Zhana Popova
Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”
https://doi.org/10.53656/phil2024-03S-12
Abstract. This paper presents the results from a study of the attitudes of TV workers in entertainment shows in two main category oppositions: “visible”/“invisible” and “interesting”/“insignificant”. The conducted interviews show that despite the stress of the workroom, nobody quits their workplace. Loggers and copilots keep their jobs, despite the pressure, because they want to “overcome the challenge” and to “leave their comfort zone”. These lines strongly resemble the lines used by producers to describe contestants in the shows. The lowest hierarchal level job in reality TV shows (such as Big Brother or The Farm) is for workers to compete among themselves in describing the most “interesting” scenes which should not be overlooked. Our research shows, that these reality TV workrooms overflow with competition between ready-made stereotypical expectations of “interesting” interactions between contestants and unexpected “more interesting” occurrences. I attempt to answer the question: What messages in TV entertainment come from the relationships between video surveillance workers? One of the research results points, that people’s desire to have symbolic power over others, to establish the ideas of what is “interesting”, is the reason why this descriptive job has not yet been delegated to software solutions but instead people’s senses are used as mechanical appliances.
Keywords: media, television, popular culture, entertainment, invisible workers
