I used to be a fan of Super Trio Mega Show . My whole family watched the one-hour programme during dinner time and enjoyed it. Of all the games featured in the programme, the imitation dance was the most impressive. Actors and actresses were paired up and had to imitate a demonstration by professional dancers. The funny and exaggerated imitations always made audiences laugh. 'Super Ping-Pong' was a game designed to test contestants' wits. The 'Dress Up and Hide' game was a lot of fun as members from the audience in the recording studio were invited to join in. The 13-episode programme ended in early spring. However, a television viewing war started recently when heroine 'Little Swallow' hit Hong Kong screens. Viewer ratings for the ATV prime time drama My Fair Princess were so high that TVB had to make some programme alterations to remain competitive. It re-packaged Super Trio Mega Show in an attempt to win audiences back. Tricks are usually used in media wars. Violence, sex and gossip are used to attract viewers. Top-selling newspapers such as Apple Daily and the Sun use them to attract readers. They print photos of dead or naked bodies on their front page, using sex and violence to attract readers. Prime time 'infotainment' programmes such as Hong Kong Today and Man's Frontier also use these tricks. Celebrity Teresa Cheung Siu-wai's story became the hottest gossip in town. One episode of the Super show featured Dicky Cheung and his ex-girlfriend Kong Yan- yin. They had to play games such as sucking ping-pong balls and imitating the poses of stuffed dolls. Both games had sexual overtones. In the ping-pong game, the players' lips could easily touch. In the doll game, poses were suggestive of love making. The former lovers' intimate poses could start rumours. It was distasteful entertainment. The players were embarrassed and the audience might have been shocked. What can we do about these 'bad taste' situations? First, think about the alternatives we have - we could switch channels or switch off the television. We could resort to channels of complaint such as the Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority. We could also think of some healthy and creative games for the show and send our ideas to the producer. We want not only a clean media environment but we also want to watch creative and entertaining programmes. Sitting in front of the television and waiting for miracles to happen would neither do us any good nor speed up the process of change. Ms Mok is assistant Cultural Pavilion manager at Breakthrough Youth Village Media education is a discipline run by youth organisation Breakthrough in which students learn how to use and criticise the media through the teaching of media awareness, media analysis and media creation. This column will present interesting aspects of the subject with examples from daily life
