In the reading this week, another sentence that caught my eye was “reality TV raises the act of exposure to the level of mass entertainment” (Murphie and Potts, 2002). This is relevant to our groups creation of our reality TV star gone Australian Media Personality Cate Klancey, a dating show drop out who uses the little reputation she has to boost her popularity and celebrity status. We chose her because reality TV is such a saturated area now where all sorts of levels of communication between audiences and B-grade celebrities.

We were interested in why and how these figures are so entertaining and why audiences are so drawn to this kind of content. Cate Klancey was created because it was a good way for us to generate material suitable for YouTube and social media sites as well as understand this obsession with audiences and personalities. Reality TV stars and celebrity culture interested us because the personalities often leave the show with a reputation and then market or brand themselves further using YouTube and social media. They create their own content and following through these channels and develop an interactive relationship where their fans and followers engage with the celebrity. The reading and material from this week was helpful in the final stages of our PB 4.

Extracts from A. Murphie and J. Potts (2002), Culture and Technology (Palgrave MacMillan)[Introduction and Ch.1 on ‘Theoretical Frameworks’]