Revising Cultural Scripts: Real Estate Agents Attempt to Counteract the Effects of Property TV

• In Event: 078 - Section on Sociology of Culture Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 18. Symbols and Cultural Scripts

Abstract

In this pilot phase of an ongoing study, I use content analysis and interviews to uncover the failure of the cultural scripts proffered by “property tv” to prepare families and individuals for the process of purchasing a home. The meanings and expectations embodied in these scripts break down in potential homebuyers’ interactions with real estate agents. Real estate agents—identifying themselves as the experts in the home buying process—attempt to revise these scripts, offering homebuyers an alternative script that they believe is more closely aligned with the on-the-ground realities of shopping for and purchasing a home. While the cultural scripts offered by property tv have been noted for their potential to shape national and personal identity (McElroy 2008), ideas about aesthetic taste and cultural distinction (Giles 2002), and gendered meanings of home (White 2013), I am now able to connect these scripts to buyers’ and agents’ actions. This finding has two theoretical implications of particular note: first, it offers insight into how media-generated cultural meanings are deployed in interaction. Media effects are often measured by their correlation with individual attitudes or reactions, but this study reveals their role in interactions, within grounded situations. Secondly, and more broadly, this finding helps to clarify the role of culture in action by identifying a case in which a widely available cultural script is ill-suited for deployment in its corresponding situation, and by revealing actors’ attempts to revise that script.

Author

• Kelcie Vercel, University of Notre Dame