An interesting point brought up in the show is Jon Taffer's ideology of the bar being the "third place" for his customers. Your house is the first "place", where you work is the second "place", and the third "place" is somewhere you spend a fair amount of your free time at.
Take a look at this bar featured in season 3 (originally named "O'banions", now it is "Sorties Tavern"). This sign is interesting when looking at the idea of the signifier and the signified highlighted in the textbook. De Saussure (2000) claims that the signifier is the "form of the sign" and the signified is "the concept the signifier represents." (Sullivan, 2013, 137). Basically, the signifier is the phyiscal form of the sign. In this instance, the physical form of the sign is the actual bar sign which reads "Sorties Tavern". According to the episode, "Sorties" is a military term for missions, and of course "Tavern" refers to a drinking establishment. However, the signified represents connotations attached to the sign. In this case, "Sorties Tavern" represents an eating/drinking establishment for military men and women to go to since the name resonates with them. Individual meanings such as companionship, relaxation, and fun all come to mind when looking at how people view bars and taverns. These connotations relate to Jon Taffer's idea of the "third place", where people frequently go for entertainment, relaxation, and/or fun. He believes that if customers make the establishment their "third place", then they will continue to return.
Warning: Profanity is used when Jon talks to moronic bar owners
(I've included a picture for an individual sign of Jon Taffer being angry)
Jon Taffer is known for how vocal he gets when dealing with failing bar owners. He will point out fairly obvious things that the owner is doing wrong (e.g, not cleaning the bar/kitchen, drinking on the job, or poor customer service) and scream at the owner for not seeing what he sees. Stuart Hall highlights three positions audiences can take when they decode media texts. These are the dominant-hegemonic position, the negotiated position, and the oppositional position. The dominant-hegemonic position is when audiences "might accept the media message exactly in terms of the code in which is was produced." (Sullivan, 2013, 142). Audiences tend to interpret what they are seeing as factual information. (Sullivan, 2013, 142). According to this position, audiences should believe that the bar owner is negligent based on how Jon presents himself and how the bar owner (Dave) reacts. Jon states that the bar is filthy and that Dave would rather play poker than help out. This is a statement backed up by the footage aired on television. Dave can not effectively defend himself because he is shouting profanities back at Jon, rather than defending how hard he works. This communicates to the audience that Dave is struggling to justify his work ethic, and that Jon's position looks correct. In the textbook, Sullivan states that "Viewers making negotiated readings of texts relate to and understand the dominant code, but also filter media content through the lens of their own individualized experiences and worldview." (Sullivan, 2013, 142). Based on this idea, I believe a "negotiated meaning" of this clip would be when audience members understand why Jon is yelling at Dave, but they also understand that they do not have proper context of the situation. For instance, Dave had been dealing with emotional problems ever since his mother died. I personally can see why people lose passion for their work after such an emotional event. The oppositional position is when audiences focus "exclusively on the connotative meanings of the signs in order to mount an ideological struggle against the message and/or its producers." (Sullivan, 2013, 142). An example of an oppositional position to a Jon Taffer rant is when audiences reject his outbursts due to their belief that they are "staged". Since this is reality TV, I understand why viewers believe that some events are planned or scripted. I personally fall into the realm of the negotiated meaning. I believe that if I knew the context during each outburst, I would understand the owner's position more often.
One great thing about Bar Rescue for my family and I is that both of my parents watch the show. My mother and I normally watch the show live, and my dad and I sometimes watch re-runs together. The family dynamic is split because my parents are divorced. Andrew M. Ledbetter discusses the different communication patterns families have in his paper "Family Communication Patterns and Communication Competence as Predictors of Online Communication Attitude: Evaluating a Dual Pathway Model". One interesting point mentioned in the paper was that "low conversation orientation families discourage talk and open expression of emotion, whereas high conversation orientation promotes mutual family discussion and decision-making." (Ledbetter, A. 2010). I feel as though my family actually fits into both categories of high and low conversation due to the parental split. When my father and I watch Bar Rescue, we rarely discuss anything. In fact, we mostly just stare at the television and wait for something to happen. This is because my father is a quiet man who uses television as his main relaxation tool. I do not believe he enjoys conversation around the television because he does not want to have to pay attention to multiple things at the same time. Therefore, most of our time spent around the television is just about watching television. In contrast to my father, my mother enjoys having conversations during Bar Rescue. Sometimes she even sends me text messages during the live show on Sunday if I am not at her house. We also discuss what is going on during the episode together and we contemplate whether or not the bar will turn into a success. I wonder what this difference boils down to. When comparing my mother and father, my mother is more social while my father is more independent. These differences are evident when I sit with either of them around the television. If my parents had stayed together, I wonder if "family television time" would include conversation or emphasize silence.
Finally, the viewing of Bar Rescue every Sunday has become a ritual for my family (more so my mother and I). The textbook states that "Ritual can simply mean your regular, habitual activities - you may make it a 'ritual' to eat your dinner in front of the television and watch the six o'clock news every evening." (Sullivan, 2013, 178). I look forward to Sunday each week because the new episode of Bar Rescue comes on at 10pm. Watching the show has definitely become a routine or "ritual" for my mother and I because we consistently watch the new episode live. Rituals tend to have a varying degree of importance to people. Personally, I think my Bar Rescue ritual is important when it comes to maintaining common interests with my mother, and occasionally my father when we watch re-runs. Rituals do not just have to revolve around religious ceremonies. Rituals are also about celebrating the little things that make life worth living.
Jon Taffer is the Gordon Ramsay of the bar industry. He screams, he gets angry, and he insults businesses and their owners. However, he teaches, he solves problems, and at the end of the day, he changes peoples lives for the better. Whether you agree with how Jon solves problems, or you are skeptical of how legitimate the show is, one clear aspect of his life is that he is a success. Watching his week-to-week bar hopping has become a unique ritual for myself and my family, and as long as he is out there changing lives, I will be watching.
References:
Ledbetter, A. (2010). Family communication patterns and communication competence as of online communication attitude: Evaluating a dual pathway model. Journal of Family Communication, 10, 99-115.
Sullivan, J. (2013). Media Audiences: Effects, users, institutions and power. Sage Publications Inc., New York, NY.
Sullivan, 2013, 137, cited De Saussure (2000)
Sullivan, 2013, 142, cited Hall, J. (1980)
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