Reality TV

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REALITYTVMedia Issues & Debates

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WHAT IS

REALITY TV

?

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Reality TV is a hybrid genre that is continually shifting and developing. It was initially understood to present everyday life as entertainment however many contemporary shows place participants in highly constructed situations. Reality TV now involves presenting a range of very structured scenarios, heavily edited to provide audience entertainment.

Reality TV draws upon many different genres including:

Documentary – using real footage of real people, often performing their jobs (e.g. Airport, Cops, Grimebusters) or going about their everyday lives. Often filmed in a Cinéma vérité styleSoap Opera – using a multiple enigma narrative (e.g. Made in Chelsea and The Only Way is Essex )Game Show – With a prize for which participants compete (Sometimes combined with voting e.g. I’m a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!)Voting – Shows use a public or studio vote (e.g. X-Factor, The Voice)

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Reality TV is nothing new and has existed since the early days of television however in recent years it has become hugely popular often occupying prime time television spots.

The recent rise in popularity of reality TV can be linked to changes in the broadcasting industry. There are now a huge amount of different channels across different platforms. This has led to a decrease in revenues for commercial TV channels and more of a demand for cheap, popular and easy to produce television.

Shows such as X-factor and Big Brother have dominated viewing figures during prime time broadcasting and have been successfully syndicated to many other countries where they have experienced similar popularity.

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DOCUMENTARY

Cops is one of the longest running TV shows in the US and airs during prime-time. The show follows the US police force out on patrol. It follows a documentary cinéma vérité format with no narration or scripted dialogue and relies on the commentary of the officers.

The show was first broadcast in 1989. At the same time The Writers Guild of America was on strike and this resulted in demand for new material that was unscripted and therefore did not require the use of a writer. The show has been hugely popular and its influence can be seen in similar shows on UK television such as Street Wars and Cops with Cameras.

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DOCUMENTARY?One of the earliest and most influential reality TV programmes was the US television show “An American Family”. This show followed a middle-class Californian family for seven months in 1970. The show attracted considerable controversy at the time as the family’s eldest son came out as gay during filming and the parents separated (and eventually divorced) during filming of the show.

In 2011, The New York Times reflected on some of the controversy the series engendered:“For the viewing public, the controversy surrounding An American Family doubled as a crash course in media literacy. The Louds, in claiming that the material had been edited to emphasize the negative, called attention to how nonfiction narratives are fashioned. Some critics argued that the camera’s presence encouraged the subjects to perform. Some even said it invalidated the project. That line of reasoning, as Mr. Gilbert has pointed out, would invalidate all documentaries. It also discounts the role of performance in everyday life, and the potential function of the camera as a catalyst, not simply an observer”

The show would directly inspire a British spin off “The Family” and can be seen as one of the first examples of the format that is now popular in contemporary reality TV.

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“CONSTRUCTEDREALITY”...real life or soap opera?

“Some of these scenes have been set up for entertainment purposes”

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“CONSTRUCTEDREALITY”...real life or soap opera?

Shows such as the ones highlighted on the previous slide have become hugely popular in recent years. They are very cheap and easy to produce and ostensibly are based on ‘real’ people and ‘real’ lives. The shows tend to blur fact with fiction and many situations may be set up or edited for dramatic effect.

Shows such as Made in Chelsea and The Only Way is Essex, play heavily on regional stereotypes and often show idealistic lifestyles (e.g owning a bar, driving expensive cars, modelling, holidays in grand Italian villas etc.)

• Why do you think these shows are so popular? • Does it matter if scenes are set up for entertainment purposes?• Is ‘Constructed Reality’ an oxymoron?

Intertextuality also plays a large part in the popularity of these shows with participants appearing in magazines, advertising, websites and other television shows. Consider the following slide...

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Intertextuality

Clearly The Only Way is not just Essex, It’s magazine appearances, adverts and spin off shows!

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Read the reality TV section in your textbook (pg 4-7). Pay particular attention to the “Media in Action” section on pg 6 and complete the Investigating Media task. You need to conduct some research and produce an A4 document that includes notes and images to show examples of how your chosen programme is connected to other media.

TASK