Gossip as strategy: the management of talk about others reality TV show 'Big Brother'

Thornborrow, Joanna Sarah and Morris, Deborah 2004. Gossip as strategy: the management of talk about others reality TV show 'Big Brother'. Journal of Sociolinguistics 8 (2) , pp. 246-271. 10.1111/j.1467-9841.2004.00260.x

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

In this paper we examine the nature of gossip talk as an activity type in the context of the TV game show ‘Big Brother’. Using a detailed analytic approach to the situated nature of gossip sequences, we show how participants in the show manage gossip talk strategically to establish social relationships within the house, as well as to present themselves in a positive way to the viewing (and voting) audience. We argue that there is a contextual double framing for talk in the Big Brother (BB) house which participants are orienting to, both as members of a social group, and as players in a TV game show. The paper thus contributes to existing work on the social function of gossip, as well as exploring its strategic function in this particular interactional context, calling into question the nature of ‘natural’ discourse.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	English, Communication and Philosophy
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1990 Broadcasting
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Big Brother, reality TV, liveness, frame, gosspi, strategy alignment, resistance
Publisher:	Wiley
ISSN:	1360-6441
Last Modified:	19 Mar 2016 22:07
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/3674

Citation Data

Cited 33 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item