Browsing by Subject "reality television"
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Item Losing Sight of Ourselves: A Theoretical Analysis of Reality Television in the United States(2014-06-11) Collins, Megan EThe focus of this research is the emergence and encouragement of the false self in our society and how this is portrayed through four reality television shows: Toddlers and Tiaras, Hoarders, Sister Wives and Catfish: The TV Show. Content analysis in combination with various theoretical perspectives will be utilized in order to examine the effects of narcissism, consumerism and the emergence of the false self. The limitless character of a consumer society coupled with narcissism and an increased focus on the self contributes to the development of the false self within the individual. People may not even be aware of the push to be narcissistic, focused on our own biographies and self-promotion, yet people are aware of their suffering and unhappiness. Many individuals are left questioning why it is that they are never completely satisfied even as they accumulate notoriety, success, material wealth and possessions. An ideology of greatness and being the best is found in so many avenues of our daily lives, and at times it can be overwhelming, and if we do not possess these skills and qualities we are encouraged to just fake it.Item Losing Sight of Ourselves: Applying Durkheim. Giddens, Baudrillard and Vaknin to Reality Television(2011-02-22) Collins, Megan ElizabethAn application of theory to various reality television shows in order to discuss the emergence and encouragement of the false self in our society is the focus of this work. Toddlers and Tiaras, Hoarders and Sister Wives are the three television shows that will be analyzed by using content analysis in order to examine the effects of consumerism, narcissism and the emergence of the false self. The limitless character of the economy coupled with narcissism and an increased focus on the self contributes to the development of the false self within the individual. People may not even be aware of the push to be narcissistic, focused on our own biographies and self-promotion, yet people are aware of their suffering and unhappiness. Many individuals are left questioning why it is that they are never completely satisfied even as they accumulate notoriety, success, material wealth and possessions. An ideology of greatness and being the best is found in so many avenues of our daily lives, and at times it can be overwhelming, and if we do not possess these skills and qualities we are encouraged to just fake it.Item The Ritual of the Runway: Studying Social Order and Gender Identity in "Project Runway"(2011-02-22) Schweikhard Robison, Andrea R.Project Runway premiered on Bravo TV on December 1st, 2004, and is now in its sixth season, which aired on Lifetime. On Project Runway, designer contestants live together in apartments in downtown New York for the duration of filming and work on weekly challenges at Parsons The New School for Design. I am interested in determining the ways in which reality shows like Project Runway both allow and restrict the display of gender and sexual identity for contestants through the construction of a social order. This study is a textual analysis of all five currently released seasons of Project Runway. I draw from theories of social interaction to provide the interpretive framework for this study. In order to conduct the textual analysis, I purchased all five currently released seasons of Project Runway and watched them all in order one time through, making notes as I watched them. I then went back through individual episodes to hone in on key themes and framing devices. As I watched, I looked for commonalities across episodes and seasons that demonstrate elements of a manufactured social order, including rules, codes and norms that were formed both through official ceremony by the producers as well as those that emerged and were passed down unofficially through the contestants living and working together. I also looked for the various ways that performances of sexuality were allowed or constrained within this social world. I then divided the data from the analysis into two distinct chapters: the first one (Chapter III) deals entirely with the way in which social order was created and presented on Project Runway, and the second (Chapter IV) explores the way that roles and gender identities are regulated and displayed within that social order. Despite the seventy-four contestants of various gender and sexual orientation, designers on Project Runway are portrayed performing their identities within a limited range of roles. Gay male designers, while given some degree of authority within the realm of women's clothing, are represented through a series of hyper-ritualizations that tend to perpetuate stereotypes rather then challenge them. Straight male designers have few options for enacting their sexual identity on the show, and these often also play to stereotypes of masculinity. Female designers are generally not allowed to perform sexuality as part of their identities and are restricted to playing the part of the hysterical, bitchy or motherly female. Furthermore, these gender and sexual identities serve to allow and restrict certain characters in their place at Bryant Park. Patriarchal gay men and sensitive straight men are given a shot at the prize, while women are only allowed to win if they do not perform their womanhood. Left in the margins, the performance of mothers, non-patriarchal gays and non-parental straight men always end with an "auf Weidersehen."Item ?The True Story of Seven Strangers Picked to Have Their Lives Taped?: Studying Race as Constructed on Reality Television(2012-10-19) Filoteo, JanieThe present work examines the construction of race on reality television through the use of an exemplar in this genre, MTV's The Real World. By the sheer fact of its popularity and ubiquity, as The Real World is nearly two decades old and is the longest-running example of the genre, reality television programming warrants deeper academic investigation. The present work argues that as we are consuming mass media, we are also consuming specific ideas about our social world. These ideas inform audiences and are necessary to uncover in order to learn about the social structure of our racialized society. Findings reveal race and ethnicity is embedded in our culture and how this show has communicated race through its depiction and even exclusion. Further, findings reveal that racial and ethnic relations are most often depicted as a "Black versus White" issue. The current work focuses specifically on the construction of race because of the similarly ubiquitous nature of race in society. Because The Real World is a long-running series, it provides an ample database from which to sample for a discourse analysis. The show is marketed and viewed by a specific target audience such that it allows for the exploration of one of the research arguments: that we must continue to rethink and challenge our view that mass media audience members, specifically here television, are passive consumers of material. The present work seeks to extend the application of theoretical contributions of Hall, Morley, Ang, and Jenkins by applying models to a type of programming that complicates the vision of media where consumers and producers are identifiably different spheres. The field of reality television programming is unique because of its dependence on viewers to become cast members and participants in the media production process. Finally, as previous research has shown, even in fictional settings viewers have conflated the individual who plays a character and the character the actor is playing. Thus by analyzing issues of race, where the line between real and unreal is purposely blurred the impact of how race is constructed can be quite great.