Michael Keane, Anthony Fung, and Albert Moran
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789622098206
- eISBN:
- 9789882207219
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789622098206.003.0009
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Television
This chapter examines the influence of reality-television formats in East Asia and looks at how they function as alternative models of program investment and production. While reality television is a ...
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This chapter examines the influence of reality-television formats in East Asia and looks at how they function as alternative models of program investment and production. While reality television is a product of European and North American television systems, it has a different provenance in East Asian society. Reality television provides a fresh alternative to documentary, an expository form that state-owned broadcasters actively exploited for the explicit purpose of state-building. In 2002, the first survival reality show in East Asia, Into Shangrila, was conceived in China. Within a short time, other programs emerged such as Perfect Holiday and Indiana Jones. Most of these shows were promoted as exercises in documentary anthropology rather than just escapist game shows.Less
This chapter examines the influence of reality-television formats in East Asia and looks at how they function as alternative models of program investment and production. While reality television is a product of European and North American television systems, it has a different provenance in East Asian society. Reality television provides a fresh alternative to documentary, an expository form that state-owned broadcasters actively exploited for the explicit purpose of state-building. In 2002, the first survival reality show in East Asia, Into Shangrila, was conceived in China. Within a short time, other programs emerged such as Perfect Holiday and Indiana Jones. Most of these shows were promoted as exercises in documentary anthropology rather than just escapist game shows.
John Corner
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719082603
- eISBN:
- 9781781703182
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719082603.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This book explores how issues of power, form and subjectivity feature at the core of all serious thinking about the media, including appreciations of their creativity as well as anxiety about the ...
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This book explores how issues of power, form and subjectivity feature at the core of all serious thinking about the media, including appreciations of their creativity as well as anxiety about the risks they pose. Drawing widely on an interdisciplinary literature, the author connects his exposition to examples from film, television, radio, photography, painting, web practice, music and writing in order to bring in topics as diverse as reporting the war in Afghanistan, the televising of football, documentary portrayals of 9/11, reality television, the diversity of taste in the arts and the construction of civic identity. The book is divided into two parts. In the first part, three big chapters on each of the key notions provide an interconnected discussion of the media activities opened up for exploration and the debates they have provoked. The second part presents examples, arguments and analysis drawing on the author's previous work around the core themes, with notes placing them in the context of the whole book. The book brings together concepts both from Social Studies and the Arts and Humanities, addressing a readership wider than the sub-specialisms of media research. It refreshes ideas about why the media matter, and how understanding them better remains a key aim of cultural inquiry and a continuing requirement for public policy.Less
This book explores how issues of power, form and subjectivity feature at the core of all serious thinking about the media, including appreciations of their creativity as well as anxiety about the risks they pose. Drawing widely on an interdisciplinary literature, the author connects his exposition to examples from film, television, radio, photography, painting, web practice, music and writing in order to bring in topics as diverse as reporting the war in Afghanistan, the televising of football, documentary portrayals of 9/11, reality television, the diversity of taste in the arts and the construction of civic identity. The book is divided into two parts. In the first part, three big chapters on each of the key notions provide an interconnected discussion of the media activities opened up for exploration and the debates they have provoked. The second part presents examples, arguments and analysis drawing on the author's previous work around the core themes, with notes placing them in the context of the whole book. The book brings together concepts both from Social Studies and the Arts and Humanities, addressing a readership wider than the sub-specialisms of media research. It refreshes ideas about why the media matter, and how understanding them better remains a key aim of cultural inquiry and a continuing requirement for public policy.
Kristyn Gorton
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748624171
- eISBN:
- 9780748670956
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748624171.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
An engaging and original study of current research on television audiences and the concept of emotion, this book offers a unique approach to key issues within television studies. Topics discussed ...
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An engaging and original study of current research on television audiences and the concept of emotion, this book offers a unique approach to key issues within television studies. Topics discussed include: television branding; emotional qualities in television texts; audience reception models; fan cultures; 'quality' television; television aesthetics; reality television; individualism and its links to television consumption. The book is divided into two sections: the first covers theoretical work on the audience, fan cultures, global television, theorising emotion and affect in feminist theory and film and television studies. The second half offers a series of case studies on television programmes in order to explore how emotion is fashioned, constructed and valued in televisual texts. The final chapter features original material from interviews with industry professionals in the UK and Irish Soap industries along with advice for students on how to conduct their own small-scale ethnographic projects.Less
An engaging and original study of current research on television audiences and the concept of emotion, this book offers a unique approach to key issues within television studies. Topics discussed include: television branding; emotional qualities in television texts; audience reception models; fan cultures; 'quality' television; television aesthetics; reality television; individualism and its links to television consumption. The book is divided into two sections: the first covers theoretical work on the audience, fan cultures, global television, theorising emotion and affect in feminist theory and film and television studies. The second half offers a series of case studies on television programmes in order to explore how emotion is fashioned, constructed and valued in televisual texts. The final chapter features original material from interviews with industry professionals in the UK and Irish Soap industries along with advice for students on how to conduct their own small-scale ethnographic projects.
Ruth Cruickshank
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199571758
- eISBN:
- 9780191721793
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199571758.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism, European Literature
This chapter examines patterns of crisis in the 1990s prose fictions of Goncourt prize winner Echenoz. Countering contradictory critiques of Echenoz as epitome or observer of postmodernity, it ...
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This chapter examines patterns of crisis in the 1990s prose fictions of Goncourt prize winner Echenoz. Countering contradictory critiques of Echenoz as epitome or observer of postmodernity, it identifies in representations of cultural production (including novels, cinema, the art market, and reality television) implicit critical challenges to the symbolic violence of the mass media. Foregrounding the patterns of a parallel crisis‐generating postcolonial economy underlying the global market, it also identifies how Echenoz's avoidance of overt criticism risks perpetuating market‐driven stereotypes and misogyny. Analysis of language games and intertexts (including, via Žižek, Hitchcock's Vertigo) identifies how both deliberately and unintentionally Echenoz draws on and draws attention to the agency—critical and oppressive—of different fictional constructions, bringing into the tropes of his novels, the media, and the market alike, and thus leadng readers to consider their own responsibility in challenging or perpetuating symbolic violence.Less
This chapter examines patterns of crisis in the 1990s prose fictions of Goncourt prize winner Echenoz. Countering contradictory critiques of Echenoz as epitome or observer of postmodernity, it identifies in representations of cultural production (including novels, cinema, the art market, and reality television) implicit critical challenges to the symbolic violence of the mass media. Foregrounding the patterns of a parallel crisis‐generating postcolonial economy underlying the global market, it also identifies how Echenoz's avoidance of overt criticism risks perpetuating market‐driven stereotypes and misogyny. Analysis of language games and intertexts (including, via Žižek, Hitchcock's Vertigo) identifies how both deliberately and unintentionally Echenoz draws on and draws attention to the agency—critical and oppressive—of different fictional constructions, bringing into the tropes of his novels, the media, and the market alike, and thus leadng readers to consider their own responsibility in challenging or perpetuating symbolic violence.
Lynn Spigel and Max Dawson
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748626014
- eISBN:
- 9780748670673
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748626014.003.0018
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
In this chapter, Lynn Spiegel and Max Dawson show how American television remained the central medium not just for entertainment, but for discussion of gender roles, race relations, family life and ...
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In this chapter, Lynn Spiegel and Max Dawson show how American television remained the central medium not just for entertainment, but for discussion of gender roles, race relations, family life and other major moral and social issues of the day. They examine the new emphasis on taste and lifestyle in network programming, as well as the continuing under-representation of Latino and other ethnic groups on prime-time shows. They also examine the rise of reality television, the development of a new scheduling policy based on the ‘social arrhythmia’ of the 24-hour information economy, and the rising importance of time-shifting by the end of the period. Finally, they argue that viewers now form a part of television audiences that transcend the old boundaries of the nation-state – even though worldwide audiences continue to interpret programmes in the light of their own local contexts and national concerns.Less
In this chapter, Lynn Spiegel and Max Dawson show how American television remained the central medium not just for entertainment, but for discussion of gender roles, race relations, family life and other major moral and social issues of the day. They examine the new emphasis on taste and lifestyle in network programming, as well as the continuing under-representation of Latino and other ethnic groups on prime-time shows. They also examine the rise of reality television, the development of a new scheduling policy based on the ‘social arrhythmia’ of the 24-hour information economy, and the rising importance of time-shifting by the end of the period. Finally, they argue that viewers now form a part of television audiences that transcend the old boundaries of the nation-state – even though worldwide audiences continue to interpret programmes in the light of their own local contexts and national concerns.
Thomas Austin
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719076893
- eISBN:
- 9781781701775
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719076893.003.0020
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter examines recent commercial and formal developments in the popular and enduring genre of the wildlife documentary on television. It draws on three original qualitative audience studies to ...
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This chapter examines recent commercial and formal developments in the popular and enduring genre of the wildlife documentary on television. It draws on three original qualitative audience studies to look at the responses of viewers to a range of wildlife programming, from high budget ‘blue-chip’ series to hybrids borrowing celebrity presenters and formats from ‘reality television’ and other popular genres. The range of programming and viewer responses analysed in this chapter suggests that assumptions about the audience embedded in some critiques of constructions of nature do not come close to telling the full story of wildlife documentaries on television and their audiences. The chapter also reveals the expectations and engagements, pleasures or irritations, understandings or confusions, derived by the audience from viewing wildlife documentaries.Less
This chapter examines recent commercial and formal developments in the popular and enduring genre of the wildlife documentary on television. It draws on three original qualitative audience studies to look at the responses of viewers to a range of wildlife programming, from high budget ‘blue-chip’ series to hybrids borrowing celebrity presenters and formats from ‘reality television’ and other popular genres. The range of programming and viewer responses analysed in this chapter suggests that assumptions about the audience embedded in some critiques of constructions of nature do not come close to telling the full story of wildlife documentaries on television and their audiences. The chapter also reveals the expectations and engagements, pleasures or irritations, understandings or confusions, derived by the audience from viewing wildlife documentaries.
Kristyn Gorton
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748624171
- eISBN:
- 9780748670956
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748624171.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter considers how we can understand the term 'audience' and critically outlines some of the ways in which the audience has been approached, theorised and researched. It argues that the ...
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This chapter considers how we can understand the term 'audience' and critically outlines some of the ways in which the audience has been approached, theorised and researched. It argues that the history of audience research is characterised by a division between powerful media and powerful viewers; that is, between understanding the media as capable of influencing and therefore affecting viewers and understanding viewers as capable of influencing and therefore affecting the media. This chapter also includes new developments in audience research.Less
This chapter considers how we can understand the term 'audience' and critically outlines some of the ways in which the audience has been approached, theorised and researched. It argues that the history of audience research is characterised by a division between powerful media and powerful viewers; that is, between understanding the media as capable of influencing and therefore affecting viewers and understanding viewers as capable of influencing and therefore affecting the media. This chapter also includes new developments in audience research.
Colin Shaw
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198159377
- eISBN:
- 9780191673603
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198159377.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
The recent history of broadcasting on both sides of the Atlantic, characterised by a great increase in the number of services on offer to the public, has been brought about by technological advances ...
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The recent history of broadcasting on both sides of the Atlantic, characterised by a great increase in the number of services on offer to the public, has been brought about by technological advances and economic pressures. This has inevitably affected traditional forms of content regulation. The book explores the moral basis and history of such regulation as it has until now been applied to major issues of taste and decency. These include the protection of children, obscenity and bad language, and offences against religious sensibility, ‘reality’ television, and stereotyping. This book considers the different constraints (in the law, cultural customs, and self-regulation) affecting broadcasters in Britain and the United States and the means by which they have responded to them. The book describes, with examples, the operations of compliance regulations and standard controls. It also looks at the impact of the First Amendment on American broadcasting in this area. It looks at the arguments for the practicality of maintaining appropriate forms of restraint into the future. This book poses the question of how divided and diverse societies decide what is permissible to broadcast and how the issue might continue to evolve in the future.Less
The recent history of broadcasting on both sides of the Atlantic, characterised by a great increase in the number of services on offer to the public, has been brought about by technological advances and economic pressures. This has inevitably affected traditional forms of content regulation. The book explores the moral basis and history of such regulation as it has until now been applied to major issues of taste and decency. These include the protection of children, obscenity and bad language, and offences against religious sensibility, ‘reality’ television, and stereotyping. This book considers the different constraints (in the law, cultural customs, and self-regulation) affecting broadcasters in Britain and the United States and the means by which they have responded to them. The book describes, with examples, the operations of compliance regulations and standard controls. It also looks at the impact of the First Amendment on American broadcasting in this area. It looks at the arguments for the practicality of maintaining appropriate forms of restraint into the future. This book poses the question of how divided and diverse societies decide what is permissible to broadcast and how the issue might continue to evolve in the future.
Biswarup Sen
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780198092056
- eISBN:
- 9780199082889
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198092056.003.0009
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture
This chapter looks at one well-known format in reality television– Big Brother (Bigg Boss in India) – in order to shed light on the complicated relationship between the forces of globalization, ...
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This chapter looks at one well-known format in reality television– Big Brother (Bigg Boss in India) – in order to shed light on the complicated relationship between the forces of globalization, national and local cultural formations and the dictates of commercially driven entertainment. It analyses the essential features of format television to argue that the very mode of its constitution as an economic and aesthetic object inclines it towards the global. The chapter elucidates the reality behind global cultural formations by discussing the two main theoretical approaches to the question of global culture – cultural imperialism and cultural globalization. It also offers some speculations about how reality television embodies global form and thus functions as a sort of “Bigg Boss” that dictates contemporary modes of meaningful behaviour.Less
This chapter looks at one well-known format in reality television– Big Brother (Bigg Boss in India) – in order to shed light on the complicated relationship between the forces of globalization, national and local cultural formations and the dictates of commercially driven entertainment. It analyses the essential features of format television to argue that the very mode of its constitution as an economic and aesthetic object inclines it towards the global. The chapter elucidates the reality behind global cultural formations by discussing the two main theoretical approaches to the question of global culture – cultural imperialism and cultural globalization. It also offers some speculations about how reality television embodies global form and thus functions as a sort of “Bigg Boss” that dictates contemporary modes of meaningful behaviour.
Emma Hanna
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748633890
- eISBN:
- 9780748671175
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748633890.003.0007
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Television
Programmes broadcast during and after the eightieth anniversaries formed the most public interface where new televisual representations of the conflict collided with the war's history and memory. In ...
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Programmes broadcast during and after the eightieth anniversaries formed the most public interface where new televisual representations of the conflict collided with the war's history and memory. In the twenty-first century, however, a new television programme pushed the boundaries of what had been done by previous documentaries about 1914-18 and stimulated a controversy all of its own. The Trench (BBC, 2002) was the first documentary about the First World War to present its history in a reality-experiential format. Twenty-five male volunteers from Hull lived in a recreated trench to analyse elements of the British infantryman's experience of fighting in the autumn of 1916. Viewers witnessed a world that was never about dry facts, dates and academic squabbling, but about survival in extreme circumstances. The programme was widely reviled by the British press, testament to the fact that in Britain any televisual treatment of 1914-18 must not stray from the accepted three documentary cornerstones of archive film, veterans' testimony and historians.Less
Programmes broadcast during and after the eightieth anniversaries formed the most public interface where new televisual representations of the conflict collided with the war's history and memory. In the twenty-first century, however, a new television programme pushed the boundaries of what had been done by previous documentaries about 1914-18 and stimulated a controversy all of its own. The Trench (BBC, 2002) was the first documentary about the First World War to present its history in a reality-experiential format. Twenty-five male volunteers from Hull lived in a recreated trench to analyse elements of the British infantryman's experience of fighting in the autumn of 1916. Viewers witnessed a world that was never about dry facts, dates and academic squabbling, but about survival in extreme circumstances. The programme was widely reviled by the British press, testament to the fact that in Britain any televisual treatment of 1914-18 must not stray from the accepted three documentary cornerstones of archive film, veterans' testimony and historians.
Katherine Sender
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814740699
- eISBN:
- 9780814738979
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814740699.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter discusses the tensions that structure audiences' discussions of makeover television: tensions that involve learning, identification, gender, shame, authenticity, realism, and feeling. To ...
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This chapter discusses the tensions that structure audiences' discussions of makeover television: tensions that involve learning, identification, gender, shame, authenticity, realism, and feeling. To hold these tensions in a productive relationship, the chapter draws on contemporary theorizations of reflexivity across a number of fields, exploring how audiences talk about the reflexive self as an accomplishment produced partly through their engagement with makeover television. Looking at two makeover television shows—Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and Starting Over—the chapter considers analyses of modern, mediated selfhood and delves into the field of scholarly critiques of reality television that are based largely on textual analysis of television shows. It also draws on conversations with audiences about their engagements with makeover television.Less
This chapter discusses the tensions that structure audiences' discussions of makeover television: tensions that involve learning, identification, gender, shame, authenticity, realism, and feeling. To hold these tensions in a productive relationship, the chapter draws on contemporary theorizations of reflexivity across a number of fields, exploring how audiences talk about the reflexive self as an accomplishment produced partly through their engagement with makeover television. Looking at two makeover television shows—Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and Starting Over—the chapter considers analyses of modern, mediated selfhood and delves into the field of scholarly critiques of reality television that are based largely on textual analysis of television shows. It also draws on conversations with audiences about their engagements with makeover television.
Kristyn Gorton
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748624171
- eISBN:
- 9780748670956
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748624171.003.0008
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter considers how emotion functions within reality and lifestyle television. It argues that emotion is sometimes used as a social tool in a way that obscures differences of class, gender and ...
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This chapter considers how emotion functions within reality and lifestyle television. It argues that emotion is sometimes used as a social tool in a way that obscures differences of class, gender and race. Thus, while superficially operating as light entertainment, many reality or lifestyle television programmes such as Wife Swap seek legitimacy through a suggestion that they play a deeper pedagogic role: they invite us, the audience, to reflect on our intimate feelings and relationships through an empathetic engagement with the participants. Using devices such as the 'video diary' and the staging of final meetings between participants, programmes such as this use emotion as a tool to suggest that differences of class, race, sexuality and gender can easily be overcome through the emotional medium of a 'good cry'. Programmes such as Wife Swap play an ideological role in establishing notions of 'home' and in transmitting the emotions we should associate with 'home'. As viewers, we are drawn into an emotional engagement with the participants which on many levels reiterates our feelings of community, belonging and humanity; and yet, we are also complicit in perpetuating an individualised society that encourages us to make judgement on those around us.Less
This chapter considers how emotion functions within reality and lifestyle television. It argues that emotion is sometimes used as a social tool in a way that obscures differences of class, gender and race. Thus, while superficially operating as light entertainment, many reality or lifestyle television programmes such as Wife Swap seek legitimacy through a suggestion that they play a deeper pedagogic role: they invite us, the audience, to reflect on our intimate feelings and relationships through an empathetic engagement with the participants. Using devices such as the 'video diary' and the staging of final meetings between participants, programmes such as this use emotion as a tool to suggest that differences of class, race, sexuality and gender can easily be overcome through the emotional medium of a 'good cry'. Programmes such as Wife Swap play an ideological role in establishing notions of 'home' and in transmitting the emotions we should associate with 'home'. As viewers, we are drawn into an emotional engagement with the participants which on many levels reiterates our feelings of community, belonging and humanity; and yet, we are also complicit in perpetuating an individualised society that encourages us to make judgement on those around us.
Katherine Sender
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814740699
- eISBN:
- 9780814738979
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814740699.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
Watch this show, buy this product, you can be a whole new you! Makeover television shows repeatedly promise self-renewal and the opportunity for reinvention, but what do we know about the people who ...
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Watch this show, buy this product, you can be a whole new you! Makeover television shows repeatedly promise self-renewal and the opportunity for reinvention, but what do we know about the people who watch them? As it turns out, surprisingly little. This is the first book to consider the rapid rise of makeover shows from the perspectives of their viewers. It argues that this genre of reality television continues a long history of self-improvement, shaped through contemporary media, technological, and economic contexts. Most people think that reality television viewers are ideological dupes and obliging consumers. This book, however, finds that they have a much more nuanced and reflexive approach to the shows they watch. They are critical of the instruction, the consumer plugs, and the manipulative editing in the shows. At the same time, they buy into the shows' imperative to construct a reflexive self: an inner self that can be seen as if from the outside, and must be explored and expressed to others. The book intervenes in debates about both reality television and audience research, offering the concept of the reflexive self to move these debates forward.Less
Watch this show, buy this product, you can be a whole new you! Makeover television shows repeatedly promise self-renewal and the opportunity for reinvention, but what do we know about the people who watch them? As it turns out, surprisingly little. This is the first book to consider the rapid rise of makeover shows from the perspectives of their viewers. It argues that this genre of reality television continues a long history of self-improvement, shaped through contemporary media, technological, and economic contexts. Most people think that reality television viewers are ideological dupes and obliging consumers. This book, however, finds that they have a much more nuanced and reflexive approach to the shows they watch. They are critical of the instruction, the consumer plugs, and the manipulative editing in the shows. At the same time, they buy into the shows' imperative to construct a reflexive self: an inner self that can be seen as if from the outside, and must be explored and expressed to others. The book intervenes in debates about both reality television and audience research, offering the concept of the reflexive self to move these debates forward.
Laurie Ouellette
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814764695
- eISBN:
- 9780814724989
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814764695.003.0005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter explains that in an era of neoliberalism—the liberalization of market constraints and the reduction of government social services in favor of private enterprise—citizens are increasingly ...
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This chapter explains that in an era of neoliberalism—the liberalization of market constraints and the reduction of government social services in favor of private enterprise—citizens are increasingly asked to invest in discourses of self-branding and self-management as means of attaining success. It views the emergence of reality television programs as part of the process of normalizing the ethos of self-governance by demonstrating how success and failure are matters of personal choice, creativity in the face of adversity, and the ability to “sell” one's brand to clients. By demonstrating how discourses of self-management are articulated across various subgenres focused on gendered, racialized, and classed subjects, the chapter reformulates how such discourses permeate almost every aspect of professional and private lives.Less
This chapter explains that in an era of neoliberalism—the liberalization of market constraints and the reduction of government social services in favor of private enterprise—citizens are increasingly asked to invest in discourses of self-branding and self-management as means of attaining success. It views the emergence of reality television programs as part of the process of normalizing the ethos of self-governance by demonstrating how success and failure are matters of personal choice, creativity in the face of adversity, and the ability to “sell” one's brand to clients. By demonstrating how discourses of self-management are articulated across various subgenres focused on gendered, racialized, and classed subjects, the chapter reformulates how such discourses permeate almost every aspect of professional and private lives.
Christopher Grobe
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781479829170
- eISBN:
- 9781479839599
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479829170.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Television
What do midcentury “confessional” poets have in common with today’s reality TV stars? An inexplicable urge to make their lives an open book, but also a sense that this book can never be finished. ...
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What do midcentury “confessional” poets have in common with today’s reality TV stars? An inexplicable urge to make their lives an open book, but also a sense that this book can never be finished. Christopher Grobe argues that, in postwar America, artists like these forged a new way of being in the world. Identity, now, was a kind of work—always ongoing, never complete—to be performed on the public stage. The Art of Confession tells the history of this cultural shift and of the movement it created in American art: confessionalism. Like realism or Romanticism, confessionalism began in one art form, but soon pervaded them all: poetry and comedy in the 1950s and ’60s, performance art in the ’70s, theater in the ’80s, television in the ’90s, and online video and social media in the 2000s. Everywhere confessionalism went, it stood against autobiography, the art of the closed book. Instead of just publishing, these artists performed—with, around, and against the text of their lives. A blend of cultural history, literary criticism, and performance theory, The Art of Confession explores iconic works of art and draws surprising connections among artists who may seem far apart, but who were influenced directly by one another. Studying extraordinary art alongside ordinary experiences of self-betrayal and -revelation, Grobe argues that a tradition of confessional performance unites poets with comedians, performance artists with social media users, reality TV stars with actors—and all of them with us. There is art, this book shows, in our most artless acts.Less
What do midcentury “confessional” poets have in common with today’s reality TV stars? An inexplicable urge to make their lives an open book, but also a sense that this book can never be finished. Christopher Grobe argues that, in postwar America, artists like these forged a new way of being in the world. Identity, now, was a kind of work—always ongoing, never complete—to be performed on the public stage. The Art of Confession tells the history of this cultural shift and of the movement it created in American art: confessionalism. Like realism or Romanticism, confessionalism began in one art form, but soon pervaded them all: poetry and comedy in the 1950s and ’60s, performance art in the ’70s, theater in the ’80s, television in the ’90s, and online video and social media in the 2000s. Everywhere confessionalism went, it stood against autobiography, the art of the closed book. Instead of just publishing, these artists performed—with, around, and against the text of their lives. A blend of cultural history, literary criticism, and performance theory, The Art of Confession explores iconic works of art and draws surprising connections among artists who may seem far apart, but who were influenced directly by one another. Studying extraordinary art alongside ordinary experiences of self-betrayal and -revelation, Grobe argues that a tradition of confessional performance unites poets with comedians, performance artists with social media users, reality TV stars with actors—and all of them with us. There is art, this book shows, in our most artless acts.
Terrion L. Williamson
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780823274727
- eISBN:
- 9780823274772
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823274727.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
This chapter takes up the position of the infamous “angry black woman” by avoiding righteous, revisionist, or reactionary arguments about black women and anger and instead considering black women’s ...
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This chapter takes up the position of the infamous “angry black woman” by avoiding righteous, revisionist, or reactionary arguments about black women and anger and instead considering black women’s anger as critical posture. The argument neither begins nor ends with the stereotype, but with the supposition that representational discourse has been largely unable to account for anger as an aspect of black female subjectivity. The case is therefore made that anger is inherently bound up with the notion of claim for black women, and accounting for this interaction requires an interrogation into the most intimate of black female spaces. The chapter ultimately turns to a discussion of reality television, Claudia Rankine’s discussion of Serena Williams, and a brief analysis of Toni Morrison’s Sula.Less
This chapter takes up the position of the infamous “angry black woman” by avoiding righteous, revisionist, or reactionary arguments about black women and anger and instead considering black women’s anger as critical posture. The argument neither begins nor ends with the stereotype, but with the supposition that representational discourse has been largely unable to account for anger as an aspect of black female subjectivity. The case is therefore made that anger is inherently bound up with the notion of claim for black women, and accounting for this interaction requires an interrogation into the most intimate of black female spaces. The chapter ultimately turns to a discussion of reality television, Claudia Rankine’s discussion of Serena Williams, and a brief analysis of Toni Morrison’s Sula.
David Brody
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226389097
- eISBN:
- 9780226389264
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226389264.003.0009
- Subject:
- Sociology, Occupations, Professions, and Work
This chapter examines Hotel Impossible, a Travel Channel reality show in which hotel guru Anthony Melchiorri travels to hotels facing fiscal distress and crafts a management, labor, and decorative ...
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This chapter examines Hotel Impossible, a Travel Channel reality show in which hotel guru Anthony Melchiorri travels to hotels facing fiscal distress and crafts a management, labor, and decorative makeover to save them. Brody examines the show’s narrative arc and its perpetuation of the neoliberal dream of taking care of the self in a capitalist-driven marketplace. He focuses on the episodes of Hotel Impossible that deal with the subject of housekeeping, and describes how housekeepers generally remain silent regarding decisions about housekeeping practices. Through his analysis of Hotel Impossible, Brody explores how popular culture represents design’s impact on housekeepers.Less
This chapter examines Hotel Impossible, a Travel Channel reality show in which hotel guru Anthony Melchiorri travels to hotels facing fiscal distress and crafts a management, labor, and decorative makeover to save them. Brody examines the show’s narrative arc and its perpetuation of the neoliberal dream of taking care of the self in a capitalist-driven marketplace. He focuses on the episodes of Hotel Impossible that deal with the subject of housekeeping, and describes how housekeepers generally remain silent regarding decisions about housekeeping practices. Through his analysis of Hotel Impossible, Brody explores how popular culture represents design’s impact on housekeepers.
Terrion L. Williamson
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780823274727
- eISBN:
- 9780823274772
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823274727.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
This chapter examines the trope of the strong black woman by way of the “superwoman” of R&B musical parlance, particularly as expressed by R&B artist Karyn White in her 1988 hit song “Superwoman.” It ...
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This chapter examines the trope of the strong black woman by way of the “superwoman” of R&B musical parlance, particularly as expressed by R&B artist Karyn White in her 1988 hit song “Superwoman.” It extends this discussion to a consideration of the reality television series Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is in order to document the complex enactments of black female social intimacy and to say something about how black women collectively navigate trauma and pain by way of their music, as well as through their interactions with each other.Less
This chapter examines the trope of the strong black woman by way of the “superwoman” of R&B musical parlance, particularly as expressed by R&B artist Karyn White in her 1988 hit song “Superwoman.” It extends this discussion to a consideration of the reality television series Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is in order to document the complex enactments of black female social intimacy and to say something about how black women collectively navigate trauma and pain by way of their music, as well as through their interactions with each other.
Christopher Pullen
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780748694846
- eISBN:
- 9781474418485
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748694846.003.0006
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter considers the representation of the straight girl and the queer guy within varying documentary media forms, considering the notions of social agency and performativity. Foregrounding ...
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This chapter considers the representation of the straight girl and the queer guy within varying documentary media forms, considering the notions of social agency and performativity. Foregrounding both documentary theory and performance studies, the documentary biographical film drama Carrington (Christopher Hampton 1995, UK), offers a historical precedent in the representation of the straight girl and queer guy, all the while foregrounding notions of devotion and intensity. The context of the social actor is further examined in more recent documentary case studies such as Fag Hags: Women Who Love Gay Men (Justine Pimlott 2005, Canada), My Husband Is Gay (Benetta Adamson 2005, UK) and My Husband Is Not Gay (TLC 2015, US), framing the intense relationships between straight girls and queer guys – in many instances relating legal marriages and questioning issues of fidelity. Also the performative potential of reality television is explored in Would Like to Meet (BBC 2001, UK), Boy Meets Boy (Bravo 2003, US) and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (Bravo 2003–7, US), through examining the confines and opportunity of television formats.Less
This chapter considers the representation of the straight girl and the queer guy within varying documentary media forms, considering the notions of social agency and performativity. Foregrounding both documentary theory and performance studies, the documentary biographical film drama Carrington (Christopher Hampton 1995, UK), offers a historical precedent in the representation of the straight girl and queer guy, all the while foregrounding notions of devotion and intensity. The context of the social actor is further examined in more recent documentary case studies such as Fag Hags: Women Who Love Gay Men (Justine Pimlott 2005, Canada), My Husband Is Gay (Benetta Adamson 2005, UK) and My Husband Is Not Gay (TLC 2015, US), framing the intense relationships between straight girls and queer guys – in many instances relating legal marriages and questioning issues of fidelity. Also the performative potential of reality television is explored in Would Like to Meet (BBC 2001, UK), Boy Meets Boy (Bravo 2003, US) and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (Bravo 2003–7, US), through examining the confines and opportunity of television formats.
Lori Kido Lopez
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781479867820
- eISBN:
- 9781479802340
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479867820.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
Lori Kido Lopez considers the ethics of watching Freakshow, a reality television show that aired on U.S. cable channel AMC from 2013 to 2014. Taking into consideration the racial and disability ...
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Lori Kido Lopez considers the ethics of watching Freakshow, a reality television show that aired on U.S. cable channel AMC from 2013 to 2014. Taking into consideration the racial and disability politics of historical freak shows, Lopez closely analyzes three African American performers and their relationships to the white male proprietor of the Venice Beach Freakshow. This chapter moves beyond representational critiques and offers “listening” as a way to ethically engage with this and other media that offer seemingly exploitative or depoliticized visions of intersectional marginalized identities.Less
Lori Kido Lopez considers the ethics of watching Freakshow, a reality television show that aired on U.S. cable channel AMC from 2013 to 2014. Taking into consideration the racial and disability politics of historical freak shows, Lopez closely analyzes three African American performers and their relationships to the white male proprietor of the Venice Beach Freakshow. This chapter moves beyond representational critiques and offers “listening” as a way to ethically engage with this and other media that offer seemingly exploitative or depoliticized visions of intersectional marginalized identities.
