Cover not available

Article published In: Pragmatics and Society
Vol. 5:1 (2014) ► pp.50–75

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Analyzing discourses of emotion management on Survivor, using micro- and macro-analytic discourse perspectives

Published online: 5 May 2014
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.5.1.03win
In this paper, we study discourses of emotion management on the reality television show Survivor. We analyze segments of the program that feature emotionally charged interactional moments and examine how these interactions are interwoven with contestants’ confessional interviews and framed by the narrator’s introductions of the segments. In a two part analysis, we first analyze the talk produced by the contestants and the host as individual texts, using a discourse analytic perspective that focuses on the details of the talk itself. We then consider the ways the talk constitutes a series of layered texts and analyze these texts, using a discourse analytic approach that attends to macro-level and critical perspectives. We conclude that Survivor largely reinforces dominant cultural discourses of emotion management as strategic interactional practice that allow a person to be competitive. Furthermore, the analysis links performances of emotion management to representations of specific aspects of contestants’ social identities.
References (52)
Agha, Asif. 2011. Meet Mediatization. Language & Communication 311, 163-170. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Aslama, Mina and Pantti, Mervi. 2006. Talking Alone: Reality TV, emotions, and authenticity. European Journal of Cultural Studies 9, 2, 167-184. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bell-Jordan, Katrina. 2008. Black, White, and a Survivor of The Real World: Constructions of race on reality TV. Critical Studies in Media Communication 251, 353–372. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boxill, Jan. 2006. Football and Feminism. Journal of the Philosophy of Sports 33, 2, 115-124. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Buttny, Richard. 1993. Social Accountability in Communication . Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cavender, Gray. 2004. In Search of Community on Reality TV: America’s Most Wanted and Survivor. In: Understanding Reality Television , Su Holmes and Deborah Jermyn (eds), 154-172. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Corner, John. 2002. Performing the real: Documentary diversions. Television New Media 3, 3, 255-269. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2004. Afterword: Framing the new. In: Understanding Reality Television , Su Holmes and Deborah Jermyn (eds), 290-299. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Couldry, Nick. 2004. Teaching Us to Fake It: The ritualized norms of television’s “reality” games. In: Reality TV: Remaking Television Culture , Laurie Murray and Susan Ouellette (eds), 82-99. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2008. Reality TV, or the Secret Theater of Neoliberalism. Review of Education, Pedagogy & Cultural Studies 30, 1, 3-13. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Döveling, K. C. 2004. The Commercialization of Human Feelings in New German Popular Television Shows: Emotions in the eye of public interest. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Dubrofsky, Rachel, 2009. Fallen Women in Reality TV: A pornography of emotion. Feminist Studies 9, 3, 353-368. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dubrofsky, Rachel and Hardy, Antoine. 2008. Performing Race in Flavor of Love and The Bachelor . Critical Studies in Media Communication 25, 4, 373-392 Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Foster, Derek. 2004. “Jump in the Pool”: The competitive culture of Survivor fan networks. In: Understanding Reality Television , Su Holmes and Deborah Jermyn (eds), 270-289. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. 1978. The History of Sexuality: An Introduction . New York: Random House.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gee, James Paul. 1999; 2005: 2011. An Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and method . New York and London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving. 1974. Frame Analysis . New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gordon, Cynthia. 2002. “I’m Mommy and you’re Natalie”: Role-reversal and embedded frames in mother-child discourse. Language in Society 31, 5, 679–720 Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2009. Making Meanings, Creating Family: Intertextuality and framing in family interaction . New York: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gordon, Cynthia (forthc.). “We were introduced to foods I never even heard of”: Parents as consumers on reality TV. In Anne T. Demo, Jennifer L. Borda, & Charlotte H. Kroløkke (Eds.), The motherhood business: Consumption, communication, and privilege . University of Alabama Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grindstaff, Laura. 2002. The Money Shot: Trash, class, and the making of TV talk shows . Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hartley, John. 1999. The Uses of Television . London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hill, Annette. 2005. Reality TV: Audiences and popular factual television . New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hiramoto, Mie and Park, Joseph Sung-Yul. 2010. Media intertextualities: Semiotic mediation across time and space. Pragmatics and Society 1, 2, 179-188. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hochschild, Arlie. 1983. The Managed Heart . Berkeley, California: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hoggart, Richard. 1970. Speaking to Each Other: Essays . New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Holmes, Sue and Jermyn, Deborah. 2004. Understanding Reality TV . New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hopson, Mark C. 2008. “Now Watch Me Dance”: Responding to critical observations, constructions, and performances of race on reality television. Critical Studies in Media Communication 25, 4, 441- 446. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Johnson, Richard, Chambers, Deborah, Raghuram, Parvati and Tincknell, Estella. 2004. The Practice of Cultural Studies . London: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Johnson, Sally and Ensslin, Astrid. 2007. Language in the media: Theory and practice . London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kavka, Misha. 2005. “Love ’n the real; or, how I learned to love reality TV." In: Spectacle of the Real , Geoff King (ed.), 93-104. Bristol: Intellect Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kilborn, Richard. 2006. “Mixing and Matching”: The hybridising impulse in today’s factual television programming. In: Genre Matters: Essays in theory and criticism , Garin Dowd, Jeremy Strong, and Leslie Stevens (eds.), pp. 109-122. Intellect Ltd.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kocela, Christopher. 2009. Cynics Encouraged to Apply: The Office as reality viewer training. Journal of Popular Film and Television 37, 4, 161-168. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Krijnen, Tonny and Tan, Ed. 2009. Reality TV as a Moral Laboratory: A dramaturgical analysis of The Golden Cage. Communications 341, 449-472. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lewis, Justin and Jhally, Su. 1994. The Politics of Cultural Studies: Racism, hegemony, and resistance. American Quarterly 46, 1, 114–117. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lunt, Peter and Stenner, Paul. 2005. The Jerry Springer Show as an Emotional Public Sphere. Media Culture and Society 27, 1, 59-81. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Murray, Susan and Ouellette, Laurie. 2009. Introduction. In: Reality TV: Remaking television culture , Susan Murray and Laurie Ouellette (eds.), 1-20. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Orbe, Mark. 1998. Constructions of reality on MTV's 'The Real World': An analysis of the restrictive coding of black masculinity. Southern Communication Journal 64, 1, 32–47. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Orbe, Mark. 2008. Representations of Race in Reality TV: Watch and discuss. Critical Studies in Media Communication 25, 4, 345-352. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ouellette, Laurie and Hay, James. 2008. Better Living through Reality TV . Malden, Mass.: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Palmer, Gareth. 2004. The New You: Class and transformation in lifestyle television. In: Understanding Reality Television , Su Holmes and Deborah Jermyn (eds.), 173-190. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reese. (2010, March 31). Boston Rob for President [Blog]. Retrieved from [URL]. (2008, May).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reisigl, Martin and Wodak, Ruth. 2001. The Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA). In Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis , Ruth Wodak and Michael Meyer (eds.), 87-121. Londan: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Riggs, Damien and Due, Clemence. 2010. The Management of Accusations of Racism in Celebrity Big Brother . Discourse & Society 21, 3, 257-271. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schegloff, Emmanuel 1987. Between Macro and Micro: Contexts and other connections. In The Micro-Macro Link , Jeffrey Alexander, Bernhard Giesen, Richard Munch and Neil Smelser (eds.), 207-234. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scott, Marvin and Lyman, Stanford. 1968. Accounts. American Sociological Review 331, 46-62. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stefanone, Michael and Lackaff, Derek. 2009. Reality Television as a Model for Online Behavior: Blogging, photo, and video sharing. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 14, 4, 964-987. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stephens, Rebecca. 2004. Socially soothing stories? Gender, race and class in TLC’s A Wedding Story and A Baby Story . In: Understanding Reality Television , Su Holmes and Deborah Jermyn (eds.), 191-210. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thackaberry, Jennifer. 2003. Mutual metaphors of Survivor and office politics: Images of work in popular Survivor criticism. In: Survivor Lessons: Essays on Communication and Reality Television , Matthew Smith and Andrew Wood (eds.), 153-181. Jefferson, N. C.: McFarland.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thornborrow, Joanna and Morris, Deborah. 2004. Gossip as strategy: The management of talk about others on the reality TV show “Big Brother.” Journal of Sociolinguistics 81, 246-271. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tracy, Karen. 2002. Everyday Talk: Building and reflecting identities . New York: The Guilford Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wodak, Ruth and Meyer, Michael. 2001 (2009). Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis . London: Sage. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Brooks, James & Leah Wingard
2024. Evolutions in hegemonic discourses of climate change: An ecomodern enactment of implicatory denial. Discourse & Society 35:3 ► pp. 312 ff. DOI logo
Rodrigues-Mello, Roseli, Lars Bonell-García, Marcos Castro-Sandúa & Esther Oliver-Pérez
2021. “Three Steps Above Heaven? Really? That’s All Tactic!” New Alternative Masculinities Dismantling Dominant Traditional Masculinity’s Strategies. Frontiers in Psychology 12 DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 30 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue