xinhua has created a personal IP image with the national agency character. Main theme value and lightweight presentation are organically combined to achieve flexible news output with both main theme and personal characteristics, allowing "hard" news to be "soft" and mainstream voices spread more far-reaching in cyberspace.
On the other hand, Zhang Yang Studio has actively explored and located the audience's resonance in the aspects of emotion, cognition, values, etc. and realized the two-way communication. For example, Zhang answered netizens' comments by sharing her own experience and life stories to establish a solid bond with the fans in a relaxed and pleasant way. In addition, according to statistics, the update frequency of her Bilibili account is once a week, and it will be once a day during the major meeting period. Regular and timely updates also ensure the timeliness of news topics to the greatest extent.
The IP-based trend of hosts, reporters and producers is a new media environment to meet the audience's needs. [7] For example, HNTV, which is oriented toward program creativity and production, has established studios with producers as cores; while CGTN has established host studios. Therefore, when setting up a studio, the media must consider the positioning and characteristic needs, train more talented troops, choose the representative or form with the best communication effect, and establish a studio that conforms to the path and style of media operation. IP image is firstly shaped by the media audience base, but the continuous expansion of individual fans will produce marginal effects for media and realize a virtuous circle of media value-added.

Explore the Development Path of Personal Studios
Selecting good talents, providing a broad platform for development, and setting up studios are essentially the efficient integration of human resources, which will stimulate teams' vitality, maximize comprehensive advantages and promote news innovation and quality improvement.
Represented by Xu Zeyu Studio, there are special personnel in charge of copywriting creativity, video shooting, visual designing and other positions. They will use individual special sessions to form a small but sophisticated team with both professionalism and combat effectiveness, which is an accurate attempt to match the target direction.

Revise the Current Direction of the Studio System
The existing studio system also exposed many problems and deficiencies. First, in terms of a clear talent selection and assessment mechanism, the media at all levels need to be further improved. At present, most of the media select people to set up studios from hosts and reporters with rich experience, ignoring the new generation of young people. However, the inherent selection method is difficult to stimulate the creativity and vitality of journalists. Therefore, the media should strengthen the reserve of high-quality talents, formulate a quantitative and specific assessment and selection mechanism, and promote fairer competition.
Secondly, there is little information on the positioning and organizational structure of media studios in the existing public information, resulting in many audiences being unaware of the existence of studios, which can't achieve a virtuous circle of IP and media empowerment.
Third, in terms of assessment and incentive mechanisms, the system is not perfect, which also needs to improve the access, assessment and exit standards, and attach importance to the construction of studio incubators to connect resources and guarantees. Moreover, it need incubate content and industry chains to promote marketization quickly if the effect is good, and vice versa.
To sum up, under the background of the market economy and the operation mechanism of "public institution, corporation management", the mainstream media at all levels should take the improvement of the management mechanism. Combined with the market economic advantages, mainstream media will be more dynamic and competitive in the context of media transformation.

Conclusion
Only by conforming to the era development and looking to the future can the media better perform its functions and serve society. [8] With the characteristics of lightweight and flattening and the dual attributes of emerging media and mainstream media, the studio system gives hosts and reporters great flexibility and resource advantages. While promoting efficient and high-quality news content production, it also enhances communication capabilities and effectiveness. In the context of media integration and transformation, Xinhua News Agency has achieved remarkable results in the construction of personal studios and taken the lead in the central media. In the next step, the central and local media at all levels will have the dual advantages of internal and external communication in a wider dimension and a deeper level. As the light cavalry, the personal studio will tell more Chinese stories well on the main battlefield, to build a three-dimensional China international image.