Between linear television and the second screen

Television is a global information disseminator with a potency of cultivating ideas and predispositions within its audiences. As a consequence of globalization, such cultural cultivation has been impacted by the flow of Western content, which introduced adapted formats to domestic broadcasting landscapes. Reality formats, in particular, have become a global programming staple, and a preferred medium of cultural import, with the genre’s novelty and element of surprise appealing to a wide range of audiences. The advent of the Internet, furthermore, presents new opportunities for cultural dissemination highlighting a gap between existent research on online engagement post reality television consumption. Previous research criticizes the medium as normalizing questionable behavior models, and enabling voyeurism, and directs these critiques toward Western countries. Nevertheless, global patterns of reality television consumption also persisted in Eastern Europe, a region of less academic attention. Respectful of these limitations, this paper looks into Bulgarian audience comment engagement on social media through the gamedoc Igri na Volqta (Desafio), to answer the following research question: How are audiences engaging with the storylines created by Desafio Bulgaria through commenting on the reality television show’s Instagram account? Thus, this paper investigates comment engagement on social media to shed light on the overarching discourses the reality television program evokes within Bulgarian Eastern European audiences. Overall, the research is based on a sample of 840 user comments from 70 Instagram posts retrieved from the show’s Instagram account and follows Braun and Clarke’s six-step methodology toward a qualitative thematic content analysis approach. The thematic content analysis results highlight three main themes of audience focus: criticism toward the production, criticism of contestants' behaviors, and negative labels and stereotyping. Production criticism discussions highlight topics such as rigged games; contestant support, headstarts, and ratings; criticisms of contestant behaviors ultimately address worthiness; and the negative labels and stereotyping are directed towards the contestants portray perceptions of sex, gender, manners, and athleticism. Drawing on cultivation and engagement theories this research highlights the cultivating effects of Bulgarian reality television and theorizes a cognitive engagement following digital post exposure to reality television. Lastly, the study encounters a strong level of offensive language and negative stereotyping found in the Instagram user engagement, signifying the importance of raising awareness on the stereotypical conceptualization and offensive linguistic practices enabled by reality television.