Going to Work at the Moonlite Bunny Ranch
Potentials of Rhetorical and Ethnographic Methods for Cultural Studies
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2408837 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jennifer C Dunn |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 525-535 |
| Publication date | 2016-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Culture Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1532-7086 • E-ISSN: 1552-356X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1532708616655822 |
| OpenAlex | W2471284822 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 32 |
Most studies of media focus on production, representation, or audience. Using rhetorical analysis and ethnographic field methods, my article offers one way to study media production contexts, representations, and audience interactions in relation to one another. For this project, I conducted a narrative rhetorical analysis of the reality docu-series Cathouse that takes place in a legal brothel in Nevada, the Moonlite Bunny Ranch. In addition, I visited the brothel and used ethnographic field methods of participant observation and interviewing to investigate the lived experiences of the women working at the Ranch. My analysis revealed a web of intertextual discourses of prostitution that I could not have accessed had I not used these methods in conjunction with one another. By bringing perspectives from rhetorical inquiry, cultural and media studies, and ethnography into conversation with one another, I provide a framework for analyzing production, representation, and audience for the Cathouse series, while attending to both the content of the women's stories and how these participants rhetorically constructed and performed their identities. Finally, my analysis offers insights into ethnographic and textual 'crises of representation' in relation to the concept of 'rhetorical authenticity' in media representations, the relationships between audience members, production, and representation in reality television, and material impacts for the women who work at the Moonlite Bunny Ranch that I could not have accessed without using these methods together
Art · Conversation · Ethnography · Interview · Literature · Media studies · Narrative · Participant observation · Political science · Politics · Relation (database · Representation (politics · Rhetorical device · Rhetorical question · Social science · Sociology · Anthropology · Computer Science · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Media Studies and Communication · Rhetoric and Communication Studies · Communication · Law
Reality TV
Text, context, and the fragmentation of contemporary culture
The Interpretation of Cultures
After Virtue
Culture and Everyday Life
Narrative in Natural Discourse
Introduction
Discourses of prostitution/discourses of sexuality
Prostitution Harms Women Even if Indoors
Fallen Women and Rescued Girls
She Is Not Acting, She Is”
The kinder, gentler gaze of Big Brother
Charting the narrative unconscious
Rehashing Tired Claims About Prostitution
Surveillance on Reality Television and Facebook
Media Communications vs. Cultural Studies
Performing/Rhetorical Studies
Form and cultural context in rhetorical criticism
Reality television
Reality TV the work of being watched
Rethinking ethnography
Interpretive Interactionism
The Evidence of Experience
Paradox and the Consumption of Authenticity through Reality Television
Dancing with identity
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,5 |
| Citation span | 2016 - 2024 (9) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |