Watching Ideology at work: The Talk Show.

Nikki Alliu, Jack Grand, Ying Ying Jillian

‘Ideology’

• Philosophy . a. the study of the nature and origin of ideas.

• the body of doctrine, myth, belief, etc., that guides an individual, social movement,

institution, class, or large group.

• Therefore when relating this to our presentation, we are looking at the ideologies the audience

have obtained, regarding the guests of the show, and how they react to them.

Worked Example: Jeremy Kyle, and the Uneducated/Aggressive Lower Classes

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnI-3ez5jIU

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sNFELNig1k&feature=related

http://youtube/h1X5R0sbUOc?t=2m

BakhtinComparison of television talk shows to an American carnival

‘therefore it is the spectacle aspect of the carnival’

The people within the programmes are used as social scapegoates, intended to make the audience feel better about their personal sutations.

Spectators and the ‘American Carinval’

The Carnavilistic Audience.

Jonathan Schmitz‘the jenny jones show experienced its highest ratings ever’

‘The public is getting what it wants, confrontation. And that the shows are filling a need, albeit a sick on in society’ – Janice Kaplin

Roles within consumption.

The CarnivalThe Moral Rationalist, or ‘Expert’

The Dominant Viewer

A function of entertainment‘The Freak’‘to validate our values and beliefs’

AntagonistWhilst perceived to sustain middle class morally based values

‘the look of horror’ConsumersNegative viewing allows positive reinforcement.‘learn our place in aframework of mainstream reality’

Direct Ideologies _ Things Learnt from the showIndirect Ideologies – Things Learnt from a unwillingness to associated

Most fat, ugly women become the target of theadvertisingFor example: Company are selling pills for women to losing weight or provide cosmeticsurgery for the women

Ideologies of Women.

• Women appear on reality based tv shows

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rs5A62y-RI

• Such programs humiliate fat women for transgressing bodily norms

• Project an impetus on the strive to be thin towards a modern female viewing audience

Supporting evidence

• Post feminism and shopping films –Pretty woman

• Although they might have core narratives about women finding themselves, there was constant feminist criticism of the type of woman involved (white, middle class) and the focus on the individual and the relative ease of their quests for meaning, and most problematic of all, a man

• The texts therefore put forth a strong idologyof co-dependent- family based in order to achive happisness for a viewing female audience

• ‘ a world where women are whores with warm hearts of gold and men are rich corporate raiders with organs in need of thawing by those self-same hearts’ walters 1995

Construction vs Reality.

• ‘Class, Masculinity and Editorial Identity in the Reformation of the UK

• Men’s Press’• ‘in the course of delineating the fascinating

intersections between the cultures of these editors and the production and content of loaded, crewe draws attention to a series of interesting ambivalences and contractions emerging from the editors' self-narratives, particularly surrounding issues of class, taste, mobility and education. Crewe argues that this rather defensive pattern of narrative is intimately bound up with constructions of heterosexual masculinity celebrated in the pages of loaded’

• ‘The threats against male misbehaviour simple weren’t as great, no mentions of rape or losing children’ – on talk shows commenting on women’s sexual behaviour

Conclusion

• These programmes maintain class cohesion

• Reinforce sexist ideologies, of a male stream society

• The audience enjoy the text from a carnivalistic perspective, allowing them to confirm their own social morals.

• The programmes pit the audience agaisnt, and disassociate the participants, even when they really are ‘us’

Questions

• How is our day to day life effected by the ideologies we see on TV?

• Is the talk show ‘carnival’ always a negative character?

• What other examples of the enforcement of a dominant ideology can you think of?