Idols of the Tube: Game Shows as Cultural Forms

Alice Samson obtained an M.Phil in English Literature from the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, India in 2009.She is pursuing a PhD in English and has a keen interest in popular culture,literary theory and postcolonial studies. She has held fellowships at SARAI,CSDS, the James Beveridge Media Resource Centre and Tasveer Ghar.

There is an immense popularity, today, of new genres of T.V shows which rely on a 24 x 7 format. With these new program formats, each television show has begun to resemble others irrespective of genre boundaries. The key questions that inform this research are; what does the seeming homogeneity of programs across genres indicate? What relations between media, markets and sponsors form the context for audio-visual communication systems? What theory of signification does the new audio visual regime require? And what are the implications of this theory for ideas of individual subjectivity, creativity and for revisions in the formulation of conceptions particularly those underlying disciplines like literary studies? The author undertakes an analysis of the Indian Idol show paying attention to the political developments that it set off in South Asia.It is hoped that the insights gained will enable both practitioners and students of culture to think anew about the medium.