新世纪以来，中国电视纪录片的媒介生态环境发生极大变化。20世纪90年代初裹挟在商业性大众文化中的“娱乐”作为对社会生活泛政治化的一种反抗发展至今日以摧枯拉朽之势将其它精神的空间挤占得越来越少，低俗、浅显的娱乐所带来的高收视、高回报让我们陷于娱乐至死的传媒环境，这让以精英文化自居的电视纪录片为了谋求自身的生存与发展纷纷从栏目化向频道化进发。频道化为纪录片的生存和发展提供了新的契机，但急剧缩水的制作时间和急剧增加的播出压力让大部分栏目下生存的纪录片成为了完全意义上的小成本纪录片，它们呈现了与传统纪录片完全不一样的精神特质。虽然这些小成本纪录片还是采用真实的影像作为原始素材，但传统纪录片中对人自身的观照、对社会变迁的反省追问、以及对人性真善美的追求在小成本纪录片中消失了，形式上的浮华炫目、手段上的嬉戏热闹以及表现内容的玩耍爆料让大部分小成本纪录片成为满足观众感官刺激的文化快餐。小成本纪录片的精英文化精神特质被大众文化精神特质倾轧、挤占甚至取代，纪录片特有的审美取向和文化品位被消费和降低。本文以现实题材的小成本纪录片为研究蓝本，着重探讨了怎样从实际工作中提升小成本纪录片的精神品格，包括案头准备、节目架构、和主题提炼等方面，并进一步分析了新媒体环境为小成本纪录片在制作和传播上带来的新契机。

Media ecological environment has largely changed since the new century.With the development of entertainment program in commercial mass culture running against politicized social life, it has occupied absolutely dominant position in people’s spiritual life since last decade of 20th century. High audience rating and profit from the vulgar and simple entertainment program indulges us in the media environment of only recreation, which compels the TV documentaries that was regarded as elite culture to change from column program to channelized one for their own development and survival. Channelized program provides new opportunities to documentary for their development and survival, but most channelized documentaries become complete low cost ones because of sharply shrunk producing time and high broadcasting pressure. Their spiritual character is totally different with the traditional documentaries.Though these low cost documentaries still use real images as original materials, they already turn into the cultural fast food with florid and dazzling form, frolic and noisy means and exposed content because many old and good features in traditional documentaries can not be found such as pursuing the truth, the good and the beautiful, reviewing and asking social change, taking care of human beings themselves. The elite cultural spiritual character of the low cost documentary is squeezed, or encroached or replaced by mass cultural spiritual character. The special aesthetic trend and cultural taste of the documentary is decreased and consumed Using reality material of low cost documentary as studying text in this paper, I stress the importance of how to elevate spiritual character of the low cost documentary, including preparing case, program structure and refining theme of program, and I also further analyze the new opportunities to producing and spreading the low cost documentary in new media environment.