Summary Of The Irony Bribe And Reality Tv

Cloud, Dana. "The Irony Bribe and Reality Television: Investment and Detachment in the Bachelor." Critical Studies in Media Communication, vol. 27, no. 5, Dec. 2010, pp. 413-437. EBSCOhost Dana Cloud is a professor, author, and activist. At the University of Syracuse, she teaches communication studies. Cloud is most recognized for the phrase “rhetoric of therapy” in her book Control and Consolation in American Culture and Politics: Rhetoric of Therapy. Not only is Cloud an author of several books, she is an activist in social movements, feminism, queer theory, and critical rhetoric. To demonstrate Cloud’s love for being an activist, she protested Madeline Albright from making an appearance at Syracuse’s campus. In this article, Dana Cloud corresponds her strategy “irony bribe” to reality television. Irony bribe is a strategy that gains an individual’s attention by temptation of social and political fantasy. Cloud chooses to investigate ABC reality television show, The Bachelor, when Brad Womack (the bachelor) refuses to pick the love of his life at the end of the season. Because Womack exposed the ultimate mythic romantic script, viewers were left outraged and deserted. This violation offered viewers a bribe in exchange for their consumption. When
W. James Potter defines perceived reality in three categories: the message, the receiver, and conceptual definitions. The message, defines perceived reality in an ostensive way; for example, news programs are real while fictional programs are not. Potter reveals that the message effect must be “must be measured instead of assuming certain message cues will make the reality obvious to all viewers” (24). A perceived reality is a perception an individual’s reality. Potter’s research concludes that television influences people to seek information and instruction. This shows how different people perceive their reality based on reality