A Love Letter to Married at First Sight

These days it’s easier than ever to access media, new technology and the internet has changed where and how we consume content. You can watch AFL on the way to work or catch up on trash reality TV in bed. There are various outlets across the internet for audiences to discuss, create and share their favourite content with other viewers. Therefore, the idea of a passive audience in the age of the internet is basically impossible, you need only go on Instagram to see evidence of this in the various meme pages dedicated to Married at First Sight.

Currently I’m thoroughly invested in Channel Nine’s Married at First Sight (MAFS), I watch it every time it airs, either by myself or with my housemates. The beauty of MAFS isn’t in the bride’s lip injections, but in the open discussion it creates between my friends and I and the internet audience. We all have different opinions and favourites that we follow on Instagram to see behind the scenes information.

The audience for MAFS is a place for open discussion and debate on the contestants and drama in the show. There are Facebook groups and meme pages that allow MAFS fans to have a place to communicate online. made possible by the evolution of technology. Audience interaction and production is further encouraged by the producers, the MAFS twitter account is constantly sharing memes and asking for audience input into the show that often determines the route of the show. MAFS’s ratings went up significantly in season five with the first cheating scandal, since then the past two seasons have had multiple cheating scandals to maintain their popularity. As a result of listening to its audience, in March, MAFS 2020 was Australia’s highest rated (non-news related) show, this proves, as John Fiske states, ‘popular culture is made by the people, not produced by the culture industry’ (Fiske, 2011).

Modern technology and social media actively allow the MAFS audience to share opinions and commentary as well as distribute their own MAFS inspired consumer content. There are popular YouTube videos dedicated to lip dubbed parodies of the show and comedic commentary videos that provide more MAFS related content to and from its audience. This audience content or, as Axel Bruns coined, ‘produser’ content, dismisses the ‘hypodermic needle theory,’ that suggests media effects only operate in a linear fashion (Turnbull, 2014, p. 75). Audiences in this modern age of the internet are no longer imagined as ‘hypnotised,’ as Lev Bon (Le Bon, 1896) described, by the content they consume, and are rather active participants in influencing the course of shows and the creation of ‘produser’ content.

Due to modern technology and various social media platforms, my current reality TV obsession is made all that more entertaining by the open discussion and produser content it generates.

So to MAFS and the MAFS audience, I love you, keep up the drama and keep up the memes.

Reference List

Fiske, J., 2011. Commodities and Culture. 2nd ed. London, New York: Routledge. {Accessed 25th March 2020}

Le Bon, G., 1896. The Crowd: a study of the popular mind. London: Unwin. {Accessed 25th March 2020}

Turnbull, S., 2014. Imagining the Audience. In: S. T. Stuart Cunningham, ed. The Media & Communications in Australia. s.l.: A&U Academic, p. 424. {Accessed 25th March 2020}