Lucy Hanigan
Independent Research Project
Tutor: Matt Dallas
Tutorial: Thursday 3.30-5.30
The data above has been taken from the Season Finale of Australia’s Next Top Model,
which is a reality television series broadcast on FOX8. The objective of the
series is to find a hopeful but undiscovered Australian model and reward her
with the opportunity to boost a successful career within the modelling
industry. The segment is a brief 3:58 clip that has been extracted from the
finale, and captures the interaction between host Sarah Murdoch and the two remaining
contestants, Kelsey Martinovich and Amanda Ware. The exchange highlights a live
television disaster, when the finale ends with an unanticipated twist as host
Murdoch announces the wrong winner for Season Six of Australia’s Next Top
Model.
Host
Sarah Murdoch announces the wrong winner due to a miscommunication from backstage
producers. After an incredibly close public vote, polls were still being
calculated during the 90-minute finale. However, at the time of the
announcement there appears to be a technical difficulty and Murdoch is fed the
wrong name. Kelsey Martinovich is ecstatic and is enjoying her moment of glory,
thanking her family, friends, and fellow contestants, when Murdoch reluctantly
interrupts her. Murdoch amends her mistake on live television, making an
embarrassing apology to both contestants, as well as the live audience. Amanda
Ware is then awarded the winning title.
While
there is evidently an element of structure to the show, a number of aspects
support this particular interaction as being labelled “naturally occurring”. Being
part of a “live” 90-minute filming means that there is no editing of the
footage, and the audience is receiving the data directly as it is executed. Technical
difficulties between Murdoch and producers cause an unsalvageable error, and it
is evident from Murdoch’s shaken facial expressions, the reactions from both
contestants, and the response from the audience that this was undeniably an
accident.
Goffman
(1971) plays a momentous role behind the theoretical orientations within this
data segment, and many of his sociological constructs can be examined.
Goffman’s face-work theory (1955) is apparent throughout the entire
interaction, with evidence of both saving face and losing face. Saving face
plays a significant role in this segment, as one would expect from a live
broadcast gone terribly wrong. Murdoch starts to lose face as she becomes
utterly embarrassed, teary and flustered after realising the mistake and the
detrimental effect that this would have on the contestants and the audience. This
is evident in Figure 1 and Figure 2 below. She handles the situation well for
someone in this position, and with the help of sincere contestant Kelsey she
saves face enough to continue the show.
 |
| Figure 1. Murdoch realises her mistake. |
 |
| Figure 2. Murdoch breaks the bad news to contestants Kelsey and Amanda. |
Runner-up
Kelsey is sympathetic and understanding towards Murdoch, saying, “It’s OK, it’s
an honest mistake, it’s fine, it’s alright.” The concept of positive and
negative face is also apparent throughout the interaction. Brown and Levinson’s
(1987) politeness theory introduces these two aspects of face. Positive face
refers to an individual’s need for social approval, connection, and inclusion
(Miller, 2005). Negative face refers to an individual’s need for autonomy and
independence that allows an individual to be free of impediments in social
interactions (Miller, 2005). Kelsey’s positive face helps to hide Murdoch’s
negative face in this instance. Masumoto,
Oetzel, Takai, Ting-Toomey, & Yokochi (2000) refer to facework as “the
communicative strategies one uses to enact self-face and to uphold, support, or
challenge another person’s face.” This is evident in the data segment, with
Kelsey supporting Murdoch in an attempt to uphold and save her face. Kelsey saves face as she is stripped of
the winning title, handling the situation with grace and demeanour. Kelsey
could have broken social and moral order by having a tantrum on live television,
but she accepted runner-up and congratulated new winner Amanda with “it’s OK”
over and over. There is a level of “social death” (Goffman, 1967) during this
interaction as Kelsey now faces the humiliation of being stripped of the title
as Australia’s Next Top Model. Although she saves face and congratulates her
opponent, there is unquestionably a strong sense of embarrassment and
mortification. This interaction illustrates that it is challenging but
necessary to save face on live television.
Goffman’s
concept of dramaturgy is evident throughout this data segment, with a number of
dramaturgical elements being present in the interaction. Maintenance of
expressive control refers to the need to stay “in character”. The performer has
to ensure that they send out the correct signals and hide the occasional
compulsion to convey misleading ones that might detract from the performance.
According to Goffman (1971), the audience “may read an embarrassing meaning
into gestures or events that were accidental, inadvertent, or incidental and
not meant by the performer to carry any meaning whatsoever” (p.59). In this
data segment, presenter Murdoch relies on the audience to behave accordingly
and support her mistake. The audience has high expectations of the host, but in
this instance they remained in utmost silence and allowed Murdoch to collect herself.
The announcement was perceived as accidental and Murdoch’s expressive control
remained relatively intact. Misrepresentation refers to the danger of conveying
the wrong message. The audience tends to think of a performance as genuine or
false, and performers generally wish to avoid having an audience disbelieve
them. In this data segment, Murdoch is aware that her mistake on live
television would affect the opinions of the entire nation, as well as the
contestants of the show. She attempts to shift the blame to the producers, to
save face and repair the damage of the interaction. According to Goffman (1967),
“all of these general characteristics of performances can be seen as
interaction constraints which play upon the individual and transform his
activities into performances… the image he constructs, however faithful to the
facts, will be subject to all the disruptions that impressions are subject to.”
(p.65).
Impression management is also
evident within the interaction. According to Newman (2009), impression
management is an “act presenting a favourable public image of oneself so that
others will form positive judgements” (p.184). Newman also states a person’s “relative
position in society can also influence impression management” (Newman, 2009, p.172).
In this data segment, Murdoch’s reputation as a successful international model,
TV presenter, actress, producer and advocate may have helped her impression
management. Murdoch is a well-respected and prosperous Australian figure who
has had a positive impact on many Australian women with her fruitful campaigns.
Giddens (2005) suggests “people are sensitive to how they are seen by others
and use many forms of impression management to compel others to react to them
in the ways they wish” (p.142). This is seen in the interaction when Murdoch
shifts the blame to the producers, and receives sympathy from the confused
contestants. There are a variety of
social implications within impression management, but not all social
implications are positive (Norris, 2011). Murdoch received severe criticism for
her blunder, and she has since resigned from the television series. According
to Sinha (2009), "Impression management is an active self-presentation of
a person aiming to enhance his image in the eyes of others" (p.104).
Murdoch and the two contestants elect to handle the situation professionally
and prudently, instead of objecting to this live disaster. There is a moment when the camera scans
the audience and focuses on Australia’s Next Top Model Judge Alex Perry,
gauging his reaction as the announcement is made. Perry, Australian fashion
icon, remained speechless as he too realised the mistake that had been made. Murdoch
uses her professionalism and experience to deliver the inconceivable news that
there has been a mistake in the announcement. “It has been so close… it was
literally down to a couple of votes, it kept going back and forwards, back and
forwards, and we’ve ended up with Amanda as the winner”. She delivers the news
with charisma and dedication, despite the circumstances of the situation.
Goffman
(1971) makes an important distinction between “front stage” and “back stage”
behaviour. As the term implies, “front stage” actions are visible to the
audience and are part of the performance. People engage in “back stage”
behaviours when no audience is present. Relative to this data segment, Murdoch
endeavours to sustain her performance at front stage level, however, with the producers
in her earpiece we hear her distressed undertone comment to them after the
wrong announcement, “I can’t hear anything, I can’t hear!” It is here that an
element of back stage performance is noticeably introduced. Once the mistake
had been realised, Murdoch’s performance is disrupted with unexpected elements
of back stage performance, for example, “This is what happens when you have
live TV folks, I’m so sorry.” Murdoch is well aware that she is still being
filmed and viewed nation-wide, so she attempts to remain professional and
handles the situation with grace. In terms of back stage, Murdoch steps out of
front stage character when she announces to the contestants, “I’m so sorry. It
was fed to me wrong.” Kelsey accepted the news graciously on camera, but Amanda
was stunned and was later heard muttering, “What the f**k was that?”
The
accomplishment of humour, irony and sarcasm is evident within the interaction.
It seems somewhat ironic that Amanda’s magazine cover appears during Kelsey’s
acceptance speech (1:35). Traditionally, the winner’s cover shoot is displayed
as a backdrop after the winner is announced. The cover normally remains as the
backdrop for the duration of the finale proceedings. However, in this instance,
the runner-up Amanda’s cover shoot appears unexpectedly during the discourse.
This is suggestive that there were technical difficulties behind the scenes and
that maybe the producers were not entirely aware of the front stage happenings.
Amanda’s cover appears before Murdoch reveals that a mistake has been made in
the announcement, reinforcing the indication that there was a communication
error between Murdoch and producers. Because of the mistake, runner-up Kelsey
was awarded a cover by Harper’s Bazaar, $25,000 prize money and a trip to New
York, seemingly defeating the purpose of the entire season of Australia’s Next
Top Model. The blunder has gravely undermined the credibility of the Australian
reality television series, and host Murdoch has since resigned from the
television series. Humour is added to the interaction when Amanda responds with
a seemingly sarcastic victory, “Woo” (2:55) and some fist pumps after realising
she is in fact the winner, but all the attention is still on Murdoch and
Kelsey. The crowd responds with laughter and cheering for the new winner,
followed by a hug from Kelsey and laughter from host Murdoch.
This
interaction became known as a global blunder, and the YouTube video has had
millions of views. It is an example of a macro-interaction that has been under
constant media scrutiny, with the breaching of social order, the losing of face,
and the visible back stage behaviour. Goffman plays a significant part in the
analysis of this data segment, with the theoretical orientations being based
primarily around his work. In conclusion, this data segment demonstrated that
elements of an interaction can be challenged, breached, upheld, lost, or saved,
and it is essential that we recognise these elements of the interaction. Social
interaction is a way of life, and without effective methods of communication,
this interaction would not occur effectually.
References
Brown, P &
Levinson, SC 1987, Politeness: Some
universals in language usage, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Giddens, A 2005, Sociology,
Cambridge, UR, UK: Polity Press.
Goffman, E
1955, "On Face-Work: An Analysis of Ritual Elements in Social
Interaction," Psychiatry: Journal of Interpersonal Relations, vol.18,
no.3, pp213-231.
Goffman, E 1967, “The
Nature of Deference and Demeanor,” pp47-96 in Interaction Ritual;
Essays on Face to Face Behaviour, New York: Pantheon Books.
Goffman,
E 1971, “Performances,” pp28-82 in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life.
Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Masumoto, T, Oetzel, JG,
Takai, J, Ting-Toomey, S & Yokochi, Y 2000, A Typology of Facework
Behaviors in Conflicts with Best Friends and Relative Strangers, Communication Quarterly, vol.4, no.48,
pp397+.
Miller, K 2005, Communication Theories: Perspectives,
Processes, and Contexts (2nd ed.), New York, New York: McGraw-Hill.
Newman, DM 2009, Sociology:
Exploring the architecture of everyday life, Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge
Press.
Norris, AR
2011, "Impression Management: Considering Cultural, Social, and Spiritual
Factors," Student Pulse, vol.3, no.7.
Paardekopski, 2010, “Wrong Winner
Announced for ‘Australia’s Next Top Model’ Finale (HD)”, accessed
4/09/2012, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqVe1iJfrZU
Sinha, JB 2009, Culture
and organization national behavior, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
