Media Rituals - Araí Yegros C.

 In ancient Rome, the poet Ovid stated that the true goal of public speech (or the media in today's world) is to entertain us while instructing us. He was ver pessimistic about the human reluctance to be taught things, as he believed human beings still have much to learn. On the other hand, he looked without too much dread at our strong natural inclination to entertainment, as he dreamed of combining the two. With immense effort and wit of  media directors and producers, this could become a reality, as I believe there is always a lesson to be learned even in the most vacuous of reality TV shows. 

Even though I don't fully agree that all media can potentially elevate human character, it does indeed create a very strong sense of community and unity even between people who would not have a shared culture otherwise. One could make the argument that fandoms create their own ritual categories as fans go on pilgrimages to filming sites (GoT, LOTR) and demand millions of dollars in merchandise every year, and thus creating their own imagined communities in Benedict Anderson's words, but also the "potential connection with real life events" in a shared reality in Dr Couldry's analysis of media rituals, potentially creating not only social dynamics within the fandom, but also parasocial relationships between actors, characters, and fans: giving the illusion of a face to face connection. 

In my daily life, I certainly exercise one of these shared rituals around media: for my mother and I gather every thursday after dinner to watch TLC (acronym for The Learning Channel, as ironically or unironically as you want to see it) and all the real stories they present from the unfortunate buffoons who are in a sense, obliged to participate in their reality TV. Shows like these include my 600 pound life, My big gypsy wedding and Here Comes Honey Boo-Boo. The grotesque spectacle not only crafts a feeling of expectancy (anthropologically, we rejoice when someone fails-especially when we consider them lazy or immoral) but the ritual category it creates is, ultimately, a shared experience of cautionary tales. Through this type of story telling we witness this modern freak show: the ancient Roman ritualistic equivalent of this would be going to the colosseum or the circus to watch a naked slave writhing in human blood. Some things never change. 

By creating this form of rituals, TLC is teaching its audience that the freak being portrayed is something one should never imitate, an object for morbid curiosity: out of fear of being outcasted, ostracized and exhibited in the most embarrassing ways on international TV. Anthropologically, we are united by the feeling of cringing at these individuals, making us forget our own shortcomings and defects when comparing ourselves to these unfortunate souls. 

Is this not a ritual? In my humble opinion, this is more than a ritual, cringing at unlucky/sick/ungracious people is an ancestral anthropological practice. Mass media has just facilitated this, and marketed it as wholesome family time. Shared habits of media consumption shape the way we see others, through a meticulous way of storytelling. In American reality TV media, the obscenities of both the lower classes and the neo-riche are a laughing matter for the constructed audiences. 

Reality TV is not exclusively important for our own daily socialization and the contempt we have for others, but ultimately it portrays relationships of gender, race and class. I do not want to think about all the implications this has. I just want to watch Real Housewives and take a nap. 

Every time you send cameras out into the middle of America, you're going to find somebody who's struggling to make ends meet while still poking at the embers of the American dream.

Sources: 

1. Couldry. N. 2003. Media Rituals. Live Reality and the Future of Surveillance. Routledge: London. 

2. Couldry, N., & Markham, T. (2006). Public Connection through Media Consumption: Between Oversocialization and De-Socialization? The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 608, 251-269. Retrieved November 30, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25097865

3.VanDerWerff, T. (2014). Looks Like a Duck, Quacks Like Reality TV. The Baffler, (25), 64-71. Retrieved November 30, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/43307899