Pop (Up) Goes the Blind Date: Supertextual Constraints on “Reality” Television

Abstract

In this textual analysis of the reality dating show Blind Date, the authors challenge the recent cultural studies scholarship that champions textual openness of reality television. In particular, the authors demonstrate how the pop-up supertext in Blind Date undermines the counterhegemonic potential of this show with regard to gender, class, and ethnic representations. The authors find that the interplay between the comic supertext and the dating coverage tends to punish deviance from dominant conceptions of aesthetics, class, social, and intellectual abilities. The analysis highlights the limits of textual polysemy in the new generation of interactive or enhanced television formats.

Evasive Targets: Deciphering Polysemy in Mediated Humor

“…At times, the employment of humor may even “close” an otherwise “open” text. Analyzing the use of comic pop‐ups in a TV show, DeRose, Furesich, and Haskins () argued that their humorous content licensed a hegemonic message of the presented events, thus limiting its polysemic potential. Integrating these standpoints, we argue that humorous texts—like other forms of communication—incorporate a spectrum of monosemic and polysemic potentials.…”

Are You the One? China's TV Dating Shows and theSheng Nü's Predicament

“…Such a dating show does not merely portray courtship and love but, as Lin (2010) points out, participants, hosts, commentators, and guests make provocative remarks and even initiate controversial arguments about social issues. Whereas media scholars are quick to note the limitations of a "reality" TV genre in its mediated representations (Justin DeRose, Elfriede Fü rsich, and Ekaterina V. Haskins 2003;Richard Kilborn 1994; Sujata Moorti and Karen Ross 2004;Camilla A. Sears and Rebecca Godderis 2011), we posit that the dating shows circulated in China conjure up a microcosm of a social reality, which has real impacts on single women who are pressed to find their Mr Right so to speak.…”

An (un)romantic journey: Authentic performance in a Chinese dating show

“…Instead of scripts in the conventional sense, reality television often perpetuates dominant ideology through presentation techniques, recurring messages and stereotypical representations. Using pop-up supertext, for example, would frame and constrain the messages in the show that served to reinforce existing ideologies (DeRose et al, 2003). Certain narrative elements and rhetorical strategies were consistently found to be used to appeal to audiences, as in the case of the dating show The Bachelor (Shedd, 2013).…”

“…The show endorsed recurring hegemonic messages and reinforced stereotypes related to appearance and financial situations. Rather than using the opportunity to give marginalised groups a voice, the potential of participatory reality shows was being undermined by their policing of differences (DeRose et al, 2003, p. 186). Likewise, Teurlings (2001) explicated the tactics used on love game shows to reproduce familiar gender discourses and identities.…”