This thesis examines the reality television (RTV) series Here Comes Honey Boo Boo (HCHBB) as a rhetorical text in and through which the cultural significance of race, class, and gender stereotypes—and the meanings they hold for different individuals and groups—are actively contested and negotiated. I argue that recurrent themes of symbolic transgression of hierarchical structures in HCHBB operate as a modality through which cast and audience(s) alike might make or interpret potentially subversive/resistant meanings. This focus on the RTV series as a dynamic site for making and contesting meaning—rather than a static text encoded/decoded by members of the discrete categories of producers and consumers—enables critical attention to the discursive and affective elements at work in HCHBB without forsaking analysis of the political and material frames in which they circulate. These frames are explored throughout a brief history of the RTV genre and an overview of the scholarship that has engaged it. Ultimately, I argue that while HCHBB and the genre of RTV may potentially provide the opportunity to challenge class antagonism and discrimination, it also perpetuates structural, material inequality. By linking themes of symbolic transgression as they operate in and through the text with Kenneth Burke’s (1969) analysis of hierarchy and mystification of class relations, I show how HCHBB doubly participates in the stratification of economic class when symbolic transgression is offered as an affront to social class morality rather than pervasive structural, material inequality. Despite an ethos of rebellion against bourgeois norms, HCHBB displaces rather than cultivates critical class consciousness by encouraging performances of redneck identity which also consign the Shannon/Thompson family to their fate as working class celebrities. / text

Thesis advisor: William E. Stanwood / This analysis examined the depiction of stereotyped gender roles on the reality television shows The Bachelor and The Bachelorette to determine if gender stereotypes are reinforced within these shows. This study found a lack of stereotype reinforcement in that non-stereotypical behavior patterns were most prevalent among both males and females in the "contestant" role. However, stereotype reinforcement was confirmed in that women were more likely to be younger and thinner than men, gender-stereotypical behaviors were more prevalent than not among individuals in the bachelor/ette role, and a female positioned in the more traditionally "male" role of the bachelorette still remained more stereotypically "feminine". Also notable was the reinforcement of patriarchic heterosexuality by a male-initiated marriage proposal in the so-called "feminist" The Bachelorette. Overall, gender stereotypes were portrayed as normal and desirable, and female stereotypes continued to persist over male. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2007. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Communication. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Physical inactivity is an important public health concern. Strong evidence exists linking insufficient physical activity (PA) with an increased risk of many adverse health conditions, including major non-communicable diseases such as coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and breast and colon cancers—all of which can drastically reduce one’s life expectancy. The media holds great potential to encourage positive health behaviors among the broader community. However, evidence to support traditional mass media campaign approaches to PA promotion remains inconclusive, with most televisionbased campaigns falling short of achieving the PA changes they were designed to promote. Researching alternative methods of delivering PA messages could improve the efficacy of television-based health promotion efforts. Reality television presents one such alternative. This dissertation consists of a systematic literature and two separate, but related, studies. The first study examined the associations between individual characteristics, health-related behaviors, impressions of a PA-themed reality television show concept, and intentions to engage in active transportation (AT) using a randomized two-group (independent) post-test pre-experimental design. Results showed that age, race, and education were significantly associated with impressions. Mild and moderate intensity exercise was significantly associated with behavioral intentions, while impressions of the show explained 19% of the variance in behavioral intentions. There was a statistically significant difference between TV show conditions with those exposed to the AT concept reporting higher AT behavioral intentions. The second study assessed the show concept in formative research and—in addition—examined the associations between individual characteristics, health-related behaviors, impressions of a PA-themed reality television show concept, and intentions to engage in active transportation (AT) using a non-randomized two-group (independent) post-test pre-experimental design as well as in-person, semi-structured interviews. Those exposed to the AT show concept showed higher behavioral intentions for AT, and there was a significant positive correlation between impressions and behavioral intentions in the AT show group. Semi-structured interview data indicated that a majority of research participants had positive impressions toward the PA-themed reality show concept and the show’s characters. However, the visual and design components as well as clarity of the show concept need improvement. These two studies demonstrate the acceptability of the potential effectiveness of a PA-themed reality show concept for conveying active transportation-related messages to viewers. Both studies showed that a PA-themed reality show concept positively influenced PA behavioral intentions specific to AT among those who watched it and impressions of the show as a correlate to behavioral intentions, thus confirming that innovative reality programming can be used to entertain viewers and potentially inspire positive health behaviors.

Reality television has inundated the networks, eliciting some of the highest viewership in the United States; therefore, it is important to understand why people watch these shows and what they gain from doing so. This study replicates and expands on the study by Barton (2009), which examined how difference in content in competition-based reality shows influenced viewer gratifications. The present study explored the effect of content on viewer gratifications in documentary-based reality television shows. Participants (n = 257) completed surveys asking about their television viewing habits, general reasons for watching reality programming and reasons for watching specific reality shows (Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo). Some results contradicted those found by Barton with no effect of content on viewer gratifications. However, consistent with Barton’s findings, gender differences were found in levels of gratifications obtained from these two shows with women reporting higher levels. In addition, when extreme levels of income were compared, greater gratification was found only for the Vicarious Participation factor. Video content positively correlated with amount of downward social comparison (schadenfreude) but there was no correlation between downward social comparison and participants’ income.

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."

This paper examines how the reality competition television program American Idol serves to reinforce gendered, racialized and heteronormative stereotypes, particularly for female contestants. Through its "democratic" style of public audience voting, those competitors who not only sing well, but also perform their gender and race to standards which have been deemed by the judges to be appropriate mainstream American culture, prove to be the most successful on the program. Through a content analysis of the show's first four seasons, I find that those female contestants who begin their tenure in the contest by fitting into categories which would be considered stereotypical for their gender and race, and continue to appear and behave in this manner, move farther along in the competition than their peers appear to be more innovative. I also find that while the judges comments suggest that American Idol purports to be looking for someone "unique," the contestants who do well in the competition are in fact not exceptional, but rather fit into "conventional" performances of either white or African American women. Those who present themselves as too different, that is, "deviant" from gendered or racialized performances end up being voted off the show before getting their chance to be crowned American Idol.

Reality television is unique from other television programming because its format is less scripted than typical entertainment television programs, but not as candid as documentary style shows. Aspects of cast members’ private lives are publicly aired as “real.” The consequences for airing one’s private life in the public sphere are unclear. This may be especially important to study when the private disclosures reveal activities that may be unethical, immoral, illegal, or abusive. Petronio’s (date) communication privacy management theory was used to examine the martial disclosures that occurred between Taylor and Russell Armstrong, cast members of the reality television show The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Two seasons of the show were analyzed and coded according to the five suppositions of CPM. Results revealed several aspects of Walker’s cycle of violence theory being played out in the public sphere without consequence. Additionally, co-ownership of information appeared to constitute a license to gossip freely about private disclosures shared in confidence between certain individuals with any and all other cast members.

This thesis offers a feminist analysis of the gendered public discourses surrounding notions of talent, authenticity and containment. Using two of the most polarizing stars in North America – ‘Snooki’ and Kim Kardashian – the author offers an analysis of how both hard and soft news frame our everyday understanding of women’s public work. Textual analyses of news articles demonstrated that displays of sexual power were most undermined by the media while attempts to venture beyond the reality television texts were contained. On the other hand, the news media were more likely to use positive framing when women were seen to be fulfilling more traditional roles such as wife and mother. The empirical research approach provides an original framework which can be applied to other female public figures to examine how such ideological and gendered discourses shape our understanding of women’s work as well as, more generally, women’s roles in our society.

The 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.

No description available.