Negotiating Identities in Everyday Life: Adolescent fans of talent shows in Ireland and Austria

Abstract

This article examines the ways in which TV talent shows engage with adolescent audiences. The discussion is set against the backdrop of textual analyses of reality TV, many of which claim that the structure of the shows promote a neo-liberal agenda, and it revolves around the extent to which the norms and values expressed in the shows are taken up by socially situated audiences. Based on a comparative study of teenage viewers in Ireland and Austria, we examine three levels of audience engagement with the shows; the social context of viewing, normative discourses and, identity-positioning. On each of these levels we found that viewers' meaning- making was strongly influenced by their everyday life experiences and that the negotiation process resulted not only in the reproduction of neo-liberal values, but also in tensions, contradictory positions, and challenges to the neo-liberal agenda.

Keywords:

• adolescents
• audience identity
• Austria
• everyday life
• fandom
• Ireland
• meaning-making
• reality TV
• talent shows

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the anonymous reviewers who made helpful suggestions for revision of an earlier draft of this article.