The Impact of Globalisation on the Fandoms of Reality Television

Investigating The Real Housewives franchise and the toxicity which exists in the fandom through its participatory culture.

Final BCM111 Assignment:

Reality television is undoubtedly a staple of post-2000’s America. And the same could be said for most western and even eastern countries in today’s social landscape. The genre of TV has created a style which blurs the lines between documentary, soap opera, drama and rom-com. A global reality TV format which has experienced major expansions and success since its first arrival in 2006 is The Real Housewives, originating in Orange County and produced by the Bravo network on USA cable television. The appeal of the housewives franchise lies in viewers’ ride on a roller coaster of emotions and desire to voyeuristically peek into the rich neighbours' windows (Jacobs, 2015). The platform which began in western culture has now expanded internationally into eastern countries, even having editions of the show in Dubai, Israel, Africa and South America. There are eleven American instalments and over twenty international ones, including Australia’s Sydney and Melbourne instalments produced by Foxtel. With a television franchise that has undoubtedly been able to succeed through globalisation and its diverse, major fandom, there are also negative impacts occurring, particularly on mental health. As a participant in this fandom, I have witnessed extreme toxicity and the promotion of unhealthy lifestyles within The Real Housewives fandom. Fandom has intrigued a generation of scholars who are interested in the expression of social and personal identity in the context of media culture (Duffet, 2013). This report will investigate the impacts of this through deeper research into global fandom, reality television, and global themes and challenges stemming from this media and psychology.

My Presentation Video:

Results/Discussion

It is evident through these sources that there is a rather good amount of research into both fandom and reality television, but there is a lack of sources which link and pair these two concerns together, as I am endeavouring to do in this report and my next verbal presentation. The sources above do aid in my topic and its aims to collect information on global fandoms, particularly The Real Housewives franchise. I am seeking to gather more intel into the international fandom’s negative habits and toxic culture, there are many arguments and debates which occur on online spheres such as Reddit, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, but it is unclear whether these are investigated by academics due to their rather colloquial, and perhaps immature, nature. Viewers and fans of reality television have long been judged and considered less intelligent than people who opt to watch media television such as the news, documentaries and complicated fictional dramas, so it is not all that surprising that there was a lack of academic sources on reality television and its fan bases. Still, I believe the topic is worthy of academic exploration with regards to globalisation and participatory culture.

Conclusion/Recommendations

Discovering more about the history of fandom was useful so that I have further context on the social and psychological reasons for fandoms, fan wars and ultimately the negative mental health impacts which are being experienced as a result. I’d definitely suggest and advocate that more research be done on this. It is of concern to many people across the world that reality television as a genre is promoting concepts like unrealistic beauty standards, unachievable lifestyles as well as dramatic and exaggerated behaviours. I was able to discover new information on the research question through the sources I came across. Researching memes in participatory culture is vital in understanding reality television fandoms as memes are often used by reality television stars and fans online in communicating ideas and conflicts. I learnt more about toxic fandoms throughout the internet’s history and the causes that contribute to a fanbase becoming toxic and violent. I also learnt more about The Real Housewives franchise and the super machine behind the hit series. The research I’ve conducted made me able to better understand fandom, participatory culture and psychology. I believe more research needs to be done on the topic through more interviews with reality television fans and also young people in general.

Annotated Bibliography

1. Sūna, L. (2018) "Negotiating Belonging as Cultural Proximity in the Process of Adapting Global Reality TV Formats." Media and Communication vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 30-39.

This academic article focuses on reality television programs and has a focus on emotional responses to these media formats. The author focuses on cultural proximity through discourses on culture and the common themes that reality television series most always have in common; these being romantic love, victory, change and competing. The main ideas expressed are that emotions which come from viewing reality television as an audience member are universal feelings such as anger, comedy, inspiration and romantic love. This helps researchers to understand global phenomena of reality television and perhaps why it is a form of media that both eastern and western cultures consume and participate in, as well as the human nature of emotional displays and responses. The article also notes that global adaptations of certain reality TV formats must also be tweaked to suit its own local territories customs and entertainment criteria. The author considers a range of perspectives and has a decently proportioned and valid sample group, twelve experts from the field of international television production. One limitation of this source would be its age, although the article was only published about four years ago and could still be considered rather recent, a lot has changed in media since 2018, partly due to the fact we have experienced a pandemic since 2018 and globalisation has increased even more since then. In particular, the source will assist greatly in analysing global reality TV formats in relation to the Real Housewives format which has become a global success.

2. Duffet, M. (2013) “Understanding Fandom: An Introduction to the study of media fan culture”, Bloomsbury Academic, Vol. 1, pp. 2-7.

This academic book examines fandom culture and in particular has a focus on media fan culture and the problems which can arise from such. The author suggests the new directions that fan culture may end up in the coming decades based on research on the evolution and history of fandom culture which has already been established. The author suggests that having a fandom is the most accurate sign that a form of media has successfully achieved influence, he endeavours to gauge what the dominant systems that fandom culture exists and is arising in. The book examines the concept of alienating and losing fans and the detrimental negative impact this has on forms of media. Ultimately the source is an exploration into the negative and positive of fandom and how important it is for the media to build up a particular fanbase. The book also mentions the concept of fan wars which is relevant to my research that is being conducted on reality television fandom and the issues which exist when reality television causes vicious assaults and leads to negative mental health implications. Different cultures experience different forms of fandom behaviours and the author highlights this, for example, fans will often mock each other and compete with one another: “I’m not that crazy sort of Fan stalker”. Therefore the academic book is of great use, there is a slight limitation because it is almost a decade old but I believe the concepts are still very relevant. The information from the source assists in investigating reality television fandom culture.

3. Leiser, A. (2022) "Psychological Perspectives on Participatory Culture: Core Motives for the Use of Political Internet Memes", Journal of Social and Political Psychology 10(1), pp. 236-252

This paper reviews the contribution of internet culture’s memes surrounding contemporary events. It explains that there is a solid and obvious relationship between internet culture and political events, through creating memes, individuals are able to put forward a humorous take or perhaps put the occurrences in shorter terms to simplify an interpretation for other people. Support for these claims is highlighted through the author’s interviewing of twenty five ‘meme-makers’. The paper finds that memes can be responsible for the spread and rise of misinformation and all types of discourse surrounding world events and events in the media. A qualitative content analysis provides insight into participatory culture and its link to concepts such as political discourse. The paper’s study concludes that internet memes stem from self-expression, social identities and entertainment value, thus focusing on the psychological perspective of this global phenomenon. Therefore the article is useful for the research as I am focusing on participatory culture and elements such as memes can advance my findings because memes on the internet have been the cause of much toxicity and online drama surrounding The Real Housewives franchises.

4. Jacobs, S. (2015) “Personal Narratives and The Real Housewives: A Critical Excavation of Viewing Relationships”, Faculty of San Francisco State University (2), pp. 84-89

This article reviews - through interviews of eight participants - The Real Housewives franchise and the ways in which fans of the television platform construct identity through relating with the show. The author focuses on the tensions between activism and fan identity, particularly through The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Lisa Vanderpump’s activism towards preventing animal cruelty. The author suggests that fans are engaging in media like never before and must understand how fan activism can have the power to create great positive changes in society and the world. There is a focus on how the reality television genre has created a modern, trendy blend of drama and documentary in the form of the rather new concept: “docudrama”. There is an investigation into the escapism that is experienced for viewers of The Real Housewives as they watch wealthy families and perhaps enjoy living vicariously through them for a brief moment in time. The main limitation of the article is that it was published in the USA and does not include much perspective on international editions and fandoms of the The Real Housewives franchise as I would have hoped. However it is still quite effective in analysing fandom and the social and political discourse which comes from the reality franchise. The article is of good use with regards to the research as it encompasses my investigation and compliments some theories I had previously considered and hoped to build on.

References

Sūna, L. (2018) "Negotiating Belonging as Cultural Proximity in the Process of Adapting Global Reality TV Formats." Media and Communication vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 30-39.

Hallinan, B. & Striphas, T. (2016) "Recommended for you: The Netflix Prize and the production of algorithmic culture." New Media & Society vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 117-137.

Leiser, A. (2022) "Psychological Perspectives on Participatory Culture: Core Motives for the Use of Political Internet Memes", Journal of Social and Political Psychology 10(1), pp. 236-252

Duffet, M. (2013) “Understanding Fandom: An Introduction to the study of media fan culture”, Bloomsbury Academic, Vol. 1, pp. 2-7.

Jacobs, S. (2015) “Personal Narratives and The Real Housewives: A Critical Excavation of Viewing Relationships”, Faculty of San Francisco State University (2), pp. 84-89

Starlight, M. (2022) “What's Toxic Fandom and What Creates It?”, ReelRundown.com

Castells, M. (2012). Networks of outrage and hope: Social movements in the Internet age. Malden, MA, USA: Polity Press