TV Reality - Aljohani
CMM 2400
21st April 2021
TV Reality: ImDontai
The media ritual that I will be discussing is regarding a live streamer/YouTuber named “ImDontai”. Dontai is what some may call a reactor, what he does is essentially react to music videos, funny videos, controversial topics, and any viral video that is trending. Along his journey of being a streamer, he established a fanbase who are called “Bucketeers”, and they all established a sense of community together to the point where some fans were invited to his wedding. Not to mention, that all his fans communicate and share their opinion regarding the video or song that is being reacted to through the chat, in real-time. Dontai’s fanbase gathers through his live stream and they share a reality that matters for them at that time and date which naturalizes “liveness” (Couldry, 2003). The mere fact that Dontai has a fandom that awaits him to go live every single day is one example of a media ritual. However, I will be discussing what Dontai is mostly known for and one of the biggest “media rituals” in his fandom.
Dontai is known for being an honest, some call it harsh, critic. He would make reviews on newly released songs and give his genuine reaction and opinion towards the song. After gaining a large following, some fans would postpone listening to some songs and wait for Dontai to live stream so they could listen to the song with him and judge it together. His fans would then type in the letter “W” or “L” to state whether they enjoyed the song or not: W meaning they enjoyed the song, and L meaning that they did not. This ritual became so popular that some artists expect Dontai to react to their songs and in fact, await his opinion on it. This is a great example of a media ritual since it can be deduced as an everyday life activity that hopes to enhance the transcendental value of the media, in this case, the everyday life activity is gathering at a certain time to either react to songs or videos together.
References
Couldry, N. (2008). Media rituals: A critical approach. Routledge.
ImDontai. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1YZ751mYZkTNFXjGXTklsQ/featured
Campbell, R., Martin, C. R., & Fabos, B. (2019). Media & culture: Mass communication in a digital age. Bedford/St. Martin's.
This is so interesting Badran... in the past, media rituals were defined by the cult status that those media celebrities, shows, or media events had for the audience. Today, celebrities and influencers still have a cult status for fans, but now the distance has shortened: fans are allowed to enter the "sacred" world of the media: I find fascinating that some fans attended his wedding. Great post.
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