7
Jimison
Nataleigh Jimison
Professor Kim Knight
Comm 3342-Viral Media
9 May 2012
Can Reality Television be Defined As a Viral Structure?
In today’s world, reality television has become a viral phenomenon and evolved into its own media ecology, so to speak. But does this make it a viral structure? One could argue that the reality television culture involves interaction between media and human beings. It has become evident that reality television has affected the communication process worldwide, and certainly possible that it has transformed into a viral structure. What is a viral structure? When defining a viral structure, Kim Knight states, “If one were to extract keywords from the multiple definitions, one might identify infectious, sub-microscopic, unauthorized, and self-replicating as terms that describe the viral structure as it moves across the media ecology (Knight pp.6-7). Perhaps these concepts have not been thought of when compared to reality television, but there is something to be said about how more and more of theses concepts have become evident in the realm of reality television and how they have assisted in becoming the viral structure of reality we know today.
When the word infectious is mentioned, we automatically think of a disease that can spread and cause negative reactions. However, when speaking of infectious as it relates to reality television, it can be used metaphorically, spreading like a disease, affecting various audiences. It’s infectious in capturing the attention of audiences all around the world with the use of different genres. When we turn on the television, it’s inevitable that a different reality television show is on each night of the week and millions of viewers are tuned in to watch the show journey to a finale. Knight suggests:
An object may be only intermittently considered a viral structure as the media ecology morphs around it. Thus rather thinking in terms of the characteristics of objects, it is more productive to approach the viral structure in terms of what it does, i.e. how it circulates. The viral structure is above all, actualized through modes of production and transmission (Knight 6).
Reality television then is the object that has the ability to make audiences become emotionally invested in the show with time and participation. For example, reality shows like American Idol or The Voice heavily rely on the audience to make them work. The fact that the audience has to call in and vote for who they support makes it infectious, because people that invest their time automatically feel obligated to do their part in deciding who will win. Because reality television has the ability to create a form of energy, excitement and suspense all at the same time, it’s justified to call it infectious, thus viral.
The next viral structure concept is that it’s sub-microscopic. “In a viral structure, “sub-microscopic” may mean invisible or hidden, but can also refer to the way that viral structures complicate traditional notions of media hyper-visibility (Knight 8). The hyper-visibility involved in reality television is that it calls attention to objects, populations, or situations while hiding the complexities of those objects, populations, or situations. This raises the question of “Why have reality television shows have become so popular?” For instance, shows such as Housewives of Atlanta, Basketball Wives and Braxton Family Values depict families that are all about focusing on glamour, fame and materialism, with a strong “Look At What I’m Doing” appeal. “The potential of television to shape viewers conceptualizations of family life is quite strong given the number of television programs that portray families and their interactions (Fabes Et Al 338). Perhaps the audiences of these particular shows see the glamorous life portrayed as something to look forward to being able to do one day, thus important enough to continue to watch and spread amongst friends of friends.
The true hidden message is that a housewife is supposed to dress glamorously at all times, buy or rent lavish homes with custom designs, and purchase expensive vehicles for the whole world to see. This in turn helps out the advertisement industry. “The need to attract advertisers induces programmers and editors to produce content that is likely to create a “buying mood”(Gamson Et Al 377). Ultimately, audiences tune into what they can relate to or what they can see themselves as being, resulting in spending more than they have means, and trying to keep up with the “Riches.” And though all of this is so, the reality shows are still affective in maintaining fans, allowing the continuous spread of a bacterium like substance.
This brings us to Knight’s next concept of a viral structure, that it is “unauthorized.” She defines unauthorized as “shorthand for uncontrolled circulation, or production or transmission in opposition to powerful institutions or entrenched practices”(Knight 7). This is evident in reality television in that any user who wishes to do so can circulate posts on social networks like Twitter, Facebook and Youtube. While reality shows air weekly on designated networks, they can be found in short clips or in full length, sharing the original content on different online platforms, and some are even highlighted during news segments on networks like WFAA, FOX and NBC. John T. Caldwell stated:
Film can be viewed as a “viral marketing scheme. Each multimedia platform serves as a “host body” for the studio/networks mutating content, and various forms of industrial reflexivity, serve as the fuel that drives the endless mutation of this content across proprietary host bodies within the conglomerated world (Caldwell 95).
For example, when Real Housewife of Atlanta NeNe Leakes chewed out Star Jones publically on, and some are even highlighted during news segments on networks like WFAA, FOX and NBC. Millions of viewers combined from the Housewives and Celebrity Apprentice were discussing the episode, which seem to have brought about a negative light towards Leakes, but it actually worked in her favor, capturing the viral attention she like to receive. Caldwell makes a good point in that reality television has become the fuel of the television network industry, developing a viral structure along the way.
Lastly, Knight defines a viral structure as something that is self-replicating. “The viral structure can be considered part of its reproductive system (knight 9). This relates to reality television in that several of the shows have dedicated blogs filled with replicated footage, copies or mutations of Youtube clips, Twitter feeds, and Facebook posts. It also relates to the fans and audience members who feel they have a part in the reproductive system, by having discussions about specific characters or events that have occurred on the shows, which actually might coincide with their lives.
Another way reality television proves to be self-replicating is the fact that many shows have been created based off of the original reality television series The Real World. Lynn Spigel makes a good observation stating:
One of the great achievements of film and television research over the past thirty years has been the move away from “grand”- or even “medium”- scale abstractions toward questions about how film and television with textures and rhythms of everyday life” (Spigel 85).
In essence, genres within genres of reality television have been created since The Real World and have successfully spread like viruses. Every night of the week has turned into many participatory shows like Dancing With the Stars or So You Think You Can Dance. Henry Jenkins say’s, “The ideal consumer is active, emotionally engaged and socially networked” (Jenkins 20). At the end of the day, people want to feel like they are a part of the process and be behind a contestant from day one on a reality show. It makes them feel their time dedicated to the show has not been a wasted.
In Conclusion, after comparing Knights viral structure concepts of infectious, sub-microscopic, unauthorized and self-replicating to reality television, one should agree that reality television is certainly becoming a viral structure if it is not already considered to be one already. Its ability to spread on such massive level over the past thirty years is remarkable and justifies a classification of “viral.” Reality television has a great impact on millions of people who tune in every night and day, and it continues to capture the attention of fans and audiences season after season, also picking up new fans along the way, like an infectious disease.
Works Cited
Caldwell, John T. “Welcome to the Viral Future of Cinema (Television),” Cinema
Journal, Vol. 45. No. 1, Autumn, 2005, pp. 90-97.
Jenkins, Henry, “Convergence Culture: Where Old And New Media Collide” New
York: New York University Press, cop. 2006, p. 20.
Knight, Kim, “Media Epidemics,” University of California, Santa Barbara,
Dissertation, (Mar., 2012), pp. 6-10
Richard A. Fabes, Patricia Wilson and F. Scott Christopher, “A Time to
Reexamine the Role of Television in Family Life” Family Relations , Vol.
38, No. 3 (Jul., 1989), pp. 337-341
Spigel, Lynn, “TV’s Next Season?” Cinema Journal, Vol. 45, No. 1, Autumn,
2005, pp. 83-90.
William A. Gamson, David Croteau, William Hoynes and Theodore
Sasson, “Media Images and the Social Construction of Reality,” Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 18, (1992), pp. 373-393