Reality Television

Semester 1 – Level 5 – MFC5312 - Television Genres Essay - Deadline 7th December

Explore in detail the development of one television genre of your choice.
In this essay I am going to explore the development of reality television and throughout this essay I will consider generic characteristics, the genres place in television schedules, the needs and expectations of audiences and also the future of the genre on television.
‘The word genre simply means order. As applied to artistic works, a genre is a type, class, or category of presentation that shares distinctive and easily identifiable features. Examples of genres include romances, science fiction, situation comedies, and news programming.’ (Art Silverblatt, 2007).
Reality TV is said to be a mix of apparently ‘raw’ and ‘authentic’ material which brings with it media hype from magazines and newspapers as well as an informational programme to the viewer. It combines commercial success of tabloid content within a public service mode of address. It has continued to engage its audience through the invention of new technological advancements, higher budgets, and huge media involvement. Reality TV shows use expensive venues, such as ‘The X Factor’s’ huge studio and ‘Big Brothers’ luxurious modern house fully equipped with a swimming pool and Jacuzzi.
This is so that the narrative is continuously moving on to bigger and better things so that the audience don’t get bored with the same tedious routine which links with Steve Neale’s theory of the difference in repetition; things must continually change to keep the audience engaged. There is constant enigma codes running throughout the series to keep the audience engaged such as when will the next argument break out? What will the next task be? Who will be up for nomination? Surprisingly enough, reality TV is ‘cheap’ TV, with a small production company behind it. This is because of the static location; therefore no money has to be paid out for travel costs and multiple sets.
Reality TV was first described as the particular genre of magazine-format programmes based on crime and accidents such as ‘Police, Camera, Action’ (ITV 1994-2002). However, the biggest controversy and audience figures came from ‘Big Brother’ which first aired on 18th July 2000. The show took on a voyeuristic approach, where people are placed into a house and an audience watches their every move. There were often close up shots of contestants so that the audience could read their body language which often brought connotations of tension in the house. Also many full screen shots were used to get a sense of claustrophobia as it showed the limited space the contestants had.
As the programme gained in popularity, it had more money poured into the set allowing it to be more extravagant; enticing the audience as the show was ever more pleasing on the eye. Also, it meant that more and more people were hearing of the show and discussing it. This resulted in how Clay Calvert put it, ‘Discussion is replaced by watching. Indeed the flipside of the death of discourse is… the birth of voyeurism’ meaning the public felt they had to get involved and join in. De Fleur said ‘The mediated world is a world seen by some on behalf of others and it is therefore a constructed reality.’ Reality shows are artificial and constructed with ‘abstract socio-televisual discourse’. The location seems to be ‘real’ to the viewer but is in fact a constructed set.
We also believe we are getting a fair portrayal of each person, however, the shows are very heavily mediated and we only see what the producers want us to see. The more extreme the contestants; the more people want to watch, though they know they shouldn’t. Germaine Greer said in 2005 that watching ‘Big Brother’ was like ‘peering through the key hole of a teenage girl’s bedroom’. There is something seedy about it but the audience still have to look, meaning the show was still able to engage its audience as people could not do anything but watch. The show had just 400,000 votes in its first week rising to 10 million in the final week. The average amount of viewers for the series was 4.5 million, with a series high of 10 million on the final night. The second series went on to carry the same success as did the following eight. ‘67% of the British population has watched the show at least once.’
Reality TV these days has evolved into something completely different, if I compare Big Brother which is the daddy of all reality TV to shows such as The Only Way Is Essex, Geordie Shore, and Made In Chelsea they have become a lot more realistic as there are the usual codes and conventions but they are more scripted than Big Brother ever has been and ever will be. This particular genre in the modern day dominates our late night schedules especially later on in the night. They all air around 9 or 10 PM this is because the majority of the content is seen as explicit and unsuitable for viewers of daytime television such as children.
Looking at Blumler & Katz’s uses and gratifications theory that suggests media users play an active role in choosing and using the media, I feel that the consumer audience today wants this kind of television, this type of TV is easy to watch and we don’t have to see every episode to understand what is going on. I think the reason reality TV as a genre has exploded is because of its simplicity, there are no actors, no extravagant sets. It’s something about the ‘real’ of it that entices us as viewers to watching it.
Reality TV is classed as ‘cheap TV’ so this is why there is so much of it and it has captivated a huge audience as there are some people that only watch reality TV other reality TV shows such as ‘The Apprentice’ and ‘Deal Or No Deal’ are on earlier than the likes of ‘The Only Way Is Essex’ as these are more family orientated but with regards to its specific place in the current TV schedules, I don’t think it really has one as there is that much of it these days there is more than enough to cater for everyone which means that depending on the type of reality TV it is it can be aired earlier and before the watershed.
There is now also an extreme use of Levi Strauss’s theory about binary opposition to create conflict such as the ‘nerd’ VS the ‘player’ or conflict created through a ‘tarty’ girl who is disliked for wanting all the men or them wanting her.
I think that the future of reality TV is endless as it continues to engage its audience due to the wide-range within the category. Television is full to the brim with entertainment-led programming therefore the new generation of youngsters have grown up with this type of TV and see it as the norm and what they like to watch creating new viewers every day.
‘What they provide are entertaining diversions in which everything that happens is imbued with a high degree of postmodernism playfulness’. This is conveying that the concept of Reality TV is not a new idea but an up to date, modern take on the traditional docu-soap which gave a strong emphasis on ‘real-life’ performance. How ‘real’ is real? The construction of reality according to Abercrombie is ‘the illusion of transparency is preserved” meaning that the form conspires to convince us that we are not seeing something that has been constructed. The audience can be said to have been continually engaged with these shows because of what is known as a triangle of control; no one controls it. ‘Where I as a producer can intervene only to a certain amount; where the people in the house can determine their fate only to a certain point; and the audience control things, but not completely’ (Wells 2001).
Going back to Big Brother, Laura Mulvey’s theory about the ‘male gaze’ which can be reinforced by the gorgeous looking, fake breasted model, Sophie Reade, who producers chose to put into the house this year as a way of attracting the male audience. The producers of ‘Big Brother’ mediate the show in such a way to cause controversy which gains more viewers but also they know that most people enjoy being nosey and peering into the lives of others and therefore mediate the show in such a way that the audience can get their pleasure out of being voyeuristic.
I believe that Reality TV will continue to dominate our schedules as this is the most common kind of television and as much as people may hate it we still watch it, because it is always available to us no matter what time of the day and also now with the digital revolution of catch up TV it is even easier to access.
Viewers often criticise the genre for being ‘mindless entertainment’ yet cannot fail to talk about it or hear about it. Even if a person has never watched a ‘Big Brother’ series, it is almost inevitable that they will still know of the contestants due to the massive media involvement and advertising; though there is not one reason for the continuing success. Hart said that ‘Texts need audiences in order to realise their potential for meaning. So a text does not have a single meaning but rather a range of possibilities which are defined by both the text and by its audiences.’ The text is polysemic as ‘the meaning is not in the text, but in the reading.’ Channel 4 came up with a competition in 2006 in which a member of the public could win a place in the ‘Big Brother’ house as a ‘housemate’; because of the use of a competition to boost audience figures it could perhaps be suggested that in fact, ‘Big Brother was not engaging its audience as well as was hoped and therefore drastic action had to be taken and rebrand itself as an almost game show having to win a place. Viewers now choose to spread their opinions across various social networking sites such as ‘Facebook’ and ‘Twitter’ which through virtual word-of-mouth engages new audiences and encourages more people to watch and see what the hype is all about for themselves. ‘It could point the way to the future of TV’ said (Robert Andrews, 2006) of ‘Paid Content: UK. Therefore, due to the ever advancing technological ways in which the audience can get involved with reality TV shows such as ‘Big Brother’ it could be said that this is a reason why so many people are becoming interested in this genre or continuing to be engaged because of all of the new arising, interactive possibilities.
Having studied the many different ways that reality TV, focusing on ‘Big Brother’, distributes its show to the audience and its development over the past decade, the evidence here suggests that the ‘feels real’ aspect of Big Brother is enhanced by offering a variety of platform choices and allowing the viewer freedom to move between them. The reason why reality TV shows have continued to engage its audience, such as that of ‘Big Brother’, is due to the ever growing interactive aspect of the programme, the extremity of the contestants used and the more controversial tasks which cause tension, which equals audience enjoyment.

Bibliography – MFC5132 – Television Genres

Books 1) Art Silverblatt (2007). Genre Studies In Mass Media. New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc.. 3. 2) Creeber, G. (2008) The Television Genre Book (2nd Edition), Hampshire: Macmillian Publishers Limited 3) Holmes S, Jermyn D, (2004) Understanding Reality Television, London: Routledge 4) Kilborn R. (2003) Staging the Real, Manchester: Manchester University Press 5) Martin, R. (2004) Audience – A Teacher’s Guide, Bedfordshire: Auteur Publishing 6) Stevenson E, Andrews M, (2009) AQA A2 Media Studies, Nelson Thornes

Internet:

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2) Author Unknown, (2010), Reality TV, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_tv Date accessed 10/01/2010

3) Brooker, W, Date Unknown, The Audience Studies Reader, http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=18bkvHw4PmUC&pg=PA323&lpg=PA323&dq=audience+engagement+in+big+brother&source=bl&ots=nhheaEToqd&sig=5JUopG_kSUbRpw7xL43Kfg2wblw&hl=en&ei=rq4PS4-ZJNSz4QaAlLyLBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBcQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=audience%20engagement%20in%20big%20brother&f=false, Date accessed 10/12/2009

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7) Jones, J, (2000, 2001), Finding the interactive television audience, http://web.mit.edu/cms/Events/mit2/Abstracts/JanetJones.pdf. Date accessed 06/02/2010

Bibliography: 1) Art Silverblatt (2007). Genre Studies In Mass Media. New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc.. 3. 2) Creeber, G. (2008) The Television Genre Book (2nd Edition), Hampshire: Macmillian Publishers Limited 3) Holmes S, Jermyn D, (2004) Understanding Reality Television, London: Routledge 4) Kilborn R. (2003) Staging the Real, Manchester: Manchester University Press 5) Martin, R 6) Stevenson E, Andrews M, (2009) AQA A2 Media Studies, Nelson Thornes Internet: 7) Jones, J, (2000, 2001), Finding the interactive television audience, http://web.mit.edu/cms/Events/mit2/Abstracts/JanetJones.pdf. Date accessed 06/02/2010