Lecture given to subject MECM10003 Media and Society at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

1. R E A D I N G M A S T E R C H E F
M E C M 1 0 0 0 3 M E D I A A N D S O C I E T Y
W E E K 7 : R E A D I N G R E A L I T Y T V
L U K E VA N RY N
U N I M E L B . A C A D E M I A . E D U / L U K E VA N RY N
@ M Y S PA C E G H O S T

2. W H AT ’ S O N
T H E M E N U ?
• What are people saying
about reality television?
• How do they support their
claims?
• How can we say something
interesting about
MasterChef?

3. W H AT P E O P L E
A R E S AY I N G
1 . L I T E R A T U R E

4. – L A U R I E O U E L L E T T E A N D J A M E S H AY
“Reality television … has become the
quintessential technology of citizenship in our
age”

5. – N I C K C O U L D RY A N D J O L I T T L E R
“[The Apprentice encourages viewers] to become
‘empowered’ by struggling within and reproducing
the norms of a harsh, unpredictable, precarious,
increasingly competitive working climate”

6. – TA N I A L E W I S
“the ‘solutions’ [MasterChef] offers largely involve
the contestants learning to see themselves as risk-
bearing entrepreneurial subjects”

7. – K I R S T E N S E A L E
“MasterChef is … invested in deferring the
attainment of professional status so as to ensure
the continued provision of inexpensive labour and
content provided by amateurs”

8. K E Y T H E M E S
• Surveillance
• “How much do we need to
watch each other?”
• Governance
• “How are we asked to
manage ourselves?”
• Ethics
• “What does it mean to be a
good person?”

9. W H E R E D O S O M E
O F T H E S E I D E A S
C O M E F R O M ?
• Michel Foucault
(1926-1984)
• Discipline and Punish
• The History of Sexuality
• The Birth of Biopolitics

10. WAY S O F
S E E I N G
T E L E V I S I O N
2 . F I N D I N G E V I D E N C E

11. C L O S E
R E A D I N G
• Photography
• Staging
• Lighting
• Editing
• Sound
• Discourse

12. C L I P : M A S T E R C H E F A U S T R A L I A , S E A S O N 2 E P I S O D E 4 2

13. P U T T I N G I T T O
W O R K
3 . G O I N G F U R T H E R

14. Q U E S T I O N S
• What are the ‘rules of the
game’?
• How are events
represented?
• What discourses are
produced?
• With what effects?
• For whom?

19. W H E R E T O
F R O M H E R E ?
4 . G O I N G F U R T H E R

20. F U R T H E R
Q U E S T I O N S
• Medium theory:
• “Does the medium (TV, VOD,
VLC) change the message?”
• Audience research:
• “Do other viewers read
media the same way?”
• Production research:
• “How do these
representations come to be?”

21. – A R T D I R E C T O R
“Whether it was in the big pantry or a top-of-the-
room pantry or outside, the idea was always that it
needs to be overwhelming to the senses. Both for
the audience at home and also the contestants
when they walk in as well and are overwhelmed by
the choices”

22. – S T O RY P R O D U C E R
“The boots they use, the knives… the butter they
use, the milk. Every single thing you see in that
show has been brokered, is a deal. When they're
cooking with a pizza oven, outside, that deal has
been brokered with the pizza oven people. You
know, every single thing. None of this happens
incidentally”

23. – F O O D P R O D U C E R
“the hardest thing for me to adapt to and deal
with was working on MasterChef UK where it was a
food show and then coming back to Australia and
starting on a reality-food TV show where food is
the very least of anyone's concerns”

24. – S T O RY P R O D U C E R
“by the end I honestly could not care less about
anyone's desire to change their life through flan!”

25. R E A D I N G M A S T E R C H E F
M E D I A A N D S O C I E T Y
W E E K 7 : R E A D I N G R E A L I T Y T V
L U K E VA N RY N
U N I M E L B . A C A D E M I A . E D U / L U K E VA N RY N
@ M Y S PA C E G H O S T