Week 11&12

Q. How does Hills define reality TV?

 Hill (2005, p.41) mentioned that “The category of reality TV is commonly used to describe a range of popular factual programming. There are a variety of styles and techniques associated with reality TV, such as non professional actors, unscripted dialogue, surveillance footage, hand held cameras, seeing events unfold as they are happening in front of camera.”

 Reality TV belongs to factual entertainment, which range not only from formatted programmes but also to non-formatted programmes. The BBC divided categories of reality TV into six categories in 2003 (Hill, 2005). There are six categories that Hill (2005, p.42) mentioned: “documentaries and contemporary factual; specialist factual; current affairs and investigations; arts and culture; life skills; and new media.” On the other hand, compared with categorises of reality TV in U.K, categorises in the U.S.A are slightly different. U.S.A defines that reality TV programmes are contemporary reality game shows and talent shows.

I can compare reality TV shows with cult TV shows. Cult TV shows are made interaction between audience and the shows. The audience participate in interaction thought various methods to discuss their interests. But, the audience cannot be one of characters in the shows. On the other hand, reality TV shows require the audience’s attendance by the different methods. The reality shows want audience to be one of characters, like ‘The X factor’ of channel three.

Reference

Hill, A. (2005) The reality genre. In A. Hill, Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television (pp.14 - 40). Oxon: Routledge.