Bianca essay plan: How do Reality TV shows like Wife Swap and Supernanny construct "Reality" and why is this genre so popular?
Introduction: the development of reality TV
1. Outline essay question
2. I will be discussing why there are so many reality TV shows e.g. cheap production, no scripts, no actors (E)
“Reality programming provides a cheap alternative to drama. Typically, an hour-long drama can cost approximately $1.5m (£875,000) per hour, whereas reality programmes can cost as little as $200,000 (£114,000) per hour."
"It seems clear why producers make reality TV: these programmes are relatively cheap to make, certainly compared to drama, and they appear to guarantee audiences."
3. How the genre has been developed from a range of television genres such as game shows, talk shows, drama and documentary. (G)
Observational strands “always rely on a mix of fact and fiction, of popular elements of documentary or news, combined with popular elements of lifestyle or talk shows and even little bits of drama like melodrama or soap opera."
4. The genre is popular because it adds dramatic entertainment factors to reality (G)
"Though some of the new formats carry echoes of more serious categories of work…the feature that is common to all these newly devised formats is their entertainment orientation. Manifestly designed to appeal to a prime-time audience, the new formats have frequently imported structures and components from other TV genres to enhance their attractiveness"
4. I will explain my two case studies (Wife Swap and Supernanny) and how they take from the fly on the wall documentary genre, and how they differ from reality game show and TV talent such as Big brother and Britain's Got Talent (G) Yet the entertainment factor that makes them more reality than just factual documentary
Point one: Reality TV shows use the conventions of documentary to construct reality
"They see these developments as a more or less systematic attempt to replace the more serious and challenging forms of documentary with so much lightweight, undemanding pap"
Why? "Factual/documentary programming is now seen as having to fight for its place in the schedule alongside other genres."
1. The history of fly on the wall documentary and historical examples (H)
2. Documentary has high status and regard of representing reality fairly: (H, P, G)
3. Conventions of documentary (G, ML)
4. Analysis of Wife Swap and Supernanny and the conventions adopted from documentary e.g. voice over, music, mise en scene etc. (G, ML)
Point two: Reality TV's institutions manipulate reality to present their own ideologies
1. Channel 4 is the broadcaster of both Supernanny and Wife Swap, and I will discuss the ideologies of the channel e.g. strong entertainment values (IN, ID)
“Channel 4 and ITV are the organisations that broadcast the most popular reality television formats."
2. Institutions select characters for their shows
"First in their choice and deployment of real-life performers, programme makers are well aware that they are looking for a special kind of performance ability."
E.g. in Supernanny, all the families selected for the show have extremely bad children. All the people in these shows are REAL ordinary members of the public: the audience believe that the shows representing them are real too. (IN) Supernanny and her authority over the children could reflect the ideologies about adult power, authority and status (ID) This could then create moral panics about bad behaving children being the root of moral panics relating to young people in society: Aim to fix problems with difficult teens, (Wife Swap and problematic families)- it also reflects society. (Issues and debates- representation and stereotyping, S)
Hyper reality: "The simulation of something which never really existed." - Jean Baudrillard
"What reality TV does is bring up a moral issue and make people confront it and say, well, what kind of position are we going to take? Whether it resolves the issue for people is another matter."
Wife Swap “Subjects are clearly chosen on the basis of their demographic and psychographic heterogeneity (or difference); it is no coincidence that moderns are swapped with traditionals, urbans with rurals, etc...These binary oppositions in the organisation of the programme are a basic prerequisite; no friction, no show.”
3. Institutions use editing as a way of manipulating reality e.g. Wife Swap constantly uses binary oppositions through paralleling the families to highlight their differences (IN, ID) In particular, one family reflects the dominant ideologies of the institution which links to hegemony (ID, Issues and debates)
"The structure: Stock situations throughout the majority of the show include disagreements between husband and new ‘wife’ in both homes as the two narrative strands of each family are cross-cut to imply parallel action, usually over cleaning, cooking and disciplining children. The narrative climax is provided by the showdown between the two wives in the debriefing.”
"As well as the chained people, there are other people in the cave. Plato calls them the puppet-handlers, the ones holding those in the cave captive". e.g. the institution or authority...possibly the voiceover who constructs meaning or makes "puppet show". "If we think of the puppet handlers as the ‘elite’ or ruling class then this idea of a reality television-obsessed audience becomes controversial, drawing on the Media Studies concept of hegemony."
“Theories of hegemony are based around the idea that dominant classes persuade subordinate or lower ones to accept and adopt their values.”
“It uses ‘real’ people in certain kinds of ‘real’ situations, but it chooses and manipulates them in order to produce narrative, drama and conflict.”
4. In episodes, people are manipulated into character roles e.g. the children in Supernanny are seen as the villains (violent, abusive), the parents the princesses (victims, vulnerable) and Supernanny as the hero (dominant, authoritative) (R, N, Todorov)
5. In both Supernanny and Wife Swap, the narrative structure is always clear linear narrative with equilibrium, disequilibrium and a new equilibrium. In Wife Swap there is the recognition element too, as the families don't realise they are flawed, and there is not always a new improved equilibrium at the end. (N) I will then explain this construction and link it to the institution (IN)
Point 3: The genre is popular because audiences see themselves in the texts
1. I will discuss the audiences for Wife Swap and Supernanny e.g. families, mothers and women (A)
"Reality TV couldn’t be the success story it is if it didn’t appeal to lots of different kinds of audiences. It’s an all-round pleaser, an all-round entertainer. It manages this by drawing on the things we like about other genres. However, we do know some things: first of all, it appeals to younger viewers. I would call some older viewers ‘reality refuseniks’, whereas a lot of younger viewers, especially around 15-35 are much more attracted to the experimental nature of the genre, and the fact that it’s about people, about following ideas and subjects and emotions, and seeing what unfolds. Women tend to like it a bit more than men, and that’s certainly related to the fact that much reality TV draws on soap opera which, traditionally, has been a genre that appeals to women."
2. Uses and gratifications theory- mostly identification (A)
Contestants "mirror the manner in which all of us, in our everyday lives, are called on to produce a not dissimilar kind of performance"
“And we get to think about our own relationships and what we do in similar situations in some way. So the ‘people’ element and the emotions is crucially important."”
3. The element of self improvement for the contestants of the show- can provide information for the audiences who identify (A , Media effects)
"Such a narrative resolution is common in the ‘self-improvement’ broadcasting trends of the early twenty-first century."
Point 4: The genre is popular because it reflects society
1. Wife Swap and Supernanny deal with the family, the domestic etc- something that many people can relate to. (A ,S)
"If the genre continues to deal with big issues to do with health and education and mind, body and spirit matters or family breakdown, or the ‘broken Britain’ theme, then the programme-makers really need to build trust with the viewers. They’re dealing with serious issues and this requires a basis of trust that people have been treated fairly, that it’s a well-made programme with an ethical consideration to participation."
"It draws people in and forces them to take a position, often a critical position, often by imagining, would I do that in that situation? Would I behave in that way?"
2. It could be argued that Wife Swap aims to fix the idea of many failing marriages in the UK (S, Issues and debates)
3. Supernanny aims to reinforce the authority and hierarchy ideologies in society (S, Issues and debates)
4. Appeals to the voyeuristic nature of society e.g. journeying along side the lives of members of the public, seeing their highs and lows etc. (S)
"The success of reality TV is partly due to the increasingly voyeuristic nature of the society in which we live, and in part due to the obsession with celebrity and everyone wanting to be one. I would also argue that we are living in a much more ‘open society’; not open in terms of freedoms (in fact we have less freedoms), but open in terms of the ‘nothing is sacred’ philosophy."
Scopophilia: "Put simply, scopophilia is the pleasure of watching"
"The spectator’s gaze: the audience looking at the subject on the screen...The gaze is inextricably linked to power relationships – the bearer of the gaze has the power."
Conclusion
1. Summarise essay
2. It could be argued that reality TV is decreasing popularity
a. I will talk about the criticisms of reality TV and how it’s dumbing down society e.g. Big Brother, and the end of it (S, Issues and debates)
"there's a danger that in the rush to deliver more and more, quality will slip and standards will not be maintained"
"It’s often claimed that reality TV only appeals to stupid people, and we have to start by saying that that’s just simply not true! Firstly, it’s precisely the experimental nature of it, the fact that it is a mix of the things you like in other shows, a bit of soap opera, a bit of documentary, a bit of a talk show. We’re attracted to that hybrid nature of the genre."
b. Or are audiences becoming more active as they become aware of the mediated element of reality TV. (A)
"It is interesting how the recent discussion of reality television has heightened general awareness of fakery here, although it is not clear just what impact this has had on public perception of other, more serious, kinds of documentary work"
c. The decrease of docu-soap could reflect the future of reality TV’s popularity decrease (H)
"The unexpected popularity of series such as Airport, Driving School and Vets in Practice has, as suggested, led to a veritable feeding frenzy among programme makers, as rival channels sought to come up with their own docu-soap offerings."
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