While reading Caldwell, I found his analysis of television’s historical responses to technological advancement quite relevant in present day entertainment. Especially, since there has been a surge of the television industry utilizing the internet to either capitalize with the intent of profitability or comprehend audience responses to certain episodes or story arcs, the internet is in not doubt converging with television. This harks back to earlier discussion in the semester of where not only, ‘what is TV?’ but also ‘Where is TV?’ especially since convergence is become quite prominent.
This discussion has made me think of the modes that this is embodied within reality TV, but especially one of my own personal favorite shows: RuPaul’s Drag Race. I know I continue to refer back to this show, but I can’t help it because it provides a plethora of analysis and examples. The internet has continued to play such a vital role of the impact and malleability of the show itself. I think this visceral impact has complicated the term of ‘industrial actors.’ Caldwell states that “programs on TV are not simply authored ‘texts,’ they are also created by ‘industrial actors’ and choreographed through tried-and-proven modes on institutional interaction” (57). The reason I think convergence has trivialized the this term is because of a controversial episode during season 6. During one of the episodes, a mini-challenge took place that asked the contestants to identify people as ‘Female or She-Male’ by studying photos of people’s crotches.
The backlash, claiming that it perpetuated transphobia, resulted in the producers to completely change elements of the show in order to correct the error while also releasing a statement of apology. This response by the fans and fixed by the producers (even at the behest of RuPaul who literally displayed a tantrum on Twitter as a result of the change) illustrates that “such sites suggest that criticism and analysis-even when negative and internalized-help fuel the entertainment machine” (53). This change in structure even bled into the what I call the ‘sister-equivalent’ of the show called Untucked in the following season. This additional program shows the queens backstage interacting while the judges continue to deliberate. This show went from a very staged format to an almost verite type of form basically becoming what Caldwell calls the ‘making of’ stunt. I would say this change in format is a result of one of the function of ‘stunts’ commonly used by television illustrated by Caldwell. He writes “stunts allow members of both the audience and the production culture to articulate, revise, and rearticulate cross-industry relations” (64). In conclusion, I think RuPaul’s Drag Race demonstrates as a perfect example of where TV is not only converging with the Web, but also how both seemingly different industries are now almost reliant and dialogical with each other.
Work Cited
Caldwell, John. "Convergence Television: Aggregating Form and Repurposing Content in the Culture of Conglomeration." Television After TV: Essays on a Medium in Transition, edited by Jan Olsson and Lynn Spigel, Duke University Press, 2004, pp. 41-74.
I was also thinking about Twitter while going through the readings for this week! Although I don't follow the reactions to Drag Race, I know that for many of the shows I watch the chatter on social media becomes an important part of the program itself. It seems this is especially true for live competition shows, like Drag Race and The Bachelor/The Bachelorette, and I wonder if this is a specific legacy from competition shows that allow for audience participation through voting (like American Idol) that has transformed into hashtags and mentions, or if this is something else entirely.
ReplyDeleteI really like your point Ana! I think one can make the argument that competition shows specifically have created a kind of legacy for them where there is such a reliance on audience participation that I do think maybe to an extent if a reality show now, were not to include social media within either campaigns or just apart of the programs dynamic it would suffer immensely. I would also mention additionally that social media plays a huge role when it comes to scripted television as well. I remember when I was at an orientation to be an extra for Central Casting they told us a story how a woman was working on a highly popular television show and tweeted that she was on the set of said show (I don't remember what it was, I actually don't think the guy leading the orientation told us) which resulted in her not only being fired from Central Casting but she was also banned from the studio for life. So even though I would give credit to reality competition shows for I think establishing a validity to the influence that social media can have on a show, I think that has also seeped into the world of scripted drama as well, to the point of hiring additional staff to monitor social media to make sure spoilers aren't leaked in any way (which he also told us studios do now during our orientation).
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