Abstract
Real Talk: Reality Television and Discourse Analysis in Action brings together a collection of case studies from a panel at the 12th International Pragmatics Association Conference focusing on the discourse of Reality TV (RTV). The editors, Lorenzo-Dus and Garcés-Conejos Blitvich, situate the collection within key debates around RTV and its relationship to nationally diverse socio-cultural forms of discourse and identity. For this collection, it is these debates that provide the thread of interconnection to what is a diverse set of global examples and forms of analysis. The global reach of RTV and diverse programming is made central to the collection with programs across the globe ranging in location from China, Argentina, Australia, Spain, Israel, New Zealand, to the United Kingdom and United States and ranging in type from cooking, gamedocs, talent, makeovers, dating, to police, helicopter rescue, and daytime talk shows. In many respects, the collection takes up the now globalized analysis of RTV discourse from Tolson’s (2001) collection with Tolson also contributing one of the 12 chapters in the current collection. The 12 chapters are divided into three main sections. The first section provides a theoretical methodological approach for the collection, while the second and third sections each consist of five case studies focusing on identity in Part 2 and aggression (impoliteness) in Part 3.
Chapters 1 and 2, both written by the co-editors, sketch a conceptual and methodological frame for the collection, arguing that RTV, because of its sheer diversity, should be approached as a discourse rather than a genre. Indeed, this collection aptly demonstrates this point in illustrating a range of RTV programming and the different discourse analysis methods applied. Under the broad heading of discourse analysis, the methods employed include qualitative close discourse, linguistic analysis through to quantitative corpus analysis. Taken together these two chapters provide a useful situating frame for the subsequent chapters, but as both are quite short and conceptually linked, it is not clear why these two chapters were not combined into one.
The theme of the first set of studies is identity examined through the lens of critical discourse analysis (CDA) and multimodality. In Chapter 3, Shei takes us on a personal journey examining the Chinese dating show Feichengwurao, a version of the UK dating show Take Me Out. The focus of the comparative discussion is concerned with how this game show, along with other light entertainment programs broadcast in China, is a means by which the growing middle class are distracted from other political and social problems. While this may be a broad argument to sustain, the chapter does provide a valuable glimpse into Chinese RTV content and how these shows, drawing their contestants from the new middle class, model emergent middle-class social norms. The selection of contestants here provides an interesting contrast to the show examined by Tolson in Chapter 12. In Chapter 4, Hamo examines the Israeli gamedoc Sof HaDerech (The End of the Road), where, similar to other forms such as The Amazing Race, contestants have to solve various puzzles to progress through the game. What makes this a fascinating program is that the pairs consist of secular and religious participants. Hamo provides an excellent thought-provoking multi-layered analysis of Israeli identity through elements of the show designed to confront religious and secular as well as social and national identities played out in the gaze of the mass audience. In Chapter 5, Bednarek examines the way emotions are brought into play through a comparison of the adult version of MasterChef Australia and the Junior MasterChef Australia. Through a multimodal analysis, the discussion focuses on the way the hosts employ positive and supportive actions when contestants have failed in some cooking task. As Bednarek points out, while much research on RTV focuses on the confrontation and impoliteness (which is central to the second section of the book), this tends to eclipse the supportive and uplifting programs where authenticity is glimpsed through personal development. In Chapter 6, Pardo presents an analysis of a fly-on-the-wall police program Policías en acción (Police in Action) broadcast in Argentina. Viewing the program through the lens of the postmodern spectacle where fiction and reality are blurred and Synchronic-Diachronic Text Analysis of segments of the program, Pardo highlights how the program both exploits the voyeuristic gaze of poverty and crime and also gives voice to those who are marginalized. In the final chapter of the first section, Smith examines the New Zealand show Rescue 1 which follows the missions of the emergency helicopter team based in Auckland. Here, Smith employs CDA to explore how this program provides and frames positive notions of national identity for the audience.
These chapters taken together provide an interesting insight into the way notions of individual and collective identity are produced, framed, and appealed to in this form of programming. The chapters by Smith, Hamo, and Bednarek highlight how imagined communities are made manifest through forms of discourse and methods of interaction, and how these connect back and reflect with wider social issues. What I found particularly interesting was how this discourse was not just manifest in the fly-on-the-wall programs, but was also shown to be operating in the game show formats.
In the third section, the focus shifts away from identity to discourses of aggression and impoliteness. Chapters 8 and 9 both examine impoliteness in the US and UK talent shows X Factor and American Idol. Culpeper and Holmes focus on face and impoliteness through comparing feedback and interaction between the hosts and contestants, while Lorenzo-Dus, Bou-Franch, and Garcés-Conejos Blitvich provide a diachronic study of the two programs to show that impolite terms have increased over the course of the shows. In some ways these two chapters can be read as a pair, though I would start with Chapter 9 as it provides a richer description and history of the programs which premises Chapter 8. Chapter 10 continues with the theme of impoliteness with a quantitative analysis of the Spanish dating show Mujeres y hombres y viceversa (Women, Men and Vice Versa). Here, Arroyo draws on focus groups to conduct an audience study on whether the verbal interaction between contestants could be seen as offensive. In the penultimate chapter (11), Gordon provides a rich analysis drawing on Goffman’s notions of frame and lamination of the intervention/makeover program Honey we’re killing the kids where a nutritionist confronts and then helps a family with poor diet choices. Highlighting the way impoliteness is used to confront the parents, Gordon examines how this face-threatening strategy is discursively (verbally and visually) managed through blurring participation frames of health intervention and makeover. In the final chapter (12), Tolson examines a different form of RTV, the daytime trash show the Jeremy Kyle Show, broadcast in the UK. Discussion returns the focus to the ‘critical’ component of CDA through examining the way class, or more specifically the ‘underclass’, in Britain is discursively turned into a spectacular performance for the viewing audience.
This section is more of a mixed collection of approaches than the first section, with corpus linguistics, focus groups, discourse analysis, and broadcast talk being represented, though with a central focus on a particular form of verbal (and physical) action. This mix provides an interesting set of methodological studies that showcase different ways of examining a particular discursive action in context.
Overall, Real Talk: Reality Television and Discourse Analysis in Action presents a lively contribution to the study of RTV discourse. Threading quantitative, qualitative, linguistic, and discourse techniques together with the range of programs examined is a difficult task to undertake. Indeed, as the editors acknowledge at the outset (p. 1), this is an ambitious target. Yet in trying to capture something that has become so diverse that it is often little more than a family resemblance that connects this form of programming, the editors are largely successful. I say largely because I think that some of the chapters would have benefited from keeping footnotes to a minimum and the editors collating the (oft repeated) references in order to have more space to develop their analyses. As a collection of case studies, the book should appeal to advanced students and researchers in media studies, linguistics, communication, and sociology.