Václav Štětka

Globalization, Reality TV and Cultural Inclusion: the Case of the 2005 Czech Search for a Superstar

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between reality television, representations of national identity and mechanism of cultural inclusion, as manifested in the 2005 Czech Search for a Superstar, a local version of the global format Pop Idol. This issue is set within a wider theoretical framework describing television formats as currently one of the most prolific constituents of global cultural flows and, at the same time, important agents of construction and re-construction of cultural identities. Following this introduction, the author presents a case study of the 2005 run of the Czech Search for a Superstar, which was surprisingly won by a young Roma singer Vlasta Horváth. The analysis focuses particularly on the media discourse which has surrounded his victory and which attempted to ascribe to him, often in a very stereotypical way, an identity of a Roma leader and a role-model. Contrary to the predominant media narrative, hailing his achievement as an evidence of society’s changing attitudes and greater acceptance of diversity, this paper argues that Horváth’s television triumph rather confirms assimilation as a preferred integration strategy, and indicates therefore neither a symbolic recognition of the Roma minority and its culture nor the much-invoked shift towards a more inclusive notion of the Czech national community.

 

 

Václav Štětka (1976) holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the Masaryk University, Brno, the Czech Republic, where he has been working since 2005 as a Lecturer at the Department of Media Studies and Journalism, Faculty of Social Studies. His research interests include globalization of communications and audiovisual flows, the role of media in the construction of European identity and public sphere, and the processes of media transformation in Central and Eastern Europe. His recent publications include “Struggling with Diversity: objectives, outcomes and future of the European quota policy in context of the television scene in the Czech Republic” (in Klimkiewicz, B. (ed.) 2009. Media Freedom and Pluralism: Media Policy Challenges in the Enlarged Europe, Budapest: CEU Press), “Between and Beyond: Diasporic Media Spaces and Transnational Practices” (in Hofirek, O.; Klvanova, R.; Nekorjak, M. (eds.) 2009. Rethinking Contemporary Migration Events, Brno: CDK) and “Media Events and European Visions: Czech Republic in the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest” (European Journal of Communication Research, 34 (1), 2009, pp. 21-38). E-mail: stetka-AT-fss.muni.cz.


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