THE GAZE
In Jersey Shore the male gaze presented by Berger is evident; the women are dressed in mini dresses and shorts to be seen as though the spectator is male and therefore their image is designed to flatter him.
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| Showing off the muscules |
USES & GRATIFICATION Blumer and Katz
The theorists say that each media consumer seeks out media that best fulfill their needs and theses uses and gratifications are:
1. Diversion- Jersey Shore audiences may use this text to escape their everyday lives and gain emotional release, as the narrative in the episodes create anger, empathy, joy and content. It also can be watched to just fill time or for relaxation. Jersey Shore creates incorporation as they make reality better than life, and also contrasts to the reality of the viewers as in reality they can't go out clubbing and drinking everyday living a reckless lifestyle ignoring the 'high arts' of literature, classical music, education and visual arts.
2. Surveillance- Other viewers may consume this text to be educated by what else happens in the world satisfying curiosity and general interest. For example British viewers see the lifestyle of the Italian-America characters in Jersey Shore and can somewhat compare the differences of their lives, the viewer can seek advice through Jersey Shore and see the effects of decision choices particulary if they are going through the same situation that the characters in the programme are .
3. For personal identity- Watching the drama unfold in the house makes the audience feel as though their own lives aren't as bad or they aren't the only one with problems, as it is a reality TV programme the audience is able to relate to the narratives such as the relationship issues between Sammi and Ronnie and the strong friendship of Snooki (Nicole) and JWOWW (Jenni). The programme can also make the audience find model behaviour and help the find reinforcements for their personal values.
4. Social interaction- The relationship the audience has with the TV programme which are most popular, enables social interaction with others to discuss the events of the episodes which can in turn increase their own popularity. If the individual watches all the episodes and is really committed to the show, the more they will have to say about the show when talking to their friends and therefore the more 'cool' they will appear. In a different way the audience can also have a substitute for a real-life companion. This can also be seen in blogs where Jersey Shore is discussed.
HYPODERMIC SYRINGE THEORY
This theory explores the way in which audiences become passive and addictive and therefore the media 'injects' the audience with the appropriate media to trigger the desired response. A way in which the directors of Jersey Shore make the audience become addicted, apart from the narrative is the use of a cliff-hanger at the end of almost each episode; this increases the audience's need to watch the next apisode as soon as possible. The other platforms of e-media and print is another way in which media injects the audience.
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| E-media- Parody of Jersey Shore |
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| E-media- Parody of Jersey Shore |
of Jersey Shore to see Jersey Shore in various different
interpretations and be entertained giving them their dose of Jersey Shore and can even make them the creators. Blogs also do the same as audience are able to share their views on Jersey Shore discuss who they like and who they dislike. There are games and the like that do the same.
An example of the print platform are magazines, this medium works well with reality TV shows as consumers of magazines are very interested in the real lives of celebrities and reality TV helps gives the audience the first hand exclusive knowledge although magazines give the audience background information.
The viewers of Jersey Shore know Snooki has lost vast amounts of weight by seeing her on the programme but the magazine interview tells us she had an anorexia problem. The hypodermic syringe theory says the mass media can influence a group and this is seen by the effects of Jersey Shore on younger demographic, using the words 'grenade' and juice-head' (insulting words towards the opposite sex) , young people now have a strong desire to go out and get drunk and sleep with as many people as they can.
"John Corner, argues we are now in a 'postdocumentary culture of television' and also refers to a 'new ecology of the factual.' "
Programmes which make substantial use of 'ordinary people' and blends information and entertainment. Is called a 'docusoap:' a hybrid, blending elements of soap (its serial nature with character-driven narratives and a focus on emotional or'gossipy' aspects of everyday life) with the codes and conventions of one kind of documentary (verite camerawork, combining naturalistic/hand held camerawork with stylized editing).
John Corner suggests that the combination presents "documentary as diversion" and produces 'noisy sociability', positioning the viewer as "an amused bystander in the mixture and mess and routine in other people's working lives" (Corner 2001)
Annette Hill(2002) suggests that as well as news and cureent affairs reality TV falls into three main groups
Observation programmes (watching people in everyday places such as Airport) Information programmes (using true stories like first aid) Created for TV programmes (putting real people into a manufactured situation like a house or an island, and filming what happens).
MEDIA STUDIES: THE ESSENTIAL RESOURCE by Philip Rayner
Abercrombie on REALISM
The debate of realism on television is complicated by the fact that 'realism' itself is associated with a set of codes and conventions that we recognise as 'real' or ' realistic' but are in fact artifical and constructed. Abercrombie argues that what television realism offers is essentially a 'construction of reality which is not deliberaterly misleading, but which cannot hope to speak for everyone's experience and understanding of the world'.
This can be proved true for Jersey Shore as this is the reality of the cast in the programme and it is not deliberaterly misleading because it isn't necessarily representative of the world but of the characters.
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| Looking 110% Bored!! |
COLIN MACCABRE argues that 'Television presents one reality and audiences are persuaded to accept it as the only reality... a dominant point of view, that the narrator, which is presented as the natural transparent one' This is shown on MTV's Jersey Shore as one reality is presented to the audience, this ideology of pop culture being excessively fun and that high culture is excessively boring and uninteresting. This is seen in Season 4 episode 10, when the girls go wine tasting and are informed about the history of the wine, and appear bored out of their witts only fascinated by the concept of drinking wine, Snooki even falls asleep!
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| That must be comfy! |
Pierre Bourdieu's book: La Distinction (English translation: Distinction - A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste) (1979) is a study influential in sociology of another much broader, class-based, definition of high culture, or "taste", which includes etiquette, appreciation of fine food and wine, and even military service, but also references different social codes supposedly observed in the dominant class, and that are not accessible to the lower classes. Bourdieu introduced the concept of cultural capital, knowledge and habits acquired by a dominant class. The cast of Jersey Shore attempt to create a cultural capital for themselves by going to wine tasting and also taking a tour of Italy in episode 12. They complain a lot and say things like
'we have to do the tour today, and I'm not really excited about it' (Snooki)
'I'm really not looking forward to the tour, I'm really tired, I just wana relax and chill' (Mike).The Michelangelo-crafted, Renaissance-era sculpture of a male standing nude was a favorite of the female cast members.
'I think the statue of David is pretty sexy.I would do it' (Deena)
'If I could change the statue of David he would look more like a Guido.
POSTMODERNISM
“Postmodernity as a phase of abandoning the assumptions, prejudices, and constraints of modernism to embrace the contradictions, irony, and profusion of pop and mass culture. "High" and "low" culture/art categories are made useless and irrelevant as art from outsider and non-Western cultures embraced, consumer society turned inside out. The grand linear narrative of art history and Western cultural history is exposed as ideological and constructed for class interests.”
Jersey Shore is pop culture and does abandon the assumptions, prejudices, and constraints of modernism to embrace the contradictions, irony, and profusion of mass culture. This is seen by its outrageous boisterous characters in the programme and by the activities they take part in, such as smoking, drinking excessively and partying almost every night. It abandons the religious assumptions and prejudices that females are suppose to be discrete and reserved, maintaining their dignity and respectability. In this reality TV programme we see the woman being very loud, fighting men, throwing glass bottles at them, swearing and even displaying their private parts in public. They embrace the ability to do as they want, due to mass culture, as this ranks in the viewers.
