Managing Audience Participation

Abstract

In this article the theoretical notions of power developed by Giddens and Foucault are combined to serve as a framework for the analysis of the participation of 20 `ordinary people' in Jan Publiek, an audience discussion programme on north Belgian public service television (VRT). In this analysis the positive/generative and negative/repressive aspects of power - united in the Giddean `dialectics of control' - and especially the management of the participants in the pre-broadcast, broadcast and post-broadcasting phase and the resistance this management provokes, are brought into focus. The conclusion returns to the Foucauldian question of the (local) overall effect and the production of discourses on participation and `ordinary people'. Although the `ordinary people' actually deliver a major contribution to the realization of the programme Jan Publiek, they are also confronted with the management of the production team, putting their participation into perspective.