Week Twelve - Filip

I thought the texts for this week were particularly informative :)


How have game shows influenced reality TV?

As a product of major hybridization, reality TV and game shows alike ‘include interaction between non-professional actors and celebrities, although increasingly non-professional actors are often treated as celebrities in their own right in such programmes.’ (Hill, 2005, p. 21)
This gave rise to the hugely popular ‘reality gameshow’ genre, including shows like Survivor and Big Brother, filled with challenges and prizes supplemented with interaction between celebrities, contestants and home audiences.

Following further hybridization into ‘life experiment programmes’ like Wife Swap,Take My Mother-in-law and Holiday Showdown, Reality programming is now generally broken down to:

-Infotainment (Tabloid TV) [Mythbusters, Animal Planet]
-Docu-Soap (Observational personal adventure drama) [Deadlist Catch, Storm Chasers]
-Lifestyle (Life experiment programmes/Professional help journal series) [Supernanny, Wife Swap]
-Reality Gameshow (Weekly elimination challenge series) [Survivor, Big Brother]



Why is reality TV so popular for both programme makers and TV viewers?
Drawing on its influence from gameshows; ‘two reasons: it is ‘cheap and easy to produce’ and is ‘extremely exportable’. (Hill, 2005, p. 22)
Because of the nature of reality TV (mostly observational, with a formula put in place for challenges), there wasn’t much need to spend money on hiring a writing staff as a Soap Opera would need.
These shows ‘were successful in the 1990’s and early 2000’s because they drew on existing popular genres, such as soap opera or game shows, to create hybrid programmes.’ (Hill, 2005, p. 39)




References:
Hill, A. (2005) The Rise of reality TV. In A. Hill, Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television. (pp. 15 – 40). Oxon: Routledge

Week Eleven - Filip

What signifiers of reality have emerged from the documentary genre?

How have they constructed our conceptualisation of reality (or at least what we recognize was being real at the visual level)?

Biressi & Nunn (2005) highlight the different narrative format used in reality TV.
‘Rather than construct a ‘temporal framework’ in the form of organized storytelling or rhythmic patterning through a shooting script, observational films chose to rely on editing to generate a sense of lived experience and time passing.’ (Biressi & Nunn, 2005, p. 118)
Editing techniques and cinematography tricks borrowed from the documentary genre have brought with them a sense of believability. There’s a familiarity with ‘cameras following people around’ that leaves audiences more ready to accept the factual entertainment (real life setting and characters alone) as ‘infotainment’ or ‘docu-soaps’. (Hills, 2005, pp 113 – 115)



How does Hill define reality TV?

Hill (2005) states ‘Reality TV’ has undergone changes over years and first explains it is a ‘genre in transition’. From legal and emergency report programs, Hill looks to analyse the threshold between factual and fictional TV. ‘perhaps the most traditional industry term for reality TV is factual entertainment. The term usefully merges factual programming with entertainment-based television, and highlights hybridization, a common generic feature of most reality programmes.’
Hill (2005, p. 108) clarifies; ‘Another traditional industry term is that of popular factual, a term that links popular audiences with a variety of factual television genres and formats.’
Hill uses the name of ‘popular factual’ as a basis for his analysis.

Public television audiences interviewed gave a loose consensus that ‘viewers equated reality TV with ‘cameras following people around.’’

Hill (2005, p. 114) concludes ‘There is no one definition of reality programming, but many, competing definitions of what has come to be called the reality genre.’




References:
Biressi, A. & Nunn, N. (2005). Real Lives, documentary approaches. In Reality TV: realism and revelation. (pp. 35-58) London: Wallflower.

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

Week Nine - Filip

Hills (2004) lists a number of defining characteristics of cult TV that contain similarities to the defining characteristics of pop genres (e.g. fantasy, science fiction) discussed earlier in the Pop Genres paper. Can you identify these and discuss why you think that these characteristics are repeatedly viewed as underpinning popular genres.


Hills (2004, pp. 509 – 510) briefs three common characteristics attributed to Cult TV:
-Cult-as-Text – Often sci-fi, fantasy and horror.
-Cult-as-Inter-Text – Fan magazines with critical and journalistic analysis of the show.
-Cult-as-Audience – Show achieves ‘cult status’ as a result of fan support. ‘This type of argument positions cult TV as a ‘grassroots’ phenomenon, assuming that it is created by fans rather than by media producers.’

The narrative style is then described as having a ‘hyperdiegesis’ component ‘(adapting the term ‘diegesis’, which means the represented narrative world), suggesting that cult texts can be distinguished by their extended, expansive narrative worlds’ (Hills 2002, p. 137)
This infers a distinctive mark of a cult show is the typical narrative ‘world’ being expanded to a narrative universe, wherein fanciful fantasy elements are treated as commonplace, exemplified by Hill (2004, p 511) via the ‘Buffyverse’ of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Hill goes on to describe how while the continuity with this universe is generally preserved, the show maintains interest through subversion and reestablishment of the status quo. All the while episodes utilize fan investment to build story, in-jokes and character relations. Hills identifies this as an aspect of Cult TV which distinguishes it from soap operas and dramas. (Hills 2004, p. 512)

I believe the characteristics recurring throughout popular genres appeal to an audience’s sense of wonder. Leading questions are scarcely resolved, serving more to ascertain a context for an ‘endlessly deferred narrative’ with a focus a few protagonists. (Hills 2002 pp. 134 – 135)



What role does Hills (2004) suggest the fans play in the construction of cult TV? How is new media central to this?

Hills (2004, pp. 518 – 519) suggests fans operate through various methods:

-Fans organize TV programmes into an ‘intertextual network’ sharing enthusiasm across multiple -media platforms. (Books, films, comics)
-Fans actively prescribing the title of ‘cult’ to a series
-Fans assemble ‘Appreciation Societies’; ‘Fans also produce commentaries, fan fiction, episode guides and production histories that all work to sustain the distinctiveness of fandom as a community that reads the ‘intertextual network’ of cult TV shows in a characteristic way.’
-Fans create a market for memorabilia, merchandise and props related to their favourite shows.


‘Most of these fan activities are carried out both online and in real life: fans can gather together in virtual spaces as well as in hotel function rooms... by making it easier for fans to contct other like-minded devotees, the web increases the possibility of small-scale organized fandoms emerging around a wider variety of TV shows.’ (Hills, 2004, p. 519)
New media enables advanced communicative capabilities between fans, which of course helps the fandom to grow, and also gives more exposure, as Hills cites Kristen Pullen ‘the Internet may have begun to mainstream fandom’. (2000, p. 60)




References:
Hills, Matt. (2002) Fan Cultures, Routledge: London and New York.
Hills, Matt. (2004), Defining Cult TV; Texts, Inter-texts and Fan Audiences, The Television Studies Reader, R. C. Allen & A. Hill. London and New York: Routledge.
Pullen, Kirsten. (2000) ‘I-love-Xena.com: Creating Online Fan Communities’ in David Gauntlett (ed.) web studies, Arnold, London, pp. 52-61.

Harri - Week 11

How does Hill define reality TV?

To my knowledge ‘reality TV’ is ‘staged’ TV programmes about real people, situations and experiences, as it is designed to be entertaining rather than informative. This includes documentaries, sports, news, arts and other genres, which lie within this description. Hill (2005) implies that reality TV is linked to everything and anything i.e people, pets, cars, death and birth and it would make this genre very diverse.

There are many examples of reality TV, but just to name a few you’ve got your music genre ‘American Idol/X- Factor’, game shows like ‘What’s in the bag/ Wipe out, and many documentaries about gangs, drugs, politics and many more. So how can you define such a diverse genre as ‘reality TV’? According to Hill (2005) he states that, “there is no one definition of reality programming” but is more of a term to describe the type of programming of a television industry. Although the important part of ‘reality TV’ is the ‘factual’ component used, which attracts the audience, (Hill 2005).

Sam wk10

(unforgivably late)

Questions answered;

How does Buffy deconstruct traditional literary notions of good and evil?

In what way is Buffy influenced by the romantic gothic tradition? Yet how does Buffy also provide a contemporary critique of this tradition?

Rose (2002) cites season four’s “Frankenstein” parallel as an exemplar of Buffy’s awareness and refashioning of ‘Romantic’ literature and the canon’s ensuing ideologies. However, the ever present romantic-hero figure is obviously not exclusive to that season (or text) appearing in various guises throughout, most notably recurring in Whedon’s luscious, eponymous heroine Buffy Somers. Far from recycling the familiarity of successful narratives though, Rose’s cited season-four examples argue, rather, that Whedon and team present the proverbial formula and subsequent elements for purposes of modern revision (2002). That Buffy’s efforts to prove antiquated the reality posited by romantic ideologies in a modern-context casts vampires, demons and alleged super-heroes as it’s working populace, may seem ironic (if no less ‘romantic’). And yet despite (or because) of it’s fantastic elements, the innovation is a relevant one, as it spot-lights the techno-fear inspiring Shelley to pen ‘Frankenstein’ in the first, updating its settings to prove the twenty-first century threat of technology usurping its human creators, as prevalent (or more so) as that haunting the early-twentieth, which saw the advent of industrialization.

It does this by having its monster ‘Adam’ slay his creator Maggie Walsh, ruling out the unfolding possibility of an existential dialogue between the two, the very tension driving most of Shelley’s original narrative. Instead, Adam knows full well his purposes for being made, Walsh having programmed these into him, and he quickly acts accordingly; however, these purposes are distorted by Adam in the absence of his human creator, and he believes that in spawning an army of human-demon hybrids he is doing her work. Thus does Buffy caution against the conceit of science as it marches under ideals and wields powers it fervently believes god-given and god-sent without a single mitigating word from ‘god’, preaching the virtues of progress to justify it’s leaps that should be unanimous as it’s decisions more often than not effect the lives of the masses. With no collective to check it, science (the individual or elite) veers considerably from social reality into amoral terrain and is capable of ‘evil’ despite initial nobility of intent, and in doing so undermines essential democracy so that it is reduced to mere visage of democracy.

Buffy’s critique of the solitary-nature of these ‘romantic ideals’ goes further, musing the only effective means of ensuring technology doesn’t steer us into the post-human, is the collective; not only as preventive measure, but (should the situation reach critical) as offensive resistance. Though she is the slayer, it soon becomes clear that the technological forces of which Adam is representative out-match her individual stand, and requires the full coordinated strength of the ‘Scooby Gang’.

Buffy also re-imagines age-old concepts of good and evil, and their equally ancient gender expressions. Braum (2000) cites the 1998 “X- Files” movie as embedding ‘evil’ in the ‘feminine mystique’, the primal dark of the vaginal passage as the gateway to void and non-being, also paradoxically the canal of new life through which we pass in birth. These associations can be traced back to the Bible and the book of Genesis in which Eve ate of the fruit, vilifying woman forever as the herald of original sin. Classical depictions of Eve include the fruit, the snake, and a naked woman; she is everything fecund and of the earth, whose sexuality is considered “monstrous” in as much as it is branded ‘evil’ or ‘other’. Buffy on the other hand holds up male-sexuality as the threatening and decidedly ‘evil’ force. Angel, (ironically named) is initially charming and sweet natured. It is only after seducing Buffy, and a consummate sex act, that her returns to his former tyrant-demon self in a betrayal of the slayers vested romantic interest. Braum (2000) presents a psychoanalytic reading of the relationship as one paralleling the mother/child and the child’s inability to cope with the mother’s ‘shadow’, so that perceptions of the mother inadvertently ‘split’. Another reading however sees the notions of evil theologically heaped onto the feminine, thrown back onto the masculine in a demystifying feminist upheaval combating the negation of female-sexuality in a consistently patriarchal system. Angel is that system, delighting in tormenting Buffy as the system has in it’s demonization of woman at large.

Though Buffy’s solution to the problem might be a tad unrealistic (hurl the patriarchy into the Hell-Mouth?), the intent of Whedon and team is morally sound.

Week 12

How have game shows influenced reality TV?

Game shows have influenced reality TV in a number of ways due to the fact it has basic format which can be easily changed to suit different audiences and countless settings. Game shows rely on chance and the contestant’s knowledge and ability to make life changing decisions in the space of time of a television programme. A game show like Survivor relies on the contestants to not only make decisions that will affect their life but to do so within the framework of the game.

“After the ‘smash-hit’ of Survivor, the networks scrambled to glut the market with a winning formula of gameshow, observational documentary and high drama” (Hill 2005 p. 104). Programmes such as Hells Kitchen and The Biggest Loser use this format to create a programme which involves the audience by pulling at their emotions and getting them hooked on the possible outcome. This sort of reality programme led to the production of life experiment shows. “Part social experiment, part makeover and part gameshow, life experiment programmes usually involve ordinary people experimenting with their lives in various different ways” (Hill 2005 p. 105). Like the programme Queer Eye for the Straight Guy which involved a team of stylists giving one heterosexual man a makeover including redecorating his home and providing him with advice on his love life.

Another way in which gameshows have influenced reality TV is in terms of shows such as I’m a celebrity…get me out of here and Celebrity Big Brother. These shows focus on turning celebrities into ‘ordinary people’ for the purpose of seeing how they cope with their change in setting and lifestyle. Turning the camera on celebrities so to speak also paved the way for shows such as Punk’d a celebrity version of Candid Camera. As stated by Hill (2005) “…as reality gameshows move into the realm of popular entertainment and performance becomes even more central to the success of contestants” (p. 106) it is no wonder that the reality gameshow has had such an impact on the success of reality TV.

Why is reality TV so popular for both programme makers and TV viewers?

Reality TV is so popular for both programme makers and TV viewers as it incorporates well established television genres and programme formats and adapts them into something new and fresh for the TV audience. “Popular factual programming can fit under a range of traditional categories, such as entertainment, and/or topics such as health, but it can also be labelled as reality TV when beneficial to the industry” (Hill 2005 p. 45).

Its popularity can be linked to the fact that is easy to produce and in most cases is highly riveting. “The target viewers of reality TV are the type of viewers who choose popular rather than traditional or specialist factual programming precisely because it is factual and entertaining” (Hill 2005 p.53). The popularity of reality TV makes it worth the while of programme makers to invest time and effort into making shows which captivate television viewers.

Week 11

What signifiers of reality TV have emerged from the documentary genre?

The documentary genre is based in realism, such as life and how we live it. “Realism becomes measured through the subject matter being reconstructed and that realism depends on notions of suffering, raw experience and personal struggle as emblems of the real” (Biressi, A. & Nunn, N 2005 p. 36). The documentary genre is primarily based on using the example of ordinary people as a learning tool to depict how different groups of people live their lives. The audience gains insight from people who are struggling to carry out their day to day activities from behind the lens of a camera. “Grierson, who coined the term ‘documentary’ happily acknowledged the role of aesthetics in the genre, describing the documentary process as the ‘creative treatment of actuality’” (Biressi, A. & Nunn, N 2005 p. 36).

Documentary is popular due to the intimate style of filming which relies on the openness of the subjects being documented. This is brought over to reality TV in shows such as Survivor and Project Runway which depicts ordinary people living their lives, however doing so in a manufactured setting. Documentary originally started in cinema however, “it was television that was to become the most commonly used an accessible arena for both the screening of documentary and as a space for the representation of ordinary people – men and women” (Biressi, A. & Nunn, N 2005).

Those that made television programmes aimed at producing shows that could connect with the audience by showing real people in situations that would garner an emotional response from viewers. This started the production of documentary dramas which showcased real people in the format of television drama. “The term ‘documentary drama’ itself also points to the perceived importance of dramatic realism at this time, which, together with an emphasis on truth-telling as the foundation of productions, led to the cultivation of a uniquely televisual lexcion of conventions” (Biressi, A. & Nunn, N 2005 p. 54). The influence of this form of drama lent itself to many other types of factual programming and reality TV genres.

How does Hill define reality TV?

Reality TV is encapsulates a wide range of different genres and sub-classifications of ‘popular factual programming’ (Hill 2005). Its main purpose is generally entertainment but also incorporates other styles such as documentaries, sports, news and the arts. “The term reality TV is so flexible that it can be applied to any type of popular factual programming the industry wants to sell to channels and viewers at home or abroad” (Hill 2005).

‘Popular factual programming’ can relate to not only what an audience may deem as reality TV but also what the industry may label it in order to market It to the television watching public. “Most television scholars who discuss reality TV tend to include a variety of television genres in their definitions of the ‘reality genre’ precisely because reality TV borrows from so many different existing genres” (Hill 2005 p. 49).

Programmes such as Survivor are not only based on the game show format but are also influenced by the popularity of dramas and soap operas. Similarly programmes such as Project Runway and Americas Next Top Model incorporate suspense and drama into the show in order to keep the audience interested in what will happen next. “The continuum between fact and fiction is a useful way to think of the relationship between contemporary factual programming and the various types of popular factual television that make up the reality genre” (Hill 2005 p. 50).

It is difficult to define the reality TV genre due to the amount of influences used from other genres and those sub-categories of the genre itself. Reality TV is in essence is a term used to describe any show based on real life events made for the purpose of television.