Andrejevic, Mark (Ph.D., Communications/Media Studies)
The Kinder, Gentler Gaze of “Big Brother”: Reality
TV in the Era of Digital Capitalism
Dissertation directed by professor Janice Peck
Abstract:
The recent proliferation of reality-based television programming anticipates
the development of interactive media insofar as it deploys the promise of participation:
that “real” people can be more than just viewers – they can
also participate in shaping the content of the programs they watch. In this respect,
reality programming helps to reinforce the promise that new media will revolutionize
society by de-centralizing power relations and democratizing access to the means
of production. At the same time, such programming highlights the role of interactivity
in the on-line economy: as a form of comprehensive surveillance of the rhythm
of day-to-day life. The further development of niche marketing and “flexible” forms
of customized manufacturing is, in other words, dependent upon the ability to
gather detailed information about consumer preferences and behavior. In this
sense, reality TV doesn’t so much anticipate Andy Warhol’s vision
of a future in which everyone has their 15 minutes of fame as it does an on-line
economy, in which new technology allows for the comprehensive surveillance of
everyone’s day-to-day existence. In this version of the future, members
of the public will not become broadcasters over the Internet, rather they will
narrowcast their consumption decisions, their preferences, and even their location
at any given time to corporations in exchange for the promise of convenience
in the form of customized goods and services. Such an economy is reliant upon
a revision of the traditional Orwellian version of surveillance as oppressive,
conformist, and totalitarian. This dissertation explores the ways in which one
reality TV format – appropriately titled “Big Brother” – anticipates
the rehabilitation of surveillance as that which allows for personal-growth,
self-expression, control, and the validation of individuality. The turn to reality
is, in short, equated with the recuperation of participation and community, and
thus with the end of “mass” society. Far from surpassing the logic
of mass society, however, the dissertation argues that interactive media work
to extend its reach. As the case of reality TV demonstrates, the equation of
surveillance with interactivity and even participation serves as a means of
rationalizing the labor of consumption in the emerging on-line economy.
E-Mail the Department of Communication Studies: commstudies-inquiry@uiowa.edu -
Page updated
March 29, 2006
Copyright © 1999-2006 The
University of Iowa. All rights reserved.
University Accessibility Policies and Procedures