ABSTRACT

This paper examines the use of actuality inside Greek TV series as a key element creating a common and familiar ground to be shared with the spectator. Focusing on Greek TV series, our analysis builds on the idea that media contents (and, thus, TV fiction) are not a simple mirror reflection of society but symbols and, more precisely, symptoms. Within such a context, the question that we propose to examine in this paper is the following: What is Greek TV series’ promise of actuality a symptom of, if not a simple analogical representation of the ‘real’, factual situation Greek society is experiencing? By applying a semiopragmatic analysis, this paper argues that the injection of actuality in TV series functions as a strong engagement strategy for the fictive narrative universe that is created inside the series.

Keywords: actuality effect, Greek TV series, reality in fiction, symptom, truthfulness