Recently, MTV has employed a number of new and altered tactics in order to keep the details of the popular hit "reality series" Jersey Shore under wraps. As a strategic move to keep the hype going for Season 2 this summer, MTV executives have forbidden the cast from using social media while in the production and post-production process. While social networking is considered by some networks as a great method of maintaining the viewers' interests during the airing of a show, MTV insists that Twitter updates will harm the success of the 2nd Season. During American Idol, contestants are allowed to update their Facebooks and Twitter accounts to interact with their fan base. But, producers overlook all updates and statuses before being officially posted online. Once something is on the world wide web, it doesn't matter if it's on there for 30 seconds and then taken down... Someone (out of the billions of people who browse the web a day) will read it and spread the word.
Obviously though, Jersey Shore isn't in the same format as Idol which is usually aired live. Once the airing of American Idol is finished, the public already knows what has happened. Therefore, the use of social media is permitted to keep fans interacted and quenching for more. With Jersey Shore, the production process occurs over several months allowing only the cast and crew to know what has gone down. Prohibiting the use of Twitter is most likely a discrete line of attack to protect the "story" from being revealed. The less that is disclosed to the public, the better the odds are of Jersey Shore Season 2 becoming more discussed on Twitter than ever before.
When we talk (in a common-sense way) about "media effects," don't you think waaaaaay too often what we're really doing is attempting to read audiences from the text itself? Do you have a sense of the experimentation it takes to isolate particular cause-effect chains from all the concurrent stuff going on? Personally, I preach the gospel of leaving effects research to clinical psychologists--and even THEY can't agree on the efficacy of "effects." I hope you find this week's readings on audiences and effects research both insightful and helpful!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the advice Bjorn! I'm reading about the Effects Model now in Chapter 8. I will try to incorporate some of the reading into my following posts.
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