Reality Television and the Rhetoric of Play: What Happens When Old and New Media Converge Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Luedtke, Dalyn Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 28/09/2021 01:01:24 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/223341 1 REALITY TELEVISION AND THE RHETORIC OF PLAY: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN OLD AND NEW MEDIA CONVERGE by Dalyn Luedtke _____________ Copyright Dalyn Luedtke 2012 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY WITH A MAJOR IN RHETORIC, COMPOSITION, AND THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2012 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Dalyn Luedtke entitled Reality Television and the Rhetoric of Play: What Happens When Old and New Media Converge and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy ____________________________________________________________Date: 04/10/12 Amy Kimme Hea ____________________________________________________________Date: 04/10/12 Theresa Enos ___________________________________________________________ Date: 04/10/12 Damián Baca Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate's submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. ____________________________________________________________Date: 04/10/12 Dissertation Director: Amy Kimme Hea 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED: Dalyn Luedtke 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Simply put, the RCTE community has inspired me. In spite of being many years and many more miles removed, I am constantly humbled by the intellectual generosity and unwavering support of the faculty and staff and my fellow graduate students— especially Patty Malesh and Georgie Miller. My committee, Drs. Theresa Enos and Damián Baca, deserves special thanks for their tireless work on my behalf. Theresa, your feedback in particular has shaped me as a writer, pushing me to pay attention to the details of the writing process. Damián, your praise gave me confidence when I needed it. My chair, Dr. Amy Kimme Hea, deserves my heartfelt gratitude for her knowledge, support, and, above all, patience over the past nine years. You always seem to know what I need when even I am unsure. Your generosity of spirit and unflinching optimism continue to be a vital source of strength for me, especially when progress seems impossible. Thank you, as well, for guiding my research into the age of new media, which profoundly impacted both my thinking and teaching. This accomplishment is as much my family’s as it is mine. To my mom, Lynne, who always managed to ask me, “Shouldn’t you be writing?” And my dad, Dale, whose silent regard is perhaps the most effective motivator of all. Your love, regardless of situation and circumstance, is something I aspire to. To my grandmother, Constance, who always remembers to tell me I’m awesome. And to my daughter, Aspen, thank you for being understanding beyond your years. Finally, Josh. Your willingness to go anywhere with me has kept me going. I look forward to the life we’ve begun with these boys. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………7 CHAPTER 1: RECONSIDERING “THE VAST WASTELAND”: TELEVISION IN THE AGE OF MEDIA CONVERGENCE…………………………………………...….9 The “Vast Wasteland”: Television as a Negative Ideological Force……………..…..12 Convergence of Old and New Media: Challenging Traditional Notions of Consumption……………………………………………………………………….....17 iTV: An Interactive Approach to Television……………………………………….25 Playing with TV: What Game Studies Has to Offer the Rhetorical Study of Television…………………………………………………………………..……….32 A Decade of Reality Television……………………………………………………….35 Where We Go from Here…………………………………………………………...…42 CHAPTER 2: PLAY AS CULTURE/LEARNING/CODE/GENRE: THEORIZING PLAY ACROSS DISCIPLINES………………………………………………………...46 Play as Culture: Johann Huizinga’s Theory of Play…………………………………..49 Roger Caillois and the Systematization of Play…………………………………….55 Play as Learning…………………………………………………………………..…...62 Play as Code…………………………………………………………………………...70 Play as Genre………………………………………………………………………….80 Television and Play……………………………………………………………………85 CHAPTER 3: SURVIVOR: THE ULTIMATE GAME(DOC)…………………………..88 Why Survivor?...............................................................................................................91 Survivor and the New Face of Television…………………………………………..94 The Gamedoc: An Invitation to Play……………………………………………...…..98 Documentary and the Representation of Reality………………………………….100 Sound and Vision: Producing Immersion and Intimacy on Survivor: Borneo….…102 Playing Survivor: Setting Up the Game…………………………………………...110 It’s All in the Game: Competition, Strategy, and Chance……………………...…113 Moving Audiences Online………………………………………………………...…119 CHAPTER 4: THE SURVIVOR EXPERIENCE: EXTENDING PLAY ACROSS MEDIA PLATFORMS………………………………………………………………………..…122 CBS and Survivor’s Online Presence………………………………………………..124 The Official Survivor Guide: How Producers Promote Play……………………...127 Watching TV with Jeff Probst………………………………………………….....137 Emergent Play: How Fans Extend Narrative and Gameplay………………………...143 Survivor Fictions: Multimodal Tributes on Forums and YouTube……………….145 Spoiling Survivor: Fans “Outwit, Outlast, and Outplay” Producers (Sometimes)..154 Recognizing Play in the TV-Viewing Experience………………………………...…159 CHAPTER 5: WHAT REALITY TV CAN TEACH US ABOUT SELF-MOTIVATED WRITING……………………………………………………………………………....161 Reality TV, Play, and Multimodal Composition…………………………………….163 Multimodal Composition and Serious Play in the Writing Classroom………………166 Extending the Invitation to Play: Classrooms as Affinity Spaces…………….......171 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS – CONTINUED Using Play to Teach Multimodal Composition……………………………………...176 Community and Shared Knowledge: Playing in the Blogosphere………………..177 Analysis and Video Editing: The Episode Commentary………………………….183 From Pitch to Production: Playing the Role of TV Producer……………………..187 Conclusion………………………………………………………..………………….191 WORKS CITED………………………………………………………………………..194 7 ABSTRACT Little attention has been paid to the rhetorical practices and implications of reality television within the field of rhetoric and composition. In fact, it is easy to argue that television as a whole has been largely ignored, leaving the research to scholars in media, communication, and cultural studies. However, the convergence of media has raised questions about the nature of the viewing practices of contemporary television audiences—specifically regarding how to reconcile the complex texts audiences produce in response to television with the passive model of consumption that has defined it. Game scholars, as well as scholars of computers and composition, have theorized the powerful rhetorical potential of play with regard to video games, but they have yet to consider the way play has been invoked in other more traditional media. Therefore, this dissertation seeks to connect old media and new by considering how television, specifically reality TV, engages audiences across platforms, how audiences extend their own experience with reality programs, and what this might mean to rhetoric and composition scholars about contemporary literacy practices. In this dissertation, I argue that reality television has successfully used rhetorics of play and new media technologies to engage audiences within, across, and between programs and their digital environments. Using Survivor as a case study, I analyze the strategies that producers use to invite audiences into the program, specifically focusing on the generic characteristics that instigate play, the program’s online presence, and the ways in which viewers respond by producing their own texts such as fantasy Survivor games, blogs, discussion forums, and video mash-ups. By doing so, I demonstrate how 8 reality TV and new media technology have renegotiated the relationship among producers, audiences, and texts. Significantly, viewers become active participants with, as well as producers of, texts. Additionally, I use this research to study how play encourages self-motivated writing, community building, and the possible uses for “serious play” within the composition classroom. 9 CHAPTER 1: RECONSIDERING “THE VAST WASTELAND”: TELEVISION IN THE AGE OF MEDIA CONVERGENCE “Television’s real value is to make people participants in