Reacting to Reality Television: Performance, Audience and Value

261 Pages·2012·3.042 MB·English

by  Beverley Skeggs, Helen Wood

Reacting to Reality Television
The unremitting explosion of reality television across the schedules has become a
sustainable global phenomenon generating considerable popular and political
fervour.
The zeal with which television executives seize on easily replicated formats is
matched by the eagerness of audiences to offer themselves up as television partici-
pants for others to watch and criticize. But how do we react to so many people
breaking down, fronting up, tearing apart, dominating, empathizing, humiliating,
and seemingly laying bare their raw emotion for our entertainment? Do we feel sad
when others are sad? Or are we relieved by the knowledge that our circumstances
might be better? As reality television extends into the experiences of the everyday, it
makes dramatic and often shocking the mundane aspects of our intimate relations,
inviting us as viewers into a volatile arena of mediated morality.
This book addresses the impact of this endless opening out of intimacy as an
entertainment trend that erodes the traditional boundaries between spectator and
performer, demanding new tools for capturing television’s relationships with audi-
ences. Rather than asking how the reality television genre is interpreted as text or
representationtheauthorsinvestigatethepoliticsofviewerencountersasinterventions,
evocations and more generally mediated social relations.
The authors show how different reactions can involve viewers in tournaments of
value, as women viewers empathize and struggle to validate their own lives. The
authorsusethesedetailedresponses tochallenge theoriesoftheself,governmentality
and ideology.
A must read for both students and researchers in audience studies, television
studies, and media and communication studies.
Beverley Skeggs is Professor of Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London.
She held the Kerstin Hesselgren Professor in Gender Studies at Stockholm Uni-
versityandisanAcademicianoftheAcademyoftheLearnedSocietiesfortheSocial
Sciences,UK.ShehasworkedintheareasofWomen’sStudiesandCulturalStudies
as well as Sociology.
HelenWoodisReaderinMediaandCommunication,intheSchoolofMediaand
Communication at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK.

Reacting to Reality Television
Performance, Audience and Value
Beverley Skeggs and Helen Wood
Firstpublished2012
byRoutledge
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SimultaneouslypublishedintheUSAandCanada
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©2012BeverleySkeggsandHelenWood
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Skeggs,Beverley.
Reactingtorealitytelevision:performance,audienceandvalue/byBeverley
SkeggsandHelenWood.
p.cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
1.Realitytelevisionprograms–Socialaspects.2.Realitytelevisionprograms–
Psychologicalaspects.3.Televisionviewers–Attitudes.I.Wood,Helen,1972-
II.Title.
PN1992.8.R43S622012
791.45’655–dc23
2011043171
ISBN:978-0-415-69370-7(hbk)
ISBN:978-0-415-69371-4(pbk)
ISBN:978-0-203-14423-7(ebk)
TypesetinBaskerville
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
We would like to dedicate this book to:
Bev to Doreen, Ken and Jeremy
Helen to Max and Hannah

Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction: reacting to reality television 1
1 Reality television: from representation to intervention 21
2 Performance and the value of personhood 48
3 Textual intimacies 80
4 Reacting to reality television: methodology 113
5 Affect and ambiguity, not governmentality 134
6 From affect to authority: the making of the moral person 159
7 The productive person: recognizing labour and value 187
8 Conclusions: intimacy, ideology, value and politics 215
Index 237
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all the women who gave us their time and energy to
bring this project to fruition. Especial thanks to Les Back and his family, Karen
Wells, and to Nancy Thumim for her research support. Thanks especially to
Margie Wetherell and Valerie Hey for invaluable support from this project’s
inception, and to Emily Nicholls, Lisa Taylor and Jeremy Anderson for reading
the manuscript.
Thanks to the Economic and Social Research Council for funding the project
‘Making Class through Televised Ethical Scenarios’ (REF 148-25-0040) as part
of the Identities Programme.
Bev and Helen would like to express their gratitude to Tracy James Burton
for allowing us to use his artwork on the paperback cover. Amazing!
Bevwouldliketothankherinspirationalcolleagues andfriendswhomake the
pain and pleasure of writing worthwhile: Sara Ahmed, Sarah Franklin, Celia
Lury, David Oswell, Kirsty Campbell, Alberto Toscano, Caroline Knowles,
Ali Rooke, Michael Keith, Les Back, Lisa Blackman, Lisa Adkins, Les Moran,
Jon Binnie,Pat Kirkham, ValerieWalkerdine, Rosemary Deem, RichardPhillips,
Ruth Halliday,Nick Thoburn,JoannaLatimer, Joanne Hollows,RollandMunro,
AngelaMcRobbie,JeanetteEdwards,Sarah Green,Frances Pine,StephLawler,
Imogen Tyler, Lauren Berlant, Elspeth Probyn, Kate Bedford, Mike Savage,
Andrew Sayer, Diane Reay, Chris Griffin, Tania Lewis and Steve Cross.
IamgratefultoallmyfriendsandcolleaguesacrossGoldsmithsforproducing
such an interesting, quirky, challenging and stimulatingenvironment, completely
committedtorealeducation.IncludedinthisaremyPhDstudentswhomIhave
had the pleasure to supervise: Emma Jackson, Vik Loveday, Benny Lu, Sian
Weston, Debbie Fallon, Kim Keith, Kim Allen, Luna Glucksberg, Patrick
Turner, Mike Leary and Christy Kulz. There is nothing like the unexpected
angle to keep one on one’s toes. Bridget Ward and Lauren Sibley provided
sanity in turbulent times for which I’m very grateful.
Thanks to Anna Loutfi and Allaine Cerwonka in Budapest for organizing
visits, and to Tania Lewis in Melbourne and Elspeth Probyn for inviting me to
Australia, likewise to Angel Lin in Hong Kong. Thanks to my Swedish friends
who very kindly extended their hospitality and let me torture them as I
Acknowledgements ix
developed my ideas during my stay in the superb Gender Studies Centre at
Stockholm University: to Gunilla Bjeren and Birgetta Nay for making my stay
possible, and thanks to Maria Karlsson, Ulrike Nillson, Annika Olsson, Fanny
Ambjornsson, Ingeborg Svensson, Ulrika Dahl, Hillevi Ganetz, Johan Fornas,
SheilaGhosh,AnuKoivunen,FatenehFarahani,MarkGraham,TiinaRosenberg
and Pia Laskar. My Danish, Finnish and Norwegian friends have also been very
important to my work: Anne Dorte Christensen, Annick Prieur, Birte Siim,
May-LenSkilbrei,EevaJokinen,MikkoJakonen,TuulaGordon,HarrietAllmark.
My name ‘Skeggs’ means ‘beard’ in Scandinavian; I think it generates a
connection. I was overwhelmed to receive honours from both Aalborg and
Stockholm University. Thank you for all the invites to departments in the UK
where I have also been given the liberty to try out ideas.
Thanks to my great friends Kath Moonan, Nickie Witham, Herms, Les M,
NickT and Runa, Val Atkinson, Gerhard Compion, Hannelie Fourie and
Debbie Coughlin.
Tomyamazingparents–KenandDoreenSkeggs–whohavealwaystriedto
teachmewhatisimportantandtostandagainstinjustice:theyaremyinspiration.
Istillcan’tbelievejusthowamazingisJeremyAnderson.
And finally to Helen. We began our conversation about reality television
seven yearsagoandhavebeenthrough manyturbulent times since then. But we
hung on, knowing we had aprojectthat was worth struggling over. Helen is one
oftheloveliest sharpestpeopleintheworld and hasbeenadelighttoworkwith.
Helen would like to thank colleagues at De Montfort University for providing
a supportive environment to work these ideas out. Thank you especially to
Diane Taylor for keeping me going. Many thanks go to Lisa Taylor for reading
draft chapters and for keeping up the spirits.
Thank you for all the invitations to present this research at seminars which
have contributed to this journey and to the final product. Special thanks to
Katherine Sender for our conversations on audiences and for inviting me to
Annenberg, Mats Trondman and Anna Lund for the invitation to Linnaeus
University,Sweden,toMikkoHautakangasfortheinvitationtotheUniversityof
Jyvaskla,Finland, andtoDianeNegra fortheinvitationtoDublin.Thankstoall
those who attended the ‘Media, Class and Value Symposium’ at De Montfort in
2008 where our first rendering of the complete data was rehearsed.
Thanks to Rachel Moseley and Helen Wheatley who have put up with my
endless anxieties and yet will still work with me! To Ann Gray who is still the
greatest advocate of a cultural studies’ approach to pedagogy.
ToVanessa Brown,JulieHatton,EmmaRigby,NicolaYeomansforforgiving
my forgetful memory and still listening.
To my family as always, and to Pauline and Albert Wood for everything.
Thanks to my beautiful boy Max and my new girl Hannah, who have brought
so much to me during this journey to make it worth the while.
And finally to Bev – whose generosity, brilliance and energy is endless. I only
hope I have been able to keep up. It’s been emotional!