Media rituals- Bruna Oliveira

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Although we live in a world where media is evolving each time more; where we have more liberty and can access anything we want with no restrictions, live tv is still gaining popularity. According to Nick Couldry (2003), there are rituals that bring people together, consequently media becomes a substitute for these rituals. These are known as media rituals.

An example of media ritual would be the famous Netflix show “Dating Around”. The show is an American reality dating streaming and it is about people going on blind dates with various people. After five dates the person needs to choose one of them to go on a second date with.

The purpose of the show is that it does not contain a script. Therefore it is considered a media ritual because it takes truth telling tools such as ordinary people and fly on the wall type of cameras and transforms it into something that all of your friends and family might have fun watching. “Dating Around” shows the experience of what a real blind date is. So it is possible to see and relate to these people getting anxious, nervous or even excited. Unlike other dating realities, “Dating Around” does not have a host nor interviews, so the viewers can identify with these people.

So although the show is not live, it recreates reality. Thus it presents this idea ‘Liveness’ because “through the media, we achieve a shared attention to the realities that matter for us as a society”. (Couldry 2003). Moreover, it transforms this recreation of reality into an object of devotion and media as “common space” to society (Couldry 2003).

In addition to that, I believe that these reality shows along with live tv each time becomes more popular because of multi screen experiences as well. So you can be watching “Dating Around” and commenting about the partners on twitter.

“Dating Around” has become very popular after its first season in New York. Thus, they filmed a second season in New Orleans and even got a Brazilian version.


References:

Couldry, Nick. (2003). Live ‘Reality’ and the Future of Surveillance. Media Rituals: A Critical Approach. pp. 95 – 106.

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