Comment for Laura

http://eyeonpeople.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/performing-self-in-institutions.html

I love this observation of a dichotomy, that a newscaster is asked to play the face of Institution' and at the same time play his 'self'. They act as the face of the Institution, but are enlisted to make it human, and I think that’s what always shines through with these types of jobs. Of course, we accept Goffman’s view that we are always ourselves playing multiple selves to suit different situations and different social circles. However, in this case I think one self is created – ‘The Professional Self’. The Professional Self doesn’t swear, is nice to their superiors, works hard to give the Institution what is expected of them and isn’t afraid to give a fake laugh now and again and finally seek to appear to care about what customers or in this case the audience wants. 

Now, I’m not suggesting that the Professional Self doesn’t have the characteristics of the other selves but it’s just filtered, refined and injected with a little bit of fake. Anyone that wishes to retain their job seeks to adopt this self and the interesting thing is that at some level we all innately know how to perform this self. Not only does this seem to back up Goffman’s notion of multiple performative selves but it also shows how important social interaction is for everyone to perform these selves. We as social creatures learn from each other how to act to fill roles asked of us.

So I think dilemma that newscasters face to be the face of the Institution and still play them ‘self’ is solved by one performed self, The Professional Self.