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Published in:
Introduction: Podcasting and Podcasts—Parameters of a New Aural Culture Read chapter Read first chapter

2018 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

12. Comedian Hosts and the Demotic Turn

Author : Kathleen Collins

Published in: Podcasting

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

Podcasting is a showcase for what cultural studies scholar Graeme Turner coined ‘the demotic turn’ or the increasing visibility of the ‘ordinary person’ in the today’s media landscape. Collins argues that the emergence of a particular breed of podcasts—comedian-hosted interviews with celebrities—function in an ‘off-label’ manner as a form of self-help or vicarious therapy. The emergence and rapid growth of this genre can be attributed to three main factors: a confessional culture, the triumph of experience over expertise, and the democratisation allowed by the form’s technology. She explores the link between emotional intimacy and comedy, and analyses podcasts like Marc Maron’s WTF that are, in expression, a rejection of the pedestal version of stardom.

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previous chapter A Feminist Materialisation of Amplified Voice: Queering Identity and Affect in The Heart
next chapter Using a Humour Podcast to Break Down Stigma Around Illness
Footnotes
1
See for instance Hidaka (2012) ‘Depression as a disease of modernity: Explanations for increasing prevalence’, Journal of Affective Disorders, 140(3): 205–221; and Pratt et al. (2011) ‘Antidepressant use in persons aged 12 and over: United States, 2005–2008’, NCHS Data Brief, 76: 1–8.
 
2
The ‘dissemination of the face’ in this context perhaps has its origins in Leo Braudy’s The Frenzy of Renown: Fame and its History (1986). Graeme Turner discusses the evolution of the concept, including Gamson’s reinterpretation, in Turner (2010b: 10).
 
3
For intimacy in radio, see the work of Atkinson and Moores (2003), Chignell (2009), Loviglio (2005), McLuhan (1964), Meyrowitz (2007), and Kirkpatrick (2013); For intimacy in podcasting see Berry (2006, 2016), Florini (2015) and Lindgren (2016).
 
4
In addition to the authors cited herein, see for instance the work of Andrew Bottomley, Kris Markman and Jeremy Wade Morris. As an illustration of the scholarship accumulation, as of October 2017, the Communications and Mass Media Complete database, which indexes more than 770 journal titles, contains more than 160 articles (as identified by the term ‘podcast’ included in the abstract or as an author-supplied keyword) with the first appearance in 2005.
 
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Metadata
Title
Comedian Hosts and the Demotic Turn
Author
Kathleen Collins
Copyright Year
2018
Book
Podcasting

Print ISBN: 978-3-319-90055-1

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-90056-8

Copyright Year: 2018

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90056-8_12