The digital money shot: Twitter wars, The Real Housewives, and transmedia storytelling

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article examines the construction of reality TV fame through transmedia storytelling. In the convergent TV era, reality producers increasingly require that stars post-personal content on social media, blogs, and online video sites. Rather than hire transmedia content creators, television networks incentivise stars to generate their own digital texts by placing them in competition with their co-stars for attention, status, and salary. This new industry strategy seeks to cut costs while extending viewer engagement. In the reality TV emotion economy, where the most effective path to fame involves dramatic self-disclosure, stars are representing the hyperbolic performance of misery, jealousy, and resentment online. Just as reality producers rely on participants’ performance of the ‘money shot’ – a televised moment of emotional upheaval – the convergent TV industry requires a ‘digital money shot’ – an online performance of dramatic emotions that drives transmedia engagement. To begin mapping the contours of the ‘digital money shot’, this article examines the multi-platform world of Bravo’s reality docu-soap franchise, The Real Housewives, and the prevalence of the Twitter war, a social media feud used to draw viewers to new media sites. This practice illustrates how performative emotions and self-disclosure form the basis of Bravo’s transmedia strategy for The Real Housewives franchise.