Televison & New Media

Saiu o novo número da Televison & New Media, revista científica editada por Toby Miller, da Universidade da Califórnia, e publicada pela Sage. O volume 8, número 4, tem quatro artigos disponíveis online:

“Therapeutics of the Self: Surveillance in the Service of the Therapeutic”, de Rachel E. Dubrofsky (University of South Florida)

Abstract: The article uses the reality-based television shows The Bachelor and The Bachelorette as a lens through which to examine the representation of therapeutic behavior, arguing that a re-articulation of the therapeutic is necessary to understand the coupling of surveillance and the therapeutic on television. The work examines how participants on reality shows, to legitimate themselves under surveillance, must assert what the author terms the "therapeutics of the self," a pride in displaying a consistent self verified by surveillance. The "therapeutics of the self" builds on the trend observed by scholars studying therapeutic culture in which people are incited to constantly work on, hence change, the self. The author argues that the "therapeutics of the self" promotes as therapeutic the assertion of self-sameness across disparate social spaces (on the shows and in "real" life): stasis. Hence, paradoxically, the unchanged self works to improve—change—the self.


“‘He Needs to Face His Fears With These Five Queers!’: Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Makeover TV, and the Lifestyle Expert”, de Tania Lewis (Monash University)

Abstract: This article examines the figure of the lifestyle expert on television through an analysis of a popular U.S. makeover show, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. It situates the popularity and significance of this program within the context of recent scholarship documenting a broader shift away from more traditional, educational modes of mediatized expertise toward revalued, "feminine" forms of "ordinary" knowledge. Despite the persuasive claims for this shift, the lifestyle expert nevertheless plays a strongly pedagogical role by authorizing certain models of social identity and "good" citizenship—lifestyle and makeover culture being associated with idealized images of the self as a reflexive and enterprising consumer—citizen. Using Queer Eye as a generative exemplar of this increasingly common mode of pedagogy, the article analyzes the way in which the show attempts to negotiate the potential disjuncture between a conception of the self as reflexive and "post-traditional" and more traditional classed and gendered models of selfhood.


“Softcore as Serialized (and Feminized) Featurette: Postfeminist Propriety on Late-Night Cable”, de David Andrews (Ohio State University)

Abstract: The softcore serial (or "softcore featurette") is a prolific sexploitation subgenre spawned by the early-nineties popularity of Red Shoe Diaries, Zalman King's late-night Showtime program. Like Red Shoe Diaries, the softcore serial is an elaborately feminized and aspirational form with a pointedly "postfeminist" sensibility. Though this subgenre is also a self-consciously apolitical form structured by double standards and essentialist stereotypes, contemporary feminists have nevertheless been increasingly inclined to condone it, a trend that may dovetail with a larger postfeminist receptiveness to traditional ideas of femininity. This article proposes that the softcore serial and its (post)feminist reception are most usefully framed as the product of three overlapping cultural contexts: the histories of postfeminist cultural production, of American sexploitation cinema, and of premium cable programming.


“A Participation Observation Analysis of the Once & Again Internet Message Bulletin Boards”, de Siddhartha Menon (Michigan State University)

Abstract: This article uses an ethnographic and participant observation approach to analyze discourse among members of the internet message bulletin boards dedicated to the ABC television program Once and Again. The discussion emphasizes community and activism as dimensions of the members' electronically mediated social interactions within the context of voice theory. The phenomenon within this computer-mediated fan community suggests a richness of human self-involvement with the program's text and a dogged grassroots campaign to "save" the show from cancellation.

(Marcia Benetti)