Based within the theoretical framework of the sociology of journalism, this article presents the results of a research project on the Italian production of reality television formats. The research (based on in-depth interviews and participant observation) focuses on the particular routines and daily practices of different media workers involved in the production of four different Italian reality TV programmes (Big Brother, Farm, Music Farm and Celebrity Survivor). The article details two different stage of this process: firstly, when broadcasters purchase a TV format; and secondly, when a TV company actually produces it. Media workers have to select and create a narrative from 24 hours of shooting. In order to manage this task – i.e. the selection of material and its construction in a narrative – two main groups of figures are involved: ‘entertainment gatherers’ and ‘entertainment processors’. The article describes the routines and logics which preside over these choices. At the same time, it discusses ‘entertainment values’ which, like ‘news values’, help media workers to choose between events and material in order to compose them in a coherent narrative. The analysis discusses what kind of media logic is at the stake in the production process.

Media logic production: how media practitioners in Italian reality television localize TV formats and select entertainment values / S. Splendore. - In: JOURNAL OF POPULAR TELEVISION. - ISSN 2046-9861. - 2:2(2014), pp. 189-204. [10.1386/jptv.2.2.189_1]

Media logic production: how media practitioners in Italian reality television localize TV formats and select entertainment values

S. Splendore
Primo
2014

Abstract

Based within the theoretical framework of the sociology of journalism, this article presents the results of a research project on the Italian production of reality television formats. The research (based on in-depth interviews and participant observation) focuses on the particular routines and daily practices of different media workers involved in the production of four different Italian reality TV programmes (Big Brother, Farm, Music Farm and Celebrity Survivor). The article details two different stage of this process: firstly, when broadcasters purchase a TV format; and secondly, when a TV company actually produces it. Media workers have to select and create a narrative from 24 hours of shooting. In order to manage this task – i.e. the selection of material and its construction in a narrative – two main groups of figures are involved: ‘entertainment gatherers’ and ‘entertainment processors’. The article describes the routines and logics which preside over these choices. At the same time, it discusses ‘entertainment values’ which, like ‘news values’, help media workers to choose between events and material in order to compose them in a coherent narrative. The analysis discusses what kind of media logic is at the stake in the production process.
entertainment; format; media logic; production; reality TV; values
Settore SPS/08 - Sociologia dei Processi Culturali e Comunicativi
2014
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2434/234232
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