A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of - Etheses - Queen Margaret ...

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structural economic causes that continue to dominate social relations... As
embodiments of the enigmatic and irrational aspects of commodity culture, even
their various well-intentioned charity campaigns ultimately serve to reinforce the
system as they appear to challenge it (Taylor and Harris, 2008:134).
Another view, quickly dismissed
Offering a different perspective on the roles of TV and celebrity in the construction of
everyday life, Laurie Ouellette and James Hay propose that TV - in particular the phenomena
of so-called Reality TV – plays a major role in the empowerment of individuals. They
contend that whereas in the past viewers were regarded as „a gullible mass that needed
guidance in the liberal arts to participate in the rituals of democracy‟ (Ouellette and Hay,
2008:3) TV now treats its audiences differently, in that it „circulates informal guidelines for
living that we are all (at times) called upon to learn from and follow‟ (Ouellette and Hay,
2008:2). Rejecting structural analyses, Ouellette and Hay argue that:
these are not abstract ideologies imposed from above, but highly dispersed and
practical techniques for reflecting on, managing, and improving the multiple
dimensions of our personal lives with the resources available to us (Ouellette and
Hay, 2008:2).
Ouellette and Hay suggest that Reality TV programmes provide resources for viewers‟
private self-empowerment. They are to be consumed as part of:
a dispersed network of supporting technologies geared to self-help and self-
actualisation (Ouellette and Hay, 2008:3).
Similar arguments have been made with regard to celebrity gossip magazines such as OK,
Hello! and Heat (Turner, 2006:74). It is not the content of such commercial products that is
regarded as important so much as the way they are used by knowing audiences, who use
celebrity material „for play, for experimentation, as fodder for their own cultural activities‟
(Turner, 2006:111).
Reality TV programmes such as The Osbournes, which recorded the domestic life of heavy
metal singer Ozzy Osbourne and his family, invite viewers to observe the mundane familiar
patterns of family life shared between themselves and the stars. The impression is conveyed
that, after all, celebrities are just individuals like them and that bourgeois patterns of living
and relating to each other are right and natural.