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Panel proposal “Doing being ordinary in reality television” 

 

 

Doing ‘being ordinary’ in reality television discourse

 

Panel proposal by Valeria Sinkeviciute (valeria.sinkeviciute@yahoo.com) &

Wei-Lin Melody Chang (melody.chang@uq.edu.au)

The University of Queensland

 

 

Reality television programmes such as gameshows, variety shows, talk shows and docu-soaps have been an example of the most successful genre on television for the last two decades, but only a few works (e.g. Garcés-Conejos Blitvich et al. 2013) have explored the discourse of social interaction in such contexts. Although it is often claimed that there is no such concept as ordinary people in reality television – since they are transformed into celebrities as a result their participation in the shows – (paradoxically) each of those programmes still necessarily puts an emphasis on “authenticity, sincerity and staying true to oneself” (Hamo 2013: 67). Furthermore, it has also been suggested that ‘being ordinary’ should be viewed as ‘everyday’ and maybe more importantly, ‘familiar’, i.e. referring to people that you would normally meet in the community (Bonner 2003). In other words, the focus is on those who are ‘just like us’ or should and could be recognised as such (Bignell 2005). Indeed, Sacks (1970[2006]) referred to ‘being an ordinary person’ as ‘being usual’, i.e. engaging in usual activities recognisable by other members of the society as such. Importantly, doing ‘being ordinary’ goes beyond one’s own projection of ordinariness, since the others are also involved in co-constructing of ‘being ordinary’ in a given context. What makes reality television discourse particularly interesting to investigate is a combination of two societal norms it builds on: the outside world and entertainment space. It is this combination that blurs the lines between the two, thus extending the concept of ‘being ordinary’ beyond being your usual self, now including one’s understanding of what ‘ordinary’ might stand for in relation to one’s on-screen character.

This panel aims to explore ‘ordinariness’ and how it manifests itself in interactions in reality television discourse. More precisely, bringing together researchers who work in the areas of conversation analysis and discourse analysis in different languages, the panel will explore cross-cultural ways in which the participants project, exploit, claim and negotiate ‘being ordinary’ in the entertainment space that is viewed by millions. The topics examined by the panel contributors include but are not limited to:

 

  • identity construction of ‘ordinary’ (on-screen) characters through the representations of particular social practices as ‘real’ and ‘authentic’;

  • impoliteness as a key to ‘ordinariness’ in reality television interactional practices;

  • humour as a way of projecting ‘being ordinary’ in interaction;

  • doing ‘being ordinary’ and ‘being a celebrity’ as an (un-)ordinary behaviour in reality television.

 

References:

 

Bignell, Jonathan. 2005. Big Brother: Reality TV in the Twenty-first Century. Hampshire and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Bonner, Frances. 2003. Ordinary Television. London and New Delhi: Sage Publications.

Garcés-Conejos Blitvich, Pilar, Patricia Bou-Franch, and Nuria Lorenzo-Dus. 2013. Identity and Impoliteness: The Expert in the Talent Show Idol. Journal of Politeness Research 9(1): 97-121.

Hamo, Michal. 2013. The (inter)play of nationality, religiosity and gender: Textual mechanisms for the rich representation of Israeli identity on a reality race gamedoc. In Nuria Lorenzo-Dus and Pilar Garcés-Conejos Blitvich (eds.), Real Talk: Reality Television and Discourse Analysis in Action. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 66-87.

Sacks, Harvey. 1970[2006]. Lecture 1. Doing ‘being ordinary’. In Gail Jefferson (ed.), Lectures on conversation. Volume II, 215-221. Oxford & Cambridge (USA): Blackwell.

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