Shame as Entertainment : Financial Hardship in Reality-TV

The construction of moral dilemma, or what Hawkins (2001) refers to as ethical crises, has emerged as the content a priori in televised infotainment. At the same time, mediated spectacles of punishment and shame penalties have, according to Kohm (2009) permeated popular culture in a diversity of ways.In the wake of this development, the proliferation of reality programs concerning excessivenconsumerism and lack of economic self-control provides an interesting site for exploring how shame is constructed through the coupling of emotionalism, moralism and consumerism. Shame is commonly understood as a self-conscious emotion evoked by feelings of inferiority and negative evaluation of the self, when failing to meet perceived expectations of others or the self. Since the shame experience is one of utter isolation (from the group), it resonates with the worst of our fears of abandonment. In contrast to guilt, which usually regards our actions, shame concerns our core being, our quality of...