Drama is the Cure for Gossip: Television’s Turn to Theatricality in a Time of Media Transition

This article examines a number of currently airing television dramas and comedies (Gossip Girl, Mad Men, In Treatment, and Glee) that depict theatricality – live performance – as a means by which characters achieve self-realization and authenticity. Television today may be interested in presenting theatricality as what Michel Foucault calls a “technology of the self” as a way to distinguish TV from the Internet. The Internet is largely comprised of gossip, and social media demand that all of us carefully safeguard our online reputations, lest we fall victim to unfounded rumours posted by anonymous users. Contemporary television narratives offer the fantasy of “easy identity,” as characters spontaneously discover their “real selves” by engaging in theatrical performances and clearly communicate who they “really are” to others, with only positive results. Television thus uses theatricality as a means of establishing its ongoing appeal in an Internet era.