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Most Haunted and the Convergence of Traditional Belief and Popular Television

2007; Routledge; Volume: 118; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00155870701337403

1469-8315

Mikel J. Koven,

Postmodernism in Literature and Education

Abstract LivingTV's flagship series, Most Haunted, has been haunting the satellite network since 2002. The set-up of the series is straightforward: a team of investigators, including a historian, a parapsychologist, and "spiritualist medium" Derek Acorah, "legend-trip," spending the night at some location within the United Kingdom that is reputed to be haunted, with the hopes of catching on video concrete proof of the existence of ghosts. However, unlike other reality television or true-life supernatural television shows, Most Haunted includes and addresses the audience less as a spectator and more as an active participant in the ghost hunt. Watching Most Haunted, we are directed not so much to accept or reject the evidence provided, as to engage in the debate over the evidence's veracity. Like legend-telling in its oral form, belief in or rejection of the truth-claims of the story are less central than the possibility of the narrative's truth—a position that invites debates about those truth-claims. This paper argues that Most Haunted, in its premise and structure, not only depicts or represents legend texts (here ghost stories), but engages the audience in the debates about the status of its truth-claims, thereby bringing this mass-mediated popular culture text closer to the folkloristic, legend-telling dynamic than other similar shows. Notes [1] Ivo Osolsobĕ brides the gap between Augustine and Eco: "For centuries Austustine's ideas on showing were nearly forgotten, and Concerning the Teacher [De Magistro] was read almost exclusively as a theological treatise. Only Comenius, also concerned with teaching, made showing one of the most important principles of his didactics …. Later the idea of communication by means of things was ridiculed by Swift in the [Lagado Academy] episode of Gulliver's Travels. Kierkegaard and Wittgenstein, however, insisted that proper wisdom is conveyed by things rather than signs (Osolsobĕ 1994 Osolsobĕ, Ivo. 1994. "Ostension". In Encyclopedic Dictionary of Semiotics, 2nd ed, Edited by: Sebeok, Thomas. 656–60. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. [Google Scholar], 657). Thanks to Gillian Bennett for pointing me in this direction. See also Dégh and Vázsonyi (1983 Dégh, Linda and Vázsonyi, Andrew. 1983. Does the Word 'Dog' Bite? Ostensive Action: A Means of Legend-Telling. Journal of Folklore Research, 20: 5–34. [Google Scholar]) and Eco (1976 Eco, Umberto. 1976. A Theory of Semiotics, Bloomington: Indiana University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], 224–6). [2] In a later piece, Ellis noted "Pseudo-ostension involves a hoax in which the participant produces evidence that the legend has been enacted: teens often fabricate evidence of cult sacrifices, even to the extent of killing animals and leaving occult symbols behind at the site" (Ellis 2003 Ellis, Bill. 2003. Aliens, Ghosts, and Cults: Legends We Live, Jackson: University of Mississippi Press. [Google Scholar], 162). [3] Fielding, Acorah and Paul noted that "the 2004 Hallowe'en [Most Haunted Live] special received higher viewing figures than any programme on terrestrial channels at the time—the first and only time this has happened" (2005, 16). [4] It should come as no surprise that there are a number of supernatural reality TV shows. Linda Dégh noted: "The international demand for trained ghost hunters seems to have emerged around the same time [as the Amityville haunting in the mid-1970s]; The Ghost Hunter's Guide by Peter Underwood, the president and chief investigator of the Ghost Club (founded in 1862), was issued simultaneously in London, New York and Sydney in 1986" (Dégh 2001 Dégh, Linda. 2001. Legend and Belief: Dialectics of a Folklore Genre, Bloomington: Indiana University Press. [Google Scholar], 325). Dégh continued: "Recent times have also seen a considerable increase in local psi practitioners, clairvoyants, palmists, and seers. Their prestige has grown through their magazine columns, tabloid prophecies, and above all, their invited assistance of law enforcement agencies in difficult criminal investigations" (Dégh 2001 Dégh, Linda. 2001. Legend and Belief: Dialectics of a Folklore Genre, Bloomington: Indiana University Press. [Google Scholar], 325). Yvette Fielding and Ciarán O'Keefe Fielding, Yvette and Ciarán, O'Keefe. 2006. Ghost Hunters: A Guide to Investigating the Paranormal, London: Hodder and Stoughton. [Google Scholar] recently published a how-to guide, Ghost Hunters: A Guide to Investigating the Paranormal (2006), thereby tying the vogue for do-it-yourself ghost hunting into the fandom of their television show. [5] See Fear (MTV, 2000–2002). [6] See Ghost Hunters (Sci-Fi, 2004–present). [7] See Scariest Places on Earth (ABC Family, 2000–2004).