How does Hill define reality TV?
I really love to watch reality TV like
American's Next Top Model, Hell's kitchen and so on because reality TV is
lifelike and create an unexpected sensation unlike programs which have scripts.
Hill states that "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 the
camera(p.41)."
Hill (2005) “there is no one definition of
reality programming, but many competing definitions of what has come to be
called the reality genre. The reality genre is made of a number of distinctive
and historically based television genres, such as lifestyle, or
documentary. These television genres
have merged with each other to create a number of hybrid genres that we now
call reality TV, or popular factual television.”
Cathy Come Home was first broadcast on
November 16, 1966 and it had a great impact on reality TV. Cathy Come Home is
realistic drama documentary style. Ken Loache expressed the real-life situation
of poverty, unemployment, homelessness, and the rights of mothers. He did use
techniques which are non-professional actors in order to ensure reality, a hand
held camera that had followed Cathy and Reg all the time, and careful narrative
construction. Narrative of Cathy reminded me a common technique which is
interview of cast members in many reality shows.
reference
Hill A. (2005). The rise of reality TV. In A. Hill, Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television. (pp. 15 – 40). Oxon: Routledge
Wikipedia. (n.d).Cathy Come Home. Retrieved October 23, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathy_Come_Home
I do enjoy reality television. I like to watch cops, i have a secret enjoyment for "cheaters" on occasion and watching idiots on police ten 7 can have me engaged. However I don't like to publicize my enjoyment of this genre, because deep down I know its total crap.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone takes critical language studies as a paper, I find my next point is where these two overlap. This is because, like newspapers, reality television is a form of media. This means that writers and producers need your attention because the way they earn money is through advertising. Writers and producers will manipulate what you are watching to make it more engaging, and i feel this is most apparent with reality tv as a genre. At least with tv series like greys anatomy you know what you are watching is fiction (hopefully). With reality tv, (as Darryl showed with the clip in the lecture) is made mostly by clever editing. Editors will cut hours of footage and put it together to make a 30 minute or hour long show with the most action packed moments strung together to make a storyline. This means that what we see can be far from the truth. Shots of grumpy faces looking in a direction could be cut so it looks like people are argueing or a yawn of a woman with an eager close up of a man from hours later could be made into a tragic love story.
A question I asked myself was : Why are we so interested in Reality TV?
My conclusion on this is that we love it more because the stakes are higher. It is far more theatrical to watch someone really get dumped and get hideously intoxicated than watch an actor drink ribena instead of wine. I think the idea that we can get personally involved also draws people in. When we actively vote or facebook some reality star we feel far more connected. Reality TV bombards your life with extra footage, confessionals and voting untill the programme could be considered by the viewer as part of their own life.
Sorry, more of an opinion piece mixed with lecture notes im afraid Mike!
Delete