Media Ethnography: The Biggest Loser

The reality show The Biggest Loser has been around for more than 10 seasons. It has been one of the most successful and longest running reality shows in history. The show has extended beyond just television, as it has extended its territory to diet books, Biggest Loser brand exercise equipment and even lunch boxes. The show has been able to find great financial success though several different mediums. But the questions still remain: Why is the show so popular? Why do people watch it? What type of imagined community does this show create? What makes The Biggest Loser so successful through the eyes of those that matter: the fans?

In this blog, I will discuss the information I have gathered on how fans approach the show The Biggest Loser. I will examine the perspectives of three different people who watch the show through three very different agendas.

The Biggest Loser as an emotional rollercoaster

The first perspective I will discuss is that of my mother who records the show on her DVR and does not watch all of them until they have all been recorded for the season. She does this so that she does not have to wait a week to watch each episode. She stated, “I just get so worked up in it that I cannot even wait a click of my remote to get to the next episode. I have to know what happens next.” Thus she operates under a kind of delayed gratification where she goes months without watching the show and then she sits and immerses herself into for days.

My mom watches the show for the connection that she creates with the characters. On the show, they spend a great deal of time introducing the people and the struggles that they have gone through. They often show the families in the beginning and later on in the show when the contestants have begun to lose wait. My mother talked about the emotional reunions when their loved ones see them for the first time after they had been on the show for weeks or months. I saw a glimmer of a tear in her eye when she stated, “Sometimes they do not even recognize them at first. But when they do, you can feel it. You can feel how proud they are.” The show often sets up this reunion as they dress the contestants up and spend hours glamorizing them up for the occasions. The sentimental music is playing in the background as the two people come face to face.

The show goes inside the struggles that these contestants go through to lose weight on a daily basis. The viewers are able to see each set back and success. They are able to see the contestants cry in front of the cameras. While these moments are largely constructed, my mother said, “It’s like they are just talking to you. You are able to share their most intimate moments with them. It’s really very special.” The show banks on these intimate moments, as it goes into slow motion when the contestants collapse from working out or it plays inspirational music when they are in the zone. It works to build that personal relationship, and with my mother it works.

Because the show is so personal for her, she stated that she rarely discusses the show with anyone else. Sometimes she will call her husband in to see a certain scene, but she does not participate in any fan clubs or social networks. Especially because that would demand that she finds out about the spoilers before she actually watches it. She watches each episode alone, engaging in that personal, what she sees as an one-on-one relationship.

The Biggest Loser and the Competition

The next person that I interviewed has been watching the show since the second season. He seemed to be just as addicted to the television show as my mother. Yet, he is able to wait the week in order to see the next episode. However, his reasoning for watching the show was very different. When I asked him about the emotional connection that he made with the contestants, he said, “I’m not really sure. Do you mean am I sad when they get kicked off? I guess, yeah, I have my favorites.” While he did have his favorites, Sam did not feel as though he knew these characters. He told me that he watched the show because he enjoyed the competition. He liked to see who one the rewards and the competitions each week. He exclaimed, “There was one year where there was this chick who just schooled them in every competition. It was great. I would watch it and get so angry if she ever lost. I liked the domination.”

Almost half of each episode is dedicated to the dramatic weigh-in, where they will have each of the contestants weigh in to see how much weight they have lost and if they will fall below the yellow line, which means that they are in danger of going home. Each weigh-in takes several minutes, with a discussion with the contestant, the scale going back and forth, and usually a commercial break in between. The tension is high and Sam feels it. He said, "Yeah. They always have everyone watch the weigh-ins. All the eyes are on the contestant and you also just think 'hurry up and do it already' It's like watching football, your hearts kinda pumping, you know?"

Sam would decide who he thought was going to win in the first few weeks and he would watch to make sure that they did. He said that he would often watch the show with his wife or his friends. A few times he has made bets on who was going to win. But it was all in fun and games. He never bet anything too serious. He remarked about one time when he had to do the dishes for two weeks because the contestant he picked had gained 5 pounds that week. For Sam, The Biggest Loser is no different than another competitive reality show. He watches other shows like Big Brother and Survivor for the pure thrill that comes from seeing who is going to win and who is going to lose.

The Biggest Loser as Inspiration

The final person that I interviewed watched The Biggest Loser for a completely different reasons. For her, the show was inspiration. She was the only person who had purchased all of The Biggest Loser products. She said that she had been using the trainer’s diet book and exercise programs for a few years now. She watches the show in order to get tips on how to lose weight and to see others struggle though the same problems that she has gone though. She says, “I see them doing and I tell myself that I can do it. The shows make me want to do it.”

She says that she is part of a local female gym in her neighborhood and all of the women there watch the show, too. Every Tuesday they have it playing and she often goes there to watch it with them. While it is on, they will work out a bit as well. She says that it helps motivate them to get to work and to believe in themselves. It also becomes something that they can use with each other to motivate them. Often times, when she is about to slip she will tell herself that so and so from Biggest Loser almost ate that cookie, but she didn’t. This keeps her going. The women at the gym use this dialogue as well, using characters in the show to keep them motivated. They will remark to each other about how much weight one of the contestants has lost and how they want to get to that weight as well.

She discussed the role of the trainers on the show as inspiration as well. She stated, "I often pretend that they are talking to me. Jillian gets so mad and fired up. She really gets me pumping to want to keep going. And Bob, well he shows that he really cares. I like that." The show becomes an extension of her support team. Even during the show, they will often include segments where they will talk to the audience directly and give advice on what to eat and how to keep an exercise program effective and fresh. The show becomes a friend and a trainer all wrapped in one.

Analyzing Media Use: Developing Identity and Understanding the Effects of Media

In preparing for the media ethnography that I will conduct, I have analyzed my own use of media and how it affects both my production and representation of identity. In this blog post, I have delineated my main media experiences and uses. For each one I will look at how often I use it, why I use it, how my identity is reflected and reshaped through the use, why I believe other people use that type of media, and finally how it could be used for academic purposes. By looking at several different types of media, I will begin to outline the function and effects of media usage and how it serves to both aid in our everyday lives and to affect who we are and how we interact with ourselves and the social world.

Televison

The main media form that I interact with is television. On a general level, I watch television for many purposes. I watch television as an escape. Often times I turn on the TV after a stressful day in order to unwind. I will watch it as I am doing homework so that I can look up and get lost into a different character for a few minutes (or hours) and leave the work of my day behind. I watch television when I go running on the treadmill, as it becomes something to take my mind off of the task at hand. I am able to allow the television to consume me as I become lost into another world.

Television is also a social function. I will get together with my friends and we will watch our favorite television shows with a bowl of popcorn. Or we will talk to each other about what happened last night or how we felt when so and so did this or what will happen next.

Television becomes its own discourse. I use it as a way to express myself or I will use it to live vicariously though someone else. Its ability to portray “real life” in a visual story format makes it an ideal format to express certain themes or situations in a classroom. For example, if I wanted to show different representations of families, I could show my class a video of Full House on the same day that I show them an episode of The Simpsons. This could just be a simple way of showing how families differ and how they operate day to day. It would also show how we represent families, how we respond to these representations, and how we see ourselves in the families that we watch, whether or not that is accurate or not.

Grey's Anatomy

To expand on this role of television in my life, I will briefly concentrate on a particular television show that I used to watch, Grey’s Anatomy. This show is filled with drama and conflict, and thus it becomes an easy outlet for escape, as you can easily become consumed in who is dating who or if one of the characters is going to die. It is also a very social phenomenon. When the show first came out, everyone was talking about it. I have adopted and created a new vernacular based on this show as I have often times expressed myself through the representation and my identification with the characters. I remember one time when I told my friend that she was my “Christina” from the show, because I wanted her to know that she was my absolute best friend. I even used Meredith’s quote, that my boyfriend was “the love of my life but my best friend was my soul mate.” We are able to describe drama queens or players by comparing them to the characters on the show. This demonstrates an ability to identify and interact with the show. We do not watch the show passively. We enter in to it as we identify and compare our own selves with it.

We begin to change how we see the world based on our viewing of that show. I think that this is something that is easily missed or ignored. However, it is true that most television shows that I watch change my viewpoints and my own construction of identity in some way. When I watch Grey’s Anatomy I am exposed to certain representations of friendship, romance, wealth, social class, and gender expectations. My own viewpoint of the world is altered as I see these rather upper-class educated people search for love and battle through conflict. I begin to seek out my own “McDreamy.” I remember after watching one episode where there was a shooting in the hospital, I suddenly saw the world through a much more skeptical and cautious eye. I still find myself shuddering as I walk down the street, as I have become aware that you cannot be secure in your safety. You can never stop someone from coming into your life and taking it all away even if you never did anything to them. One second you can be fine and the next second you are hit by a bus. This show really exposed me to my own futility as well as the social dangers and anxieties in the world.

I believe that the show is mainly geared toward women, as most medical dramas and romances are watched by women. It infiltrates enough soap opera storylines within it in order to attract a vicarious audience who wish to live through the romantic and emotional struggles and ecstasies of these characters. I believe that the show wants its audience to assume that vicarious approach to viewing. The show often invites its viewers to see who their McDreamy is and most of the discussion around the show is about when two characters are going to get together, etc. The show asks us to desire to be rich, smart, and in love. These characters are created as the ideal. They are people to respect and people to live up to. They save the day each and every episode. They lead the glamorous lives that are worthy of revering.

Video Games

The second media outlet that I used to utilize extensively was role-playing video games. In order to look at how these games affected and expressed my identity, I will focus on a single game and discuss it in depth. The video game I will focus on is Final Fantasy.

Final Fantasy

I would play Final Fantasy for hours. The game was a series of adventures and steps that the player must take. There were a series of twists and turns and unexpected surprises that you had to battle though before it came to an end. Unlike many games that can be finished in a few hours or where you just fight a few battles and then choose to stop, this game was a series of stories, battles, and adventures that built off of one another. Once you beat one level, you were exposed to an entirely new story line and path ahead. This made it seem almost impossible to find a stopping point, as there was always something else that had to be done. The story never ended and there were cliffhangers and adrenaline rushes that kept you wanting more.

While the game is a one player game, it was still very social. I would often play side by side with someone else who was playing the same game. Or we would be playing it and we would talk to each other about the storylines and give each other clues and hints about how to beat the next land, etc. Since I was not particular good at the game, I would often have to seek help as to where to go next or how to beat a certain bad guy. It was impossible for me to beat the game on my own, thus I had to interact socially in order to prevail.

The game really had elements for everyone. There were strategic elements to it. There was pure battle, mapping, card playing, and many different storylines. While my brother used to play in order to collect enough spheres and create the strongest and unbeatable characters imaginable, I used to play in order to see the romance between two of the characters unfold. I would want to beat a certain level just so I could see the character kissing in the water afterward. Of course I also enjoyed the strategic aspects of the game. However, I think that my identity is clearly exemplified by what I desired most from the game. I assumed my natural, prescribed gender stereotypes, I looked for the talk of emotions and love instead of the battles and bloodshed.

Because these games allowed you to become the main character, they allowed the players to live vicariously though them. You became the person who was beating up on the bad guys and you became the person that was finding love. I think that these games constructed my identity in many ways. Not only did they teach me about relationships, and the trials and tribulations you have to go though before you can experience them, but they also showed me about good and bad and right and wrong. By playing these games I became more able to justify my actions. In these games it was okay to fight someone because you were doing it for the greater good. Before these games, I often saw the world as more black and white. However, as I grew up with these games I began to realize that what I saw as right or wrong was often personal and could also be adapted and altered based on the expectations and the trials in front of me.

Video games are often seen as the things that boys do when they are young instead of homework. They spend hours on end in the basements, pale as can be, eating chips and playing with their joysticks. However, I think that the power of video games is so much more than that. People can learn a lot though these games. Not only did I gain a more extensive vocabulary though them, but I also learned the elements of story and I became more socially connected. These games were a social outlet for me, as I could play them and discuss them with my brothers and my peers. I felt cool because I was playing the same games as my older brothers.

As far as how I would implement these games in a classroom, I would certainly want students to expand their ideas on reading to include things like video games. I think that often times students think that reading is only sitting down with a long book in front of them. However, games like this are just as much reading as a book is. Not only are there physical words on the screen but there are situations and storylines to decode. I would want my students to include this form of literacy in their everyday and to expand their scope and understand the opportunities for knowledge that are out there. I think that would include the use of things like video games to a choice for book reports, etc. I would want to teach my students to view these types of stories critically. I would want them to respond to these games and to be able to extend what we learn about identity construction, arguments, and the creation of story, to these video games and other past time experiences as well.

Relationships through the Eyes of Soap Operas

This voice thread looks at the way that relationship are portrayed in one of the most enduring and popular media programs of all times, soap operas. Women have been watching soap operas for generations, dedicating every week day to watching their favorite characters fall in love and endure the battle of finding their soul mate and living happily ever after.

I think that these portrayals of relationships illustrate the ideal of what love should be like. Women often wish to live vicariously though these characters, as they dream about what could be. These portrayals show what can be possible and they teach women about what they should aspire for and what they should want.

Viewing Media through Critical Lenses: Adopting Perspectives and an Observant Eye

When looking at how to teach these concepts and ideas to a group of students, I think that there are three things that have to be paid attention to.

First, students have to understand why it is even important to do this. They have to understand why we should adopt different perspectives when looking at media. They have to understand why it is important to think critically about the information that we are exposed to and they have to be able to see how these messages are affecting them without them even realizing it.
In order to get this point across, I think that I would start this lesson off with a discussion of subliminal messaging. Perhaps I would show the students a more obvious advertisement that flashed fries every .1 seconds. I would want to start a discussion about how these media messages are orientating them as a reader. This would then demonstrate the importance of being aware of this so that they are able to fight back! The point of this introduction is to just make students aware that they are not receiving these messages blindly and that they are being positioned in some way.

Secondly, students should be able to understand why it is important to look through different perspectives and what these perspectives are. While I have now positioned them as a reader, I think that it is essential to teach them that this goes beyond just buying a product. They have to understand how this affects their own identity and how media develops the norms of society and makes things seem natural that are indeed inorganic. For this portion of the lesson, I think that it would be beneficial to look at something like Disney movies and how they socialize young children. These movies teach both boys and girls how to behave. I'm sure every student can recall either him or herself or someone else who grew up watching those movies and wanted to be a princess who was waiting to be rescued by a handsome prince or the other way around. I would use these Disney examples to explain the socialization process of the media and how much we get from the world by what we see.
Another personal example I could use from this would be about when I used to watch Saved by the Bell when I was a kid. I used this show to picture in my mind exactly what high school was going to be like. I thought that I would make friends with the principal, I would have clothes being sold out of lockers like Lisa, and I would meet a smart alec kid like Zac who would take me under his wing. This show created norms inside my head that I assumed to be true. I did not even question them.

Finally, after students understand how the media socializes people and creates norms, they also have to understand why. In this example of the King of Queens, I would not just have the students discuss how the working class citizen was portrayed as a buffoon, I would also need to include a discussion of why these shows would bother to do this. For social class, I would lead a discussion about advertising and how they pay for these shows. What is the goal of advertising? For people to buy their products. By portraying working class people as buffoons, it forces people to aspire to be rich. It forces them to want to be intelligent and to demonstrate this by proving that they have money. How do you prove that you have money? You buy stuff, preferably things that are being advertised.

I think that in order for students to truly understand this assignment, they would have to develop several components of background knowledge. I could not just throw up a lesson plan that asked them to analyze a piece of text like the King of Queens as I did here. I want the students to understand how they are positioned as readers, why this matters, why it is being done, and what they can do about it.

For every perspective that I discuss, I would want the student to not just understand the perspective. I want them to look at how the media has affected this perspective. I want them to see the instability that lies in the definitions and the control that the media has on creating what seem to be like stabilities. Thus for each perspective, I would lead a discussion about what the students believe to be true about say, what it means to be female. I would then work to destabilize these definitions as I would disrupt the binaries that they may have created. I think this could easily be done by looking at how media portrayals have changed over the years and through different cultures. We could look at the 50's woman who is the caretaker of the family with a smile plastered on her face or we could look at the pop music star who is half naked, sweat dripping off her body as the ultimate sex symbol.
The representations of family, races, and cultures have changed as the media has created new definitions. I would look at how the media has helped to create these constructions. After I have done this, I would then bring in the text that they are to analyze.
Thus, once students see examples of how a text shows what it means to be a woman, I would have them take a media example and dissect what it is saying about a woman and how that fits with what we see as the norms of society.