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European Journal of Communication
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Big Brother and Reality TV in Europe

Towards a Theory of Situated Acculturation by the Media

Divina Frau-Meigs

Institut du Monde Anglophone, Universitée Paris 3-Sorbonne nouvelle, 17, rue de la Sorbonne 75005, Paris, France divina.frau-meigs{at}univ-paris3.fr

This article examines the cross-border circulation of reality programming among European countries, taking Big Brotheras a case in point. It tests the specificity of the media factor in the process of acculturation, by considering the whole communication process, from production to reception, in a comparative manner. It deals with the dichotomy induced by contact between imported elements and traditional domestic core values and with the strategies related to adoption or adaptation. The media appear to apply three filters: the first filter, in production, makes a matrix of Anglo-American origin acceptable by editing out angst; the second filter, in broadcasting, acts as a transfer ‘airlock’, aimed at making people accept the commercial audiovisual system; the third filter, in reception, shows a variety of strategies as co-present publics vie about the values that are being transmitted by reality programming. Assessing these acculturation filters brings the author to develop the notion of ‘situated’ acculturation as it may reflect better the fundamental stakes at work in such cultural transfers –dissymmetric power relations –without precluding the possible strategies of resistance to hegemony that they entail and the cultural bypasses they produce.

Key Words: acculturation • cultural diversity • reality programming • reception • television

European Journal of Communication, Vol. 21, No. 1, 33-56 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0267323106060988
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