Example Journalism Essay
What is the impact of 'Reality Television' in reference to the social, political, economic and cultural changes of the last two decades.
In recent yearsit has been commonplace for British television broadcasters to fill theirschedules with a new type of programme. The so-called 'Reality Television'programmes present real people in various situations rather than moreestablished actors in dramatic roles. The popularity of reality shows such as BigBrother, X-Factor and The Apprentice has given American artist AndyWarhol's famous quote In the future everybody will be world famous forfifteen minutes even more relevance now then when he said it in 1968. Theterm 'reality television' has been increasingly applied to programmes whichallow people access to appear as themselves, utilising actual or sometimesreconstructed scenes. The programmes are often made possible by theavailability, ease of use and technical quality of the video camcorder.However, reality television cannot be solely defined by examples such as BigBrother, and according to some media commentatorsthere are four distinctive categories of the genre featuring people in varyingrole. There are the representation of the emergency services, such as thepolice or ambulance services, in dramatised reconstructions of real events (999or True Crimes), or real video footage recorded by video journalistsand/or the specific emergency service (Trauma); the use of ordinarypeople as subjects of entertainment or humour in spontaneous or contrivedsituations (You've Been Framed or Balls of Steel); the use ofsubjects within a professionally produced fly-on-the wall or vérité documentary(Culloden: A Year in the Life of a Primary School); and allowing amateurdirectors to offer a personalised documentary of an event or way of life (VideoDiaries and Video Nation).
It is not only theinflux of reality television that has polluted the psyche of the nation; wehave seen the rise of popularity of ordinary people whose only claim to famehas been that they appeared in a television programme doing what they wouldnormally do. The exposure they receive from television, and inevitably theprinted media such as magazines like Heat and newspapers like The Sunpropel them to celebrity status. So are the reality television 'stars' the new(or should that be 'neauvou'?) celebrities? In the past twenty yearsthere has been an astonishing trend for the 'normal, everyday person' to demandto know absolutely everything that can be known about their favouritecelebrities' personal lives. Journalists supply the masses with details oftheir private lives, photographs of them on the beach and sordid tales of theirpast. This sensationalist style of journalism has contributed to thecelebrities in question achieving an almost untouchable position; tabloidjournalist Anna Smith once described the celebrity of England captain DavidBeckham as such is his demi-god status that everyone seems to have losttheir sense of reality whenever he walks among them.However, this need from the public for an insight into the lives of therich and famous can lead to withdrawal from the media, as in the case ofBritish supermodel Kate Moss, or ultimately lead to the complete loss of thecelebrity in question, most famously Princess Diana. But one question that needsto be addressed is who actually demands the need for all this information? Isit really the public that are so drunk on the lives of the celebrities, or isit the celebrities that need to be in the public eye to remain accustomed tothe lifestyle that they whimsically try to hide? The answer to this questioncan perhaps be compared to the chicken and the egg. In this dissertation Ishall try to determine how the shift has been in recent years to focus on the'fifteen minutes' of ordinary people appearing on reality television.
The chapters inthis dissertation shall be as follows:
Chapter One -Reality Television; Emotional Exposure and Public Judgement.
In theNetherlands in 1997, a television series had audiences hooked on the lives of agroup of adults sharing a house that was under surveillance 24 hours a day.The show made national heroes of the subjects and the formula was brought toBritain in 2000 in the guise of the infamous Big Brother. The premisewas simple; ten contestants lived in a specially constructed house for a periodof 64 days. Their every move was broadcast live on television and theinternet, and the viewing public systematically voted contestants off untilthere was an outright winner who won a cash prize. At the time the show wascalled a 'social experiment' and 'car crash television', either way it was aphenomenal success, and the people who appeared on the show received more thantheir 'fifteen minutes'. Other shows such as X-Factor, Survivor and TheApprentice also thrive on the way in which the public form an emotionalempathy with the subjects and it is their judgement of these individuals thatforms the basis of the show. In this chapter I shall look at how realitytelevision has propelled the status of reality 'stars' into national (and insome cases international) celebrity status in coalition with the acceptance ofthe viewing public.
Chapter Two -Documentary Series as Soap Operas
In this chapterI shall examine how the current trend for interaction in factual programminghas recently evolved; where there has to be a 'story' for the public to remaininterested. Examples of programmes that will be explored include AnimalCrime Scene where presenter David Attenborough introduces a combination ofwildlife and criminal forensics, and Sea Monsters where the presentertakes the viewer back in time with a combination of real locations and computeranimation. This programme tries to involve the viewer in a way that thepresenter is in danger of being attacked by the titular sea monsters. Arethese factual programmes 'fake' in that the facts are generated mostly on acomputer and not on location? Does the pure titillation of these particularprogrammes make a mockery of the factual documentary genre? Is this an exampleof how recent theoretical approaches challenge the notion of a 'knowablereality', arguing that no representation of reality can be accurate andtrue?Have the days of the objective documentary such as Wildlife on Onealmost disappeared?
Chapter Three- Reality Television; Realism or Revelation?
By definition realismis the practice of regarding things in their true nature and dealing withthem as they are and revelation is a striking disclosure.Do the opposite stances of these descriptions combine to make realitytelevision what it is? In this chapter I shall investigate the most popularreality shows that embody this combination and introduce realism by puttingforward everyday contestants, that the audience can empathise with, and thenintroduce the revelation by forcing them to do something extraordinary (in BigBrother it may be having sex on camera, in X-Factor it may beperforming a number one hit). Are the public not only demanding realism withtheir revelation (Big Brother) but revelation with their realism? Hassociety become so intrigued with the lives of the reality television subjectsit has created that it demands more of them than is justifiable?
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