Orientalist Representations in Reality TV: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Reality TV is an extremely popular TV genre, attracting millions of viewers worldwide. Its immense viewership calls for it to be taken seriously, specifically with respect to its role in exacerbating social inequalities. Previous scholarship has analyzed reality TV shows' representations of race, and audiences' rationale for watching reality TV. What is missing, however, are analyses of the broader ideologies, discourses and power relations encoded into reality TV content and communicated to the viewer through consumption that may influence audience consumption habits. This study employs a multimodal critical discourse analysis to investigate racial and newcomer stereotypes that are reproduced in a case study of two reality TV shows: The Real Housewives of Atlanta and 90 Day Fiancée. The shows reproduce several stereotypes, which I argue perpetuate Orientalist thinking, and reinforce racist and xenophobic ideologies. These negative representations of race and newcomers work to affirm the viewer's sense of moral superiority in comparison to such representations and maintain Western dominance.