ABSTRACT
This chapter explores a critical reappraisal of ordinariness in discourses of contemporary public participation broadcasting, and making the argument that what being an ordinary person on television or on the radio actually involves. Based on this argument on an analysis of locally situated participatory identities that are closely tied to the discursive practices and locations in which people known as 'ordinary' participate in mediated interactions. With the emergence of reality and makeover programming, and the development of the interactive web-based audience, the primary activity in which audiences now engage is one of evaluation, rather than narration. The interactive audience is often called on to vote, and voting involves making judgements about identities and performances, judgements that are often bound up with evaluations of character and social behaviour. The presence of a studio audience is now increasingly found within a participation framework where members of that audience are ratified to react as spectators, rather than to speak as debaters.
