Mode of Program Participation
Academic Scholarship
Participation Type
Paper
Presentation #1 Title
Casting Calls on the Hillbilly Highway: A Content Analysis of Appalachian-Based Reality Television Programming.
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
This analysis examines two contemporary reality television shows set in the Appalachian region of the United States - Appalachian Outlaws and Moonshiners. The portrayals are contextualized by tracing the intertwined social, political and economic factors that influenced the evolution of mediated Appalachian stereotypes since the mid-1800s. As such, Appalachia is examined as simultaneously being a mountain range, a cultural region and a socially constructed idea. Beginning with Cultivation Theory, which holds television to be most powerful and persuasive medium available for most people, the theoretical base is expanded to consider the programs to be part of a complex intertextual phenomenon involving various media. Stereotypes of the Appalachian region and people were found to be readily present in both programs, although there were some notable differences in kind and degree. Alongside a rather pronounced hegemonic masculinity, the recurring themes of homogeneity, isolation, an aversion to outsiders, feuding, the inability to join modernity, taking the law into your own hands and, most notably, violence corresponded to well-established Appalachian stereotypes.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Dan Martin is a native of eastern Kentucky who earned a BA in Telecommunications from the University of Kentucky and a MA in Sociology from the University of Louisville. He is currently a sociology instructor at Jefferson Community & Technical College in Louisville, Kentucky.
Casting Calls on the Hillbilly Highway: A Content Analysis of Appalachian-Based Reality Television Programming.
This analysis examines two contemporary reality television shows set in the Appalachian region of the United States - Appalachian Outlaws and Moonshiners. The portrayals are contextualized by tracing the intertwined social, political and economic factors that influenced the evolution of mediated Appalachian stereotypes since the mid-1800s. As such, Appalachia is examined as simultaneously being a mountain range, a cultural region and a socially constructed idea. Beginning with Cultivation Theory, which holds television to be most powerful and persuasive medium available for most people, the theoretical base is expanded to consider the programs to be part of a complex intertextual phenomenon involving various media. Stereotypes of the Appalachian region and people were found to be readily present in both programs, although there were some notable differences in kind and degree. Alongside a rather pronounced hegemonic masculinity, the recurring themes of homogeneity, isolation, an aversion to outsiders, feuding, the inability to join modernity, taking the law into your own hands and, most notably, violence corresponded to well-established Appalachian stereotypes.
