Born to Be "Useful"? A Critical Discourse Analysis on News Reporting of Talent in Taiwan

This study aims to illustrate news discourse of “talents” and the ideology struggle about talents and their usefulness in Taiwan’s newspapers by anchoring two major news events: Show girls from National Taiwan University and National TsingHua University graduate working in Australia.
Adopting Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis and by borrowing the concept of usefulness and uselessness, the study notes that, on the base of Human Capital Theory, a “useful” talent in Taiwan should develop what he has learned to make himself a profitable individual and has recognizable contribution to the country. This viewpoint has predominated in the development of talent cultivation since the end of WWII, leading to “marketization” and “industrialization” in higher education. With this background, this study examines how this viewpoint influences news discourse.
The news discourse of Show Girls from NTU shows three major ideologies of usefulness/uselessness: Usefulness of NTU Students, Uselessness of Body Exhibition and Usefulness of Show Girls and Entertainers. The first and the second arguements point out students from NTU should put what they have been learned into practice due to considerable quantities of national investment and thus should not get a job of body exhibition, while the last one, consisting of the words of show girls from NTU, demonstrates the profitability of this job and the equal importance of their beauty, showing the concept of neo-liberalism homo oeconomicus. Nevertheless, they still claim their application of what they learned at NTU and avoid recognizing the eroticism relating to this job, which manifests the conspiracy of the ideologies of “NTU student’s usefulness” and patriarchy that diminish the resisting force of market value, expelling show girl from the domain of usefulness of talent.
The news discourse of NTHU graduate working in Australia also shows three major ideologies of usefulness/uselessness: Uselessness of Labor, Uselessness of Country and Usefulness of Working Holiday. The first and the second arguements show the contempt toward physical labor and earning money abroad, while the last one, mostly consisting of Working holiday visa holders, claims the usefulness of working holiday by excluding people doing physical labor for making money, as well as celebrating the positive effects of working holiday that results from the cultural capital bestowed by Taiwan’s geo-political imagination of Australia. News discourse here also shows the concept of neo-liberalism homo oeconomicus. However, it just recognizes partial value of working holiday and brings about more crises.
These two cases both show the conflicts and negotiation of ideologies of usefulness and uselessness. News discourse should open up broader space for various discussions, providing more complicated thinking toward talent issues in Taiwan.