A Study On The Production Of Meanings And Pleasures In Master Chef(US)

In recent years,reality TV shows have grown up and become a popular trend.A variety of reality TV shows are brought into the public and they have attracted much attention in cultural criticism.But the researches in cultural studies mainly focus on negative point of view which aims to reveal the control and abuse of capital and power but rarely to do some positive readings.In this paper,in order to promote the positive value of popular culture,it takes Master Chef(US)which is one of the biggest amateur competitive cooking reality TV shows in America as its study text and tries to have a positive reading for its participants from the process of the production of meanings and pleasures in this program.This thesis points at studying participants of Master Chef(US)to analyze the cultural reason why the program is so popular in participants and audience for a long time and explores how the participants produce their meanings and pleasures in the process of participating this program with related researchers’ studies about meanings and pleasures like John Fiske from the following 3 aspects: the production of carnival style pleasure,the production of meanings from positive and negative aspects of Master Chef(US).This paper consists of the introduction,the main body,and the conclusion.The first chapter will focus on analyzing the production of carnival style pleasure in Master Chef(US)which focuses on how participants create a world out of discipline and their parody of rituals in carnival style parties of the program.The second chapter will discuss how the positive aspects of Master Chef(US)help participants produce meanings,focusing on how contestants elevating everyday cooking to shining cooking and creating amazing dishes beyond everyday life.And the third chapter will analyze how the negative aspects of Master Chef(US)help participants produce meanings,focusing on how they make use of excessive sentimentality,their excessive and obvious behaviors,and the poverty and intertextuality of their texts to resist the discipline of the system.In conclusion,it would explore that the cultural reason why the cultural products like Master Chef(US)are popular is the product can make participants and audience have a positive value of popular culture.At the same time,it doesn’t mean to deny the negative value in other studies.Though there’re deficiencies on John Fiske’s popular culture theory,this thesis tries to provide a positive perspective to study reality TV shows like Master Chef(US)and it is believed that those texts have its positive value in popular culture.Even if the production of meanings and pleasures in the program cannot let participants get out of the control of the power in capitalist world basically,it does mean an amazing beginning for people to make a difference in seeking their meanings and pleasures.