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Gossip as strategy: The management of talk about others on reality TV show ‘Big Brother’
Author(s) -
Thornborrow Joanna,
Morris Deborah
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of sociolinguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1467-9841
pISSN - 1360-6441
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9841.2004.00260.x
Subject(s) - gossip , brother , framing (construction) , context (archaeology) , social psychology , situated , function (biology) , sociology , psychology , media studies , computer science , history , archaeology , artificial intelligence , evolutionary biology , biology , anthropology
In this paper we examine the nature of gossip talk as an activity type in the context of the TV game show ‘Big Brother’. Using a detailed analytic approach to the situated nature of gossip sequences, we show how participants in the show manage gossip talk strategically to establish social relationships within the house, as well as to present themselves in a positive way to the viewing (and voting) audience. We argue that there is a contextual double framing for talk in the Big Brother (BB) house which participants are orienting to, both as members of a social group, and as players in a TV game show. The paper thus contributes to existing work on the social function of gossip, as well as exploring its strategic function in this particular interactional context, calling into question the nature of ‘natural’ discourse.