Izvorni znanstveni članak
Democratic Potentials of Media Entertainment: Reading ‘The Pyramid’
Zlatan Krajina
; HR-10000 Zagreb, Cmrok 3, Croatia
Sažetak
Contesting a tradition deeply ingrained in media studies, which
conceives of news and current-affairs programming not only as a reliable,
but also a sufficient platform for a mediated enhancement of the
democratic ideal of plurality (in a representational realm which many
members of society find devoid of enjoyment and consequently ignore),
this paper seeks to explore how ‘mass’ entertainment texts are
able to provide subsidiary platforms for debate on society’s relevant
issues. From this standpoint, the ‘reading’ of popular media texts on
the micropolitical level (the capitalist consumerist setting notwithstanding)
is potentially useful to democracy on the macropolitical
level. Although popular texts are ardently condemned by ‘mass culture
theory’ and confined to the realm of mere profit-motivated irrational
pleasures, they are nonetheless involved in rational deliberation
of popular culture consumers engaging with texts as active citizens.
The powers and limitations of “democratic entertainment”, a paradigm
recently emergent in political communication, will be assessed
in a case study of the game/talk show “The Pyramid”, co-produced
by Croatian public service Television (‘HRT’) and ‘Castor
Multimedia’, as a text which boldly confronts entertainment
audiences, prime-time celebrities and current-affairs politicians in
informed discussions on the nation’s pertinent issues.
Ključne riječi
democratic entertainment; televised debate; game talk-show “The Pyramid”; public service radio-television; mass media; popular culture; mass culture theory
Hrčak ID:
26410
URI
Datum izdavanja:
3.6.2008.
Posjeta: 1.885 *