The Jersey Shore Reality TV show has taken the television waves and blogosphere by storm. Facebook and all sorts of other media outlets have all been talking about the new show. Whether its people who love the show, or absolutely despise it, one thing is for sure; viewers are hooked to this MTV stroke of genius. I got curious and logged into my Facebook account to search “Jersey Shore.” I found that this show has a devoted Fan club on Facebook with 4,362,542 “Likes” on their page! As our textbook states in Henry Jenkins essay, “One becomes a ‘fan’ not by being a regular viewer of a particular program but by translating that viewing into some kind of cultural activity, but sharing feelings and thoughts about the program content with friends, by joining ‘community’ of other fans who share common interests. For fans, consumption naturally sparks production, reading generates writing, until the terms seem logically inseparable.” I couldn't agree to any sort of "poaching" as de Certeau characterized a certain type of reading for Jersey Shore. After looking through some fan discussion forums for Jersey Shore, I discovered that people find a connection with these greased up, too tanned Italian-Americans. Some are finding interest in dressing and putting the Snooki “poof” on their heads to resemble their favorite Jersey character. Just like how Trekkies imitated and still imitate their favorite character on that show, this new reality TV show seems to be meaningless, yet still attracting young adults. Could it be because it’s just popular to do that? Or is there something about this group of people their fans relate to? There are many discussion forums I Googled to see how popular this show is, and there seems to be countless number is pages for their millions of fans to discuss. The problem I’m having is that it’s not something intellectual they’re talking about, but it’s simple and something they feel they can relate to, such as relationships between the characters, the meaning of friendship, or just simply getting the pleasure of hating someone on TV who’s not acting, but portraying their REAL personality. Here are some discussions and comments posted by fans of “Jersey Shore” that I came across. This is what people are really saying and thinking about this show:
- We watched it last night. I am from the Jersey Shore, and I, nor anyone I know, acts, dresses, or thinks like that. I thought being a "guido" was a bad thing - these people are proud of it??
- My favorite line last night was from one of the girls. She felt like she was "above" selling t-shirts, because "I'm a bartender, I do great things." Yeah like giving people Cirrhosis of the liver!!!! What a MORON!!
- That Snooki girl was so pathetic it was sad. She just sat there waiting for someone to pay attention to her, and when they didn't, she threatened to go home. I KNEW she wouldn't leave, it was just a last attempt to get some attention. Then she brought that guy home from the club and he pukes all over the place - that was disgusting! Then she tells everyone "He’s my friend, leave him alone" OMG - you just met this guy 30 seconds ago!
- And the nickname thing - I haven't had a nickname since 8th grade, but when each one of them walked in, they all asked what their nickname was, like everyone has one....
- I heard that the Italian American council (or something like that) was trying to get the show off the air because it shows Italians in such a bad way. Though I think they are 100% right, I REALLY hope they don't get it off the air - its my new favorite show!!! LOL
Work Cited for Comments: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2345152
No comments:
Post a Comment