ABSTRACT
The factors that determine the effect of communication are not so much the charm of art itself as the power of the media, and symbols provide us with a unique perspective to understand media. The advantage of television media over the printed media lies in the sense of reality and truthfulness that the former creates for the audience. The signified of television's pictorial signs are the mental representations or the creative messages that those images evoke in the minds of the audience. It is widely accepted that "seeing is believing." In Chinese, there is a proverb that goes together with it, which is "hearing is disbelieving." The difference between the real and the illusory is precisely what differentiates that which can be witnessed with the eye and that which can be imagined on learning the information via hearing. The technological revolution of the communication media has made it possible for the pictorial signs of television to acquire a brand-new expressiveness.
