A corpus based, class-sensitive contrastive analysis of attitudinal responses to the YouTube series Britain’s Forgotten Men

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate audience responses to a controversial sub-genre of reality television: poverty porn. In so doing, we explore a previously neglected perspective in audience response research (i.e., that of the working class). Using a sample of 1,966 comments posted to YouTube, we examine the kinds of attitudes evoked by the bbc Three online series Britain’s Forgotten Men and the underlying ideation driving such attitudes. Specifically, we contrast comments posted by those who self-identify as working class with those who make no such identification. Making a virtue of a limitation that has long dogged corpus-assisted discourse studies (i.e., being confined to the sentence level), we cut the data into forty-eight mini corpora (consisting of the clauses and clause complexes expressing the respective attitudinal categories) which allowed for the identification of salient differences. For example, whilst self-identified working class commenters used significantly more +tenacity, +capacity and +propensity to express a self-focussed discourse of merit and individual achievement, this did not exclude the expression of sympathy towards those on screen, nor criticism of structural factors. Whilst non-identified commenters largely used attitudes to negatively evaluate those on screen, the expression of –security (with an ideational focus on material deprivation) drove more sympathetic responses. We conclude with a discussion of the implications arising out of this study for researchers and content producers.