Week 10 - "Drama is the Cure for Gossip" Summary

            This article, by Abigail De Kosnik, discusses some of the issues with reality television. The author focuses specifically on the classic situation where the characters discover their “true” selves through some kind of theatrical performance. First, the author talks about a popular show Gossip Girl, which takes place in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The show follows a group of rich youths who engage in frequent gossip. An anonymous Gossip Girl manages a blog on which people’s secrets and lies are revealed. Gossip essentially becomes the most valuable currency in this world, and each person attempts to use what they know to further their own goals.

            Despite all the gossip that circulates about each person, the gossip alone fails to tell the entire story about a person. The same is true in real life, where news, gossip, and rating sites tell partial information about people. These posts online about a person start to define a profile for that person. In the end, the online personae may be radically different from what the person is actually like. In reality TV shows, these fake online profiles start to affect the characters in real life, and it is only through a sudden breakthrough that a character can show his or her true self. For example, in Gossip Girl, a character Blair Waldorf is the leader of social networks in her school, and works to plan out every detail of her life. However, it is only through her unexpected performance at a burlesque club to show that she is more daring and risk-taking inside. Similar events occur in other shows. For instance, in Glee, the theatrical performance is a place where people of different races, genders, social statuses, and states of wellbeing can come together and break free of what normally holds them back.

            The author theorizes that TV shows frequently use theatrical performances as a freeing activity to counter the Internet, which also vies for consumers’ attention. The Internet has become a massive gossip culture, where people share their own thoughts on other people in attempts to be noticed. The anonymity of the Internet also makes it easier for people to speak abrasively, since they feel they cannot be tracked down and punished for their words. Due to the anonymity, though, users also have to construct their own personae so that they do not fall victim to the gossip culture. Television shows attempt to counter the appeal of the Internet by providing a fantasy world in which the characters already have constructed their fake personalities. The theatrical performances of the characters feel natural to viewers, and appeal to viewers for their dramatic effect. By doing so, the TV shows create a different world for viewers to become immersed in, thus competing with the Internet’s gossip culture.