The book offers an insightful, autobiographical exploration of the casting processes and behind-the-scenes dynamics of Big Brother. It reveals the intricacies of soundstage interactions and the ways in which viewers engage with the show, providing a scholarly perspective on the reality television phenomenon.
Focusing on the role of computer-mediated communication, the book explores how gay men utilize blogs and podcasts to express and affirm their identities in digital spaces. Through virtual ethnographic methods, the author analyzes how these individuals craft multiple online personas and adeptly use language to share their experiences and aspirations. The interaction between content creators and their audiences fosters a collaborative environment that enhances gay male subjectivities and promotes social activism, concluding with insights into the activist potential of these digital performances.
Computer-mediated communication offers opportunities for gay men to affirm their identities in digital contexts. Many gay men have turned to online journals, or “blogs,” and internet-bound broadcasts, otherwise known as “podcasts,” to perform their subjectivities. Digital performances of gay identities potentially intervene on reductive understandings of gay male identity that are prevalent in several mass mediated modes of communication. This project is grounded in a review of literature relevant to performances of identity, personal narrative, social activism, and online methods of cultural intervention. Through the use of virtual ethnographic methods, the author reveals that gay bloggers and podcasters construct multiple online personae and skillfully manipulate language to articulate their needs, desires, fears, reflections of the past, and hopes for the future. Audience members react to the generative texts by finding their own ways to contribute to online performance and bolster gay male subjectivities. The book concludes with a discussion of how bloggers, podcasters, and audience members work in an activist manner.