The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Dissertations Spring 5-2011 "Reading" The Apprentice: Commerce, Culture, and the Manufacturing of Reality Sharon Simpson Terrell University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations Part of the Mass Communication Commons Recommended Citation Terrell, Sharon Simpson, ""Reading" The Apprentice: Commerce, Culture, and the Manufacturing of Reality" (2011). Dissertations. 692. https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/692 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. The University of Southern Mississippi “READING” THE APPRENTICE: COMMERCE, CULTURE, AND THE MANUFACTURING OF REALITY by Sharon Simpson Terrell Abstract of a Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2011 ABSTRACT “READING” THE APPRENTICE: COMMERCE, CULTURE, AND THE MANUFACTURING OF REALITY by Sharon Simpson Terrell May 2011 This study examines the six original seasons of the reality television series The Apprentice as a postmodern, cultural artifact. Grounded in Burke’s (1967) “literature as equipment for living,” and Brummett’s (1984) consideration that televised content constitutes literature, the theory of “televised discourse as equipment for living” provided the guide to examine the series. Hall’s (1980) “reading against the grain” oppositional reading technique was utilized to interrogate both the manifest and latent content. The content of the series may indeed provide the audience with a guide to ideological beliefs of both commerce and culture, thereby creating a manufactured reality for its viewers.