Award Date

12-1-2012

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Journalism and Media Studies

First Committee Member

Daniel Stout

Second Committee Member

Paul Traudt

Third Committee Member

Gregory Borchard

Fourth Committee Member

Beth Mehocic

Number of Pages

67

Abstract

The Uses and Gratifications of Dance Reality Shows

Competition based dance reality shows are a sub-category under the reality television show genre. One way to add to the growing body of research about reality television shows is to study each sub-category individually in terms of uses and gratifications theory. Therefore this research looked into the reasons why people watch dance reality shows. Since dance is an art form that has deep historic roots, has experienced highs and lows in terms of public perception and has experienced a strong resurgence recently within the realm of reality television, it proves to be an area worthy of investigation. The researcher took a quantitative approach in the quest to support hypotheses that suggested that frequent, moderate and infrequent viewers would have different reasons for viewing, there would be sub-level audiences within the larger overall audience and there would be a relationship between viewing and attitudes toward dance. Surveys were distributed in various classes at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in attempt to obtain a sample representative of the general UNLV student population. Collected data were run through SPSS Statistical program. Frequencies and principle component factor analysis were used to describe the audience, determine reasons for viewing among frequent, moderate and infrequent viewers and understand their attitudes toward competition based dance reality shows. The results found that frequent, moderate and infrequent viewers do watch for different reasons, there are sub-level audiences within the overall dance reality show viewing audience and that watching dance reality shows doesn't seem to signify an increased interest in dance. Since this research is the first of its kind it can be considered exploratory with the goal of providing guidelines for future researchers.

Keywords

Dance; Motivation (Psychology); Reality television programs

Disciplines

Broadcast and Video Studies | Critical and Cultural Studies | Dance

File Format

pdf

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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