Login | Register

Media savvy and lateral surveillance among reality TV audiences

Title:

Media savvy and lateral surveillance among reality TV audiences

Trottier, Daniel (2006) Media savvy and lateral surveillance among reality TV audiences. Masters thesis, Concordia University.

[thumbnail of MR20716.pdf]
Preview
Text (application/pdf)
MR20716.pdf - Accepted Version
6MB

Abstract

Contemporary media outlets call upon an increasingly interactive engagement from audiences. Reality television in particular invites its viewers to offer feedback through a plurality of modes, notably through the internet and text messaging from portable devices. To employ Erving Goffman (1959), it is through a multi-modal appraisal of media texts that audiences are given access to a backstage where deliberate constructions of reality are sustained. This savvy engagement with media texts and media devices among audiences resonates with the expansion of practices and discourses of lateral surveillance. Through a cynical assessment of interpersonal relations as risky, discursive subjects are invited to adopt strategies---also through media devices---to monitor their peers. To this end, this research calls attention to the increasing convergence of media savvy and lateral surveillance in contemporary reality television. Here, reality television instantiates the proliferation of both strategies. In particular I am looking at Big Brother , a longstanding reality program where audiences monitor purportedly real people who are contained within an enclosure. I conduct a discourse analysis of House Calls , an online call-in talk show produced by CBS for Big Brother fans. This talk show offers a behind-the-scenes interpretation of Big Brother , and enables a critical appraisal of the program among audiences. Additionally, I will conduct an analysis of audience engagement with this discourse by looking at audience conversations about House Calls on an audience-generated online message board

Divisions:Concordia University > Faculty of Arts and Science > Sociology and Anthropology
Item Type:Thesis (Masters)
Authors:Trottier, Daniel
Pagination:vii, 134 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm.
Institution:Concordia University
Degree Name:M.A.
Program:Sociology and Anthropology
Date:2006
Thesis Supervisor(s):Simon, Bart
Identification Number:LE 3 C66S63M 2006 T76
ID Code:9003
Deposited By: Concordia University Library
Deposited On:18 Aug 2011 18:42
Last Modified:13 Jul 2020 20:05
Related URLs:
All items in Spectrum are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved. The use of items is governed by Spectrum's terms of access.

Repository Staff Only: item control page

Downloads per month over past year

Research related to the current document (at the CORE website)
- Research related to the current document (at the CORE website)
Back to top Back to top