Puppets of necessity? Celebritisation in structured reality television

Abstract

This conceptual paper uses field theory, and a production of culture perspective to explore the celebritisation process in structured reality television. This relatively new genre, typified by The Only Way Is Essex, blends fiction with fact, and constitutes a new, playful and interactive iteration of the broader category of reality television. We identify three culturally productive models that create new celebrity discourses and establish a theoretical underpinning for the role of structured reality in the celebritisation process; tournaments of value, spectacle and transformative performances. Whilst not exclusive to structured reality television, these models are particularly effective at explaining how celebrities are interactively understood in an increasingly mediatised marketplace. We contribute a model which proposes that celebritisation in structured reality is a homologising process through which celebrity meaning is legitimised. Summary statement of contributionWe highlight how structured reality programming resembles the culturally productive forces associated with tournament rituals, transformative performances and theories of spectacle that help marketing scholars unpack the cultural codes deployed in the celebritisation process. In doing so, we contribute to existing marketing scholarship by arguing that the celebritisation process acts as both an empirical context and a conceptual frame that highlights the relationship between cultural meanings, aesthetic practices and marketplace forms.

Enjoying the NFL in Brazil through social TV

“…Our findings align with the understanding that content and consumption in the sports entertainment industry are simultaneously produced, in a synchronized cooperation between producers and viewers of television broadcasts (Dias & Rossi, 2017). Besides, in the digital age the conducting of content presentation to the audience has been significantly changed (Turner, 2007;Thompson et al, 2015), turning social media one a main way of interaction between viewers, what potentializes their participation on broadcasting (Ducheneaut et al, 2008).…”

“…The findings corroborate the understanding that the experience of interacting in virtual communities happens through its user's production of content and the bonds they nourish with what they enjoy (Kozinets 1999(Kozinets , 2001, modeling the enjoyment of a collective consumption (Parmentier & Fischer, 2015). In line with this, Thompson et al (2015) points how television on digital age needs a mediaenhanced audience. Through a combination of self-promotion and production assistance, consumers become able to accumulate expertise which can make a TV show a phenomenon in social media.…”

“…In line with this conception, CCT authors argument that the postmodern society is a simulacrum spread by the media in participative interactions (Chen, 2018;Denegri-Knott & Molesworth, 2010;Rose & Wood, 2005) and that this participative interaction between consumers, producers and different types of media represent a continuous enhance of emotional bonds within the consumption process, associated with the production and exchange of signs (i.e., symbols, meanings) as means for generating value (Bonsu, Darmody & Parmentier, 2010;Thompson et al, 2015).…”

“…Web 2.0 technologies have modified the way the sports audiences receive TV content (Turner, 2007(Turner, , 2012Thompson et al, 2015), what, in turn, induce changes in the sports broadcasts. In a participatory culture context, Brazilian NFL fans complement the understanding of the media product that unites them, influencing the culture in which they are embedded (Jenkins, 2008), and acting as Web 2.0 prosumers (Hartmann, 2015;Ritzer, 2014).…”

“…The productive capacity of the audience to influence broadcasts reveals not only its role as a prosumer (Collins, 2010), but how media companies considers it a major role in their engagement (Thompson et al, 2015). That's why producers recognize the role of consumers in the production system, by stimulating their participation on product and brand associated-meaning production (Ritzer, 2014).…”