Mapping Commercial Nationalisms on Reality TV

Event Date: 

Thursday, May 14, 2015 - 2:00pm

Event Location: 

  • SSMS 2135

Zala Volcic
Media Studies, Pomona College

This presentation will consider the themes and reception of different reality shows in the Balkans (such as To Sam Ja (That’s Me, 2005)) that attempt to re-connect and integrate the former Yugoslav republics after the wars. Drawing on examples taken from the production and reception of the shows, I explore the ways in which these TV programs manage social, political and economic conflicts by transposing them into the realm of the personal. Particular interest will be paid to their interactive websites, and the way the shows, caught up in the shifting currents of post-socialist nationalism, channel these into what might be described as a form of commercial nationalism.