REALITY OF REALITY TELEVISIONGOVERNING BODIES (GARETH PALMER)REACTING TO REALITY TV (HELEN WOOD AND BEVERLEY SKEGGS)

Bhanu B. AcharyaUniversity of Ottawa

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“Eat to please thyself, dress to please others.”-- Benjamin Franklin

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AGENDAS

Overview RTV: Conceptual framework Synopsis of both chapters Methodology used Theories used Comparative understanding Redefining the audience RTV in Canadian context My impressions Further reading

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OVERVIEW

Two chapters:

Chapter 5: Governing bodiesBy: Gareth Palmer

Chapter 7: Reacting to reality TVBy: Helen Wood and Beverley Skeggs

Presenting vignettes of: Ten Years Younger

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_TWknQNabE&feature=relmfu

Honey We're killing the kids http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JksgsJVhqrQ

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REALITY TV: CONCEPT OUTLINE Evolved from documentaries and during the 80s and

destabilized docu. (66/67) Synonymous to lifestyle programming, Margaret Mores

says RTV as ‘fiction of presence’ (93) Immediacy or sense of presentness (93), focuses on

self-transformation, (70) Real/ordinary people as social actors (67), connected

to urban environment (68) Continuous surveillance to participants, who are

enthusiastic to re-defining the identity or the ‘real-self’ (72)

Emphasis on light entertainment, emphasis on prizes (67)

Instructive/suggestive approach, but impractical solutions (74)

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SYNOPSIS OF “GOVERNING BODIES” Beings with the best impressions of documentary

and negative connotation with reality TV, began from 80s, Evolution of Docu to RTV, which emphasizes on light entertainment, prizes, ordinary people, vulgar lg., ritual elements (67)

Class related factors (women, ethnic minorities and working class), all have willingness to change (71), Talks about responsible citizen and consumer-self (65)

Highlights on diets, attire, cosmetics and manners, (73), RTV as consent manufacturer (71)

Role of surveillance in the new models of the self; constant vigilance will produce a useful citizenship (76)

Acceptance: whatever methods techniques and procedures offered, the ideal response is to accept them……. (76)

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SYNOPSIS OF “REACTING TO REALITY TV” Empirical research. interviewing, text-in-action, and

FGD methods used; Target audience: 40 working class (W/B/SA) women

RTV shows observed by the researchers:Wife Swap, What not to wear, Faking It (C4, UK)

Discusses the experimental aspects of being involved in reality television and explore how identity is evoked in the dynamic responses of the audiences. (93)

Researched audience's affective (emotional) relation with television (104) : TV enters into sociality through reactive moments; Emotion works as a form of capital.

RTV enables/ engages audiences in talking moral positions. (104)

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METHODOLOGY USED

Reacting to reality TV Empirical

Interviewing, watching RTV shows with participants and FGD

40 women (middle and working class), Black, White and S. Asian

Text-in-action method, recording immediate reaction

Governing bodies• Theoretical

• Comparison of the two TV channels of UK: BBC and ITV

• Observation• Qualitative approach • Critical analysis

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THEORIES USED

Theory of Criticism Consumption Theory Cultivation Theory Marxist Theory Medium Theory Sadharanikaran Theory

(Communication Theory of Simplification)

Uses and Gratifications Theory

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SIMILARITIES (GOVERNING BODIES & REACTING TO REALITY TV)

Both portraits the background of UK mid-class perspective to working class (67)

Different chapters from the same book (The Politics of Reality Television: Global Perspectives, 2011)

Complementary chapters (Theoretical vs Empirical perspectives); surveillance is common in both.

Quest for identity or the ‘self’ of the (middle and lower) class people.

Over representation of the working classes on many shows,

Reality formats encourage viewers to judge good and bad conduct by themselves.

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DIFFERENCES

Governing bodies PURPOSE: To consider

reality TV’s role in the formation of 'consumer-self' and 'responsible citizen‘ (65)

METHODS: Theoretical approach, interpretive and analytical

Examination of and reality shows

Compares RTV with 'documentary',

Reacting to reality TV PURPOSE: To address

the social character of reality television as it meets its audience (93)

METHODS: Empirical, observational and experimental

Focuses on the RTV shows between 2004-2007 (94)

Compares RTV with 'talk shows' (94)

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RE-DEFINING THE “AUDIENCE” Audience involve themselves, agree for

constant vigilance, and ready for metamorphosis,

S. Asian women watch RTV shows to get tips on fashion and parenting (98) and learn British culture ("Supernanny" and "What Not To Wear"),

Critical questioning audience (69) due to the difference of culture, geography and sociality from the RTV shows producers.

Mostly participants from working class, women and ethnic minorities (70-72),

Audience can challenge the knowledge of TV experts (96),

Program anchors use "you" to directly address the audience to clearly refer "presentness" (97).

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RTV IN CANADIAN CONTEXT

Impact of RTV of UK is very much contextual in Canadian context Canada, as commonwealth nation and still

Queen is the national supremo. Some franchised TV shows in Canada are :

Canadian Idol (now stopped), Canada Got Talent, Big Brother, etc.

Ethnographic audience volume is high here;

Overweight, studying Canadian culture, physical transformation, etc. are common here.

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MY IMPRESSIONS RTV = mixture of audience as role-players, display,

social issue, entertainment, competitiveness, market relationship, desire culture, interactivity

Gareth Palmer is more supportive to documentary tradition and more critical to reality TVshows,

RTV shows are promoting market-relationship and consumer culture, they are not just ‘reality shows’

Both articles are complementary to each other and best contextual in Canadian context

The chapters authors are working as the brand ambassadors, agents of RTV shows Whatever methods, techniques and procedures offered, the

ideal response is to accept them (76p) Health is achieved through a combination of your knowledge,

regulated autonomy and the helpful gestures of the market (75p)

Watching reality TV engages us in taking moral positions (104)

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KEY TERMINOLOGIES USEDReal-self (72) Quest of identity, personality, self-esteem, celebrification,

confident and respect of others,

Anxiety-industry (76) Extreme wish to do something, search of real-self, correct shape of body, hunt for branded choices, consumerism, etc.

Discourses of sobriety, considerable gravitas (66p)

SOBRIETY (Seriousness), and GRAVITAS (having weight or gravity). The film genre of documentary has great importance for society

Insight into the world "beyond" (66p)

A depth model, prepared after investigation, To place a documentary in widest possible context

Reality genre (69) All sorts of programs related to the representation of reality, whether on TV, in cinema or in YouTube.

Extended social/public realm (104)

People experience that kind of show in a manner that is not like the private, enclosed space of text-reading, but a more open, shared activity. 

Affective textual encounter (104)

Relationship of investment in the TV program by the observed viewers.

Affective economy (100)

A phrase used by Sara Ahmed to insist that emotions are distributed across social as well as psychic fields.

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FURTHER READINGS… George Orwell, 1984 (1949) Thought Police

concept, constant vigilance after 9/11 in western countries

Foucault, M (1976) The History of Sexuality, Vol 1. New York: Pantheon Books, (Identity is closely linked up to sexuality)

Corner, John (2002) Performing the real, Documentary Diversions, Television and New Media, Vol 3, No 3, Pp. 255-269

McLuhan, M. (1964) Understanding Media: The Extension of Man. McGraw Hill. (RTV shows are “extended social/public realm”)

Misha Kavka (2008) Reality Television, Affect and Intimacy: Reality Matters (TV shifting from info tool to emotional gadget)

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RTV’S QUEST OF “REAL-SELF” AND MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS

ANY QUERIES, PLEASE…

Thank You !