Anderson, Benedict. 1991. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso. Briggs, Asa and Peter Burke. 2005. A Social History of the Media from Gutenberg to the Internet. Cambridge: Polity Press. Chun, Wendy Hui Kyong. 2006. \"Introduction: Did Somebody Say New Media?\" In Wendy Hui Kyong Chun and Thomas Kennan eds., New Media/Old Media: A History and Theory Reader. New York: Routledge, pp. 1-11. Deibert, Ronald. 1997. Parchment, Printing and Hypermedia: Communication in World Order Transformation. New York: Columbia University Press. Elsaesser, Thomas. 2006. \"Early Film History and Multi-Media: An Archaeology of Possible Futures?\" In Wendy Hui Kyong Chun and Thomas Kennan eds., New Media/Old Media: A History and Theory Reader. New York: Routledge, pp. 13-26. Jenkins, Henry. 2006. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press. Luhman, Niklas. 2000. The Reality of the Mass Media. Cambridge: Polity Press. Mirzoeff, Nicholas. 2006. \"Network Subjects or, The Ghost is the Message.\" In Wendy Hui Kyong Chun and Thomas Keenan eds., New Media/Old Media: A History and Theory Reader. New York: Routledge, pp. 335-345. Saenger, Paul. 1997. \"Introduction\" to Space Between Words: The Origins of Silent Reading. Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 1-17. Thorburn, David and Henry Jenkins eds. 2003. Rethinking Media Change: The Aesthetics of Transition. Boston: MIT Press.

Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (review)

UNDERSTANDING REALITY TELEVISION Su Holmes and Deborah Jermyn, eds. London: Routtedge, 2004, 302 pp. In a recent issue of Cranta (no. 86), Andrew O'Hagan discusses the relationship between films and personal experience, referencing the particular and complex ways in which people identify with, and engage in, moving images. In an astute comment, O'Hagan writes that "movies and real life share secret things to do with one another... that only the hard-hearted could fail to see" (180). This describes something of the connection that binds viewers to narratives on film and television, and it highlights the mysterious ways in which audiences take meaning from, and interpret, what they see on screen. But what happens when these images not only call out to viewers at the level of narrative, but also make claims about being "real"? In other words, if narrative, fictional worlds connect with viewers' inner lives, how might one characterize the power of unscripted, nonfktion images? Do these images provoke a heightened sense of identification on the part of viewers? Do they also encourage a greater degree of anticipation during the viewing experience? Do unscripted scenarios hold the promise (fulfilled or not) that anything can happen? One might consider, then, the role of unscripted narratives in the current cultural milieu, which has seen documentary films (Fahrenheit 9/11 [2004], Capturing the Friedmans [2003], Spellbound [2002]) and unscripted reality-television shows (Survivor, American Idol, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy) generate enormous fan bases and strong numbers, either at the box office or in the Nielsen ratings. Film studios and television networks have witnessed and responded to this surge in the popularity of unscripted media; cable and network television in particular have attempted to capitalize on this phenomenon. The cable television network Bravo has even produced a five-part documentary called The Reality of Reality-thai is, a metareality show-with segments such as "How Real is the Real?" and "Behind the Scenes." Reality television, which promises to unveil things "as they are," has generated its own reality show (with its own portrayal of "the real"). In this context, unscripted television has become an important site of public debate over the past decade, and this is why the essays collected in Understanding Reality Television, edited by Su Holmes and Deborah Jermyn, are so welcome. Focusing on how reality programming creates new challenges for existing analytical approaches in television and cultural studies (16), Holmes and jermyn have assembled a highly readable and even exciting collection that should be of keen interest to students, academics, and critics alike. The strength of Understanding Reality Television lies in the variety of topics it addresses and the accessibility of its essays. Holmes and Jermyn's introduction both sets the stage for the essays that follow and offers a compelling discussion of its own about several key issues in the critical study of reality television-debates concerning definitions, terminology, cultural value, and the representation of the "everyday." Holmes and Jermyn examine the theoretical space that reality television occupies, from the way in which participants and contestants "talk explicitly about the politics of how they are being 'represented' at the level of the text itself (12), to reality television's "very self-reflexive and self-conscious interplay between different programme forms" (6). They argue that debates about reality television should not be abstracted from their "relationship with a range of existing critical, theoretical and methodological paradigms," and that these debates can provide an opportunity for experimentation and exploration, at the theoretical level (18). Holmes and Jermyn make a concerted effort to incorporate essays that cover a range of areas, addressing reality television's history and reception, issues of class, gender, race, and community, as well as questions concerning celebrity and temporality. …

Understanding Reality Television

While digital technologies were initially seen as harbingers of globalisation and cosmopolitanism, scholars increasingly acknowledge their role in the rise of nationalism and right-wing populism. Yet, this surge of interest leaves at least two important questions unanswered. Where was nationalism before its apparent resurgence? Are contemporary forms of nationalism different from their predecessors, and can these changes be linked to digital technologies? To answer these questions, we argue for the importance of understanding the less visible ways in which digital technologies reproduce our sense of belonging to a world of nations. We discuss three such mechanisms: the architecture of internet domains, the bias of algorithms, and the formation of national digital ecosystems. Next, we examine three characteristics of contemporary nationalism that can be partly linked to recent shifts in the global communication ecology: diversification, fragmentation and commodification. We conclude by considering the implications of our arguments for future research in the field.

Digital nationalism: Understanding the role of digital media in the rise of ‘new’ nationalism

While primarily considered to be a platform for live streaming of video games, Twitch has recently diversified into streaming archival television content. In 2018 and 2019, episodes of the televisi...

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Converging experiences, converging audiences: An analysis of doctor who on Twitch

This paper aims to understand the narrative structure of Indian singing reality television show to identify the representation of national identity. By focusing on the “Sa Re Ga Ma Pa” show format, this paper has followed the work of Vladimir Propp to examine the cultural expressions with the sequential development of the narrative plot. The convergent parallel mixed method has been using to collect quantitative and qualitative data. While using the Likert scale, the reliability of the questionnaire has been calculated and reported Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for internal consistency reliability. The quantitative data has gathered from 205 respondents and 99 episodes aired from 2017 to 2019 have analysed in qualitative data, which is followed by data analysis through IBM SPSS Statistics. By analysing the quantitative and qualitative data this paper finds that the cultural expressions reveal the notion of national identity through the representation of ‘ordinary’ people and emphasis on performances by focusing on the structured format of Indian reality television. The paper indicates the ways where the viewers of the society can connect with cultural expressions through the genre of reality television.

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The Cultural Expressions and Representation of National Identity- A Study of the Indian Singing Reality Television Show “Sa Re Ga Ma Pa”

This article argues that the live tweeting of reality television allows the creation of an imagined community, bounded by national borders. In an era of audience fragmentation and time-shifting of ...

Mark Stewart

Papers

Live tweeting, reality TV and the nation: