Big brother: Reality TV in the twenty-first century
Abstract
Jonathan Bignell presents a wide-ranging analysis of the television phenomenon of the early twenty-first century: Reality TV, exploring its cultural and political meanings, explaining the genesis of the form and its relationship to contemporary television production, and considering how it connects with, and breaks away from, factual and fictional conventions in television. Relationships with surveillance, celebrity and media culture are examined, leading to an appraisal of the directions that television culture is taking in the new century. His highly-readable style is accessible to readers at all levels of Culture and Media studies.
... Other scholars have noted that the programs are a mix of marketing, real life and entertainment (Murray & Ouellette, 2004). The broad and expansive nature of reality TV has made it hard for scholars to define what reality TV actually is (Bignell, 2005). However, research indicates that reality television is growing in part because it is cheap to produce (Bignell, 2005;Hill, 2005;Weber, 2011). ...
... The broad and expansive nature of reality TV has made it hard for scholars to define what reality TV actually is (Bignell, 2005). However, research indicates that reality television is growing in part because it is cheap to produce (Bignell, 2005;Hill, 2005;Weber, 2011). ...
... For instance, whereas programs such as Big Brother aired in the late 1990s, it was not until 2001 that South Africa had its first season of the same program but with local participants. By 2001, Germany was already in its second season, and it would take another 2 years before Big Brother would be broadcast across the African continent (Bignell, 2005). ...
Black South Africans generally celebrate two types of weddings, one white and the second ‘traditional.’ This article uses the political economy theory and draws from multimodal critical discourse analysis to examine the televisual representation of these two types of weddings. Analyzed here are 10 episodes of two South African wedding reality programs, Our Perfect Wedding and Top Billing Weddings. The analysis reveals that South African wedding reality television programs displace cultural diversity and stay within the strategy of reproducing sameness by dominantly focusing on white weddings. From this perspective, ‘traditional’ weddings are backgrounded. In addition, natural black hair is erased as the shows consistently feature brides with chemically processed or store-bought hair rather than the brides' own natural hair. This article argues that white weddings and White feminine looks are normalized as attractive, while blackness is either erased or represented as inferior.
... In recent years, a growing number of these analyses have focused on reality television, broadly defined as "programs where the unscripted behavior of "ordinary people" is the focus of interest" (Bignell, 2005, p. 1), but in fact a rather elusive concept that encompasses a wide range of programs and one that is used by different people and different discourses to refer to diverse programming formats (Bignell, 2005;Biressi and Nunn, 2005;Brenton and Cohen, 2003). Reality TV has been particularly useful for studies of globalization (and its discontents) due to the fact that from the outset, it has been a global phenomenon, with broadcasters and format producers quick to capitalize on successful formulas by marketing them on the international scene, sometimes in their original form but most often in localized, culturally adapted inflections (other than the Idol franchise, similar examples include Big Brother, Wife Swap, The Apprentice, and The Biggest Loser, all of which have had several international incarnations; see Bignell, 2005). ...
... In recent years, a growing number of these analyses have focused on reality television, broadly defined as "programs where the unscripted behavior of "ordinary people" is the focus of interest" (Bignell, 2005, p. 1), but in fact a rather elusive concept that encompasses a wide range of programs and one that is used by different people and different discourses to refer to diverse programming formats (Bignell, 2005;Biressi and Nunn, 2005;Brenton and Cohen, 2003). Reality TV has been particularly useful for studies of globalization (and its discontents) due to the fact that from the outset, it has been a global phenomenon, with broadcasters and format producers quick to capitalize on successful formulas by marketing them on the international scene, sometimes in their original form but most often in localized, culturally adapted inflections (other than the Idol franchise, similar examples include Big Brother, Wife Swap, The Apprentice, and The Biggest Loser, all of which have had several international incarnations; see Bignell, 2005). ...
... While these transnational flows of homogeneous formats seem to promote a global agenda, however, internationally franchised reality TV is also infused with a strong sense of the local. Its contestants are always reflective of each country"s native population; producers customarily tailor program formats to fit local tastes; and it constantly projects an image of democratic involvement that is inescapably associated with the political characteristics of the nation-state, due to the reliance on audience involvement and voting (Bignell, 2005;Darling-Wolf, in press;Holmes, 2004;Punathambekar, in press). Thus reality TV, with its complex negotiations of both universalizing and particularizing elements, serves as a convenient site for investigating how these negotiations are concretized, and for examining the frameworks and assumptions associated with globalization. ...
... It is an adaptation of the Big Brother franchise adopted by over 20 countries of the world. With its metaphor of total surveillance borrowed from George Orwell's novel, 1984(Bignell 2005, it subsists as a form of popular culture which the common people do not just find interesting for its entertainment value but identify with because it shows regular members of a society striving to balance their selfish interest with communal interest while pursuing a goal (of winning the staked prize or potential investors' attention). In other words, it's a microcosm of human society. ...
... As a reality television show, it brings to the screen time-bound scenes of human subjectivity: subjects negotiating the frames of constraints and prohibition, and defining themselves through them while in pursuit of personal satisfaction/enjoyment. Jonathan Bignell (2005) considers Big Brother as 'a metaphorical staging of the tension in social relation' (p. 71), 'an experiment about how human society works' (p. ...
Beyond its contested ethical and appraised entertainment values, Big Brother Naija Reality TV Show offers insight into the cohesive function of law and its potential for sustaining relatively peaceful social relations. This chapter casts a critical glance on the potential of the show as a reinforcement of the necessity of (rule of) law, (referred to as the ‘Big Other’ or symbolic authority in psychoanalysis), especially in present-day Nigeria where, in practice, precarity, arbitrariness, and vulnerability characterize social interaction and citizenship. This is largely consequent on a latent decline in the disposition of subjects to defer satisfaction, and accede to the binding function in sociality. The founding of the show on rules, judgment, and sanction, its recognition and reward of compliance and industry, and the various instances of manifestation of human excesses often checked by the house rules demonstrate the sustainability of social relation through the instrumentality of the law. The data for this study were gathered through personal observations of the show, video clips on YouTube, and comments on Twitter. Following psychoanalytic and legal paradigms, the chapter finds that the show exemplifies and reiterates the need for law in human subjectivity as a constraining mechanism on individual and institutional behavior. Hence, Big Brother Naija TV show subtly communicates the necessity of the rule of law and symbolic authority in a society.
... До данас није успостављена јединствена и општеприхваћена дефиниција ријалитија, али су поједини аутори сагласни како је differentia specifica овог појма његова генеричка хибридност (Andrejevic, 2004;Bignell, 2005;Hill, 2005;Kavka, 2012). Концепт ријалитија еклектички сабира сва искуства и продукцијске трикове -таблоидног новинарства, документарне телевизије и популарне забаве. ...
... So far no unique and generally accepted definition of a reality show has been established, but some authors agree that differentia specifica of this concept is its generic hybridity (Andrejevic, 2004;Bignell 2005;Hill, 2005;Kavka, 2012). The concept of reality eclectically combines all experiences and production tricks -of tabloid journalism, documentary television and popular entertainment. ...
The contemporary media culture in Serbia has been marked by two trends - democratization and transformation of the media. These parallel processes on the eve of the 21st century led to the decrease in informative contents and the increase in the entertainment ones. Therefore, reality shows take primacy in Serbia, no longer being an exclusive feature of the television. This paper is aimed at researching and describing the ways in which informative contents in the Serbian media have been replaced by television reality contents, as well as the ways in which the printed media and internet portals inform about them. By the qualitative method of content analysis, this paper realizes its goal to fathom the mechanisms of the transposition of the informative content into the entertainment one, thus deconstructing journalistic practices. The results will indicate that the domestic portals relate to realities in two ways - the first and less common modality is ignoring, while the second implies uncritical acceptance of this type of content, which creates fertile soil for the development and maintenance of the so-called reality culture.
... A similar inattention to relational-interactional considerations exists in the growing body of research on reality television (TV). While much of this literature has centered on the public staging of an authentic self (Aslama & Pantti, 2006;Corner, 2002;Hill, 2002) or addressed reality formats as a moral project of self-improvement (Bignell, 2005;Sender, 2012;Skeggs, 2009), it has not considered the public staging of social ties between actors as an equally important category of analysis. Reality viewers are invited not only to identify with individual contestants but also to become one of them-both symbolically and in practice (Tincknell & Raghuram, 2002). ...
... This practice is central to many reality formats in which individuals are expected to be self-reflective and to present an authentic narrative of personal transformation from suffering to salvation in line with the growing effect of the "therapeutic discourse" (Furedi, 2004;Illouz, 2003;Livingstone & Lunt, 1993). In particular, reality formats subscribe to an ideology of self-improvement and are often referred to as "makeover TV" (Bignell, 2005;Sender, 2012). In this, they build on earlier genres such as soap operas, in which selfhood is established as a terrain of moral and civic drama set within a fictional microcosm of society. ...
Scholarship on media events has rarely considered how interpersonal interactions between participants mobilize collective feelings of solidarity. Drawing on a study of Big Brother Israel, we demonstrate how several structural-interactional features of the show encourage viewers to shift from a position of bystanders to one of confidants and companions of the contestants. We analyze this shift through the lens of mediated “public intimacy”—the staging of exclusive interactions in front of a third party. The emergent sense of collective complicity affects everyday interactions between viewers and public discourse on social media. We conclude that beyond the public staging of self, it is the staging and concretization of social relations in media events that serves to reaffirm the collective's solidarity.
... Despite the façade of 'the real', reality television is manufactured and produced entertainment, often following predetermined formats and relying on established tropes (Quail, 2015;Sadowski-Smith, 2014;Tremlett, 2014). Reality TV has become a global phenomenon with formats and shows produced and distributed throughout the world (Bignell, 2005). Formats and shows are adapted for different audiences and often produced with 'local' (national) aesthetics. ...
... Formats and shows are adapted for different audiences and often produced with 'local' (national) aesthetics. For example, Big Brother, which was originally produced and aired in the Netherlands, has been adapted, produced, and aired in countries across the globe (Bignell, 2005;Dolby, 2006;Jacobs, 2007). Sender (2011) notes that 'the global spread of media technologies and reality television formats encourages national and ethnic allegiances, reframes a nation's imagined past and present, and forces us to rethink the idea of a national and regional public through a mediated lens' (p. ...
This research analyzes Uongozi, a massive multimodal civic education campaign that culminated in the Uongozi reality television show, situating the campaign within its socio-political context. Our analysis suggests that Uongozi framed and promoted a version of leadership that is tied to an idealized progressive, youth leader despite the lack of quality youth ‘candidates’ on the show. The campaign also endorsed a message of national unity and identity, articulated through the promotion of a nonethnic collective Kenyan identity. Uongozi contributed to a larger pre-election narrative promulgated through mass media efforts that encouraged Kenyans to move beyond ethnicity in their voting and participate in a peaceful election.
... On the entertainment side, soap operas (Corner, 2000: 687;Hill, 2005: 23) and hidden-camera programmes often get a mention. The latter pioneered true-to-life portrayal of people in real situations, with shows such as Candid Camera airing on multiple US networks throughout the second half of the 20th century (Bignell, 2005;Clissold, 2004;McCarthy, 2009;Murray, 2009). ...
This article defends the thesis that game shows were a key influence in the development of reality TV, and understanding the latter depends on our knowledge of the former. The first section addresses the knowledge gap about game shows and asks the following questions: What are they made of, and what are the core elements that distinguish them from any other genre? The second part examines the relationship between game shows and reality programming. This article highlights the similarities between the two genres and demonstrates that the latter adopted many of the storytelling techniques pioneered by the former. Thus, this research seeks to make a double contribution to media and communication studies: it addresses a knowledge gap and thinks about game shows in relation to another TV genre. From a theoretical perspective, this research mixes a sociological approach to discourse with practice-oriented narrative analysis. It uses secondary and primary sources, which consist of interviews with UK-based TV executives and producers.
... 2018) Other studies have explored the addictive nature of reality television but conclusions drawn from them appear vague. (Folayan, 2016, Bignell, 2005, Biressi and Nunn, 2005). Brenton, for example found that increased consumption of competition-based reality programming was positively correlated with dishonesty. ...
This study investigates the perceived effectiveness of fostering national identity, seeking gratifications, and deploying non-conventional promotional strategies-using a popular Nigerian reality TV show, 'Big Brother Naija' (BBN) as referent point. The media keeps surveillance of and correlates components of the society. It transmits cultural norms and keeps the people informed. The surveillance function alludes to the propensity of the media to search for new information and tell its audience the implications of such information. Correlation refers to the ability of the media to shape and influence their audience; while the transmission function refers to the role the media plays in the transference of experience, culture and tradition. This study explores the 'correlation' and 'transmission' roles of the television in relation to marketing communications. Thus, the researchers sought to know the viewers' perception of the BBN programme, the gratifications, that they derive, the use of national identity as promotional strategy and the extent to which these affected marketing objectives of sponsor. Three hundred BBN viewers constituted the respondents in the study. Findings revealed that viewers of BBN sought entertainment, relaxation, escape and identification as gratifications while sponsors of the programme use both the traditional and unique/creative strategies such as interactive, appearances, donations of prizes and cultural traits, to effectively promote their brands. The study found that using national identity as a promotional strategy in a multi-ethnic society offers huge potentials for branding. The study further reinforces the perspective that the audience of mass communication (and by extension consumers) is not a passive recipient of media information.
... Their findings further revealed that these youths learned co-habitation and sex issues from the show. In the same vein, Sarah Lwahas, (2017) examined the adaptations of the show within African context and the author maintained that the adaptations of the Reality Show have significantly improved the participation and engagements in global issues, not minding its perceived negativity (Bignell, 2006). ...
This is the first academic book length publication on the Big Brother brandinNigeria. Big Brother Naija is the Nigerian version of the Big Brother franchise created by John de Mol Jr., and aired for the first timein the Netherlands in 1999. It has since been adopted in over 54 countries of the world including Nigeria. The Nigerian version started as Big Brother Nigeria in 2006 after the cancellation of the Big Brother Africa show. After an 11-year break, the reality TV show returned in 2017 and was renamed Big Brother Naija as part of a rebranding outlook with a name “Naija” which is a mass informal designation for “Nigeria” that resonates well with Nigerians across all levels, including those in the Diaspora. Since its premiere, BB Naija has featured over hundred housemates and produced six winners. Given the popular attitude of and to the show, it has received series of backlash and criticisms from various quarters. Giving it a scholarly attention, as this book does, first calls for categorising it for ease of study. Hence, the editors located the show within the class of human production called popular culture.
... Y todo se expresa en el formato, un mecanismo para estructurar la realidad a través de pautas de la ficción, pero que debe aparecer como una "plataforma invisible" que desaparece detrás de la cons-trucción dramática que logra crear (Chalaby, 2016, p. 17): los reality reproducen la vida, al menos la parte de la vida que consideran más entretenida (Bignell, 2005;Hill, 2002;Hill, 2004). Para Corner, en esta nueva era todos los elementos clásicos del documental quedan en un segundo plano dominados por su condición de divertimento: "the clear purpose of the whole microsocial event is to deliver fun" (2009, p. 46). ...
Este artículo analiza el historial completo del foro de Facebook de Gran Hermano España durante el período 2011-2019. En el estudio se obtuvieron más de 1,2 millones de comentarios del grupo de Facebook. Se investiga cuáles son los temas más recurrentes de los que hablan los fans del programa y cuál es su posición ante ellos. Los participantes aceptan la lógica del reality (mecánica y objetivo final), pero a veces cuestionan la imparcialidad de la cadena si aprecian que interviene en la realidad para obtener una ventaja comercial. Sin embargo, pasa inadvertida la censura que ejerce el programa sobre los comentarios de sucesos que puedan dañar su imagen. Los espectadores, mayoritariamente de género femenino, critican tres veces más (2,79) a las mujeres concursantes que a los hombres. Sin embargo, también hay cierta alianza de género entre foristas y concursantes femeninas: se las apoya más a ellas para que ganen.
... They are given tasks to complete and individually share their experience in the diary room. Big Brother is seen as a social experiment, portraying individual behavior interacting as housemates with other people with differing ideals, beliefs, and prejudices (Bignell, 2005). ...
In 2010, Malaysia introduced an Islamic reality television show in search of Young Imams, entitled Imam Muda (IM), which aired on the Astro Oasis TV network. IM draws on Islamic content knowledge in a South-East Asian cultural context. The show raises hermeneutical and educational questions related to the representation of Muslim identities and practices in the modern world, due to the possibility of inauthentic viewer interpretations. This thesis argues that the show’s Islamic contents may function as a form of informal Islamic Education. Yet, not enough consideration has been made of Imam Muda’s impact on the spiritual judgmental rationality of its target audience — Malaysian Muslims — whose views are in themselves diverse due to different Islamic educational experiences. Spiritual judgmental rationality reveals the possibility of a transcendental understanding of the self in communication with the TV show and the religion of Islam. Therefore, this thesis seeks to examine Malaysian Muslims’ engagement with Imam Muda, season three, in an informal setting, using qualitative data collection methods such as participant observations, focus group discussions and viewing reflections. The participants’ reactions are described based on their responses to the manifested contents, and their reflections are thematised according to data gained from semi-structured discussions. The viewing reflections assist in explaining the behaviours recorded in the observations. The study suggests that under-labouring the framework of Islamic Critical Realism could be fruitful to better understand the nature of Islamic reality TV as a function of informal Islamic Education. More specifically, the findings suggest that Islamic reality TV can serve an educational function by providing beneficial entertainment via an informal learning experience. This learning takes place when participants critically engage with the content. The thesis also makes a novel contribution to knowledge by refining spiritual judgmental rationality in the Islamic Critical Realist framework through variation theory and transcendental realism, to understand the dialectical interplay between young Imams’ representations in Islamic reality television shows, and the interpretations of Malaysian Muslim viewers.
... S'il n'y a pas lieu de remettre en question les grandes lignes de cette analyse, on peut cependant s'interroger sur la manière dont se joue le processus de reconnaissance qui est au coeur de ces pratiques et sur ce que sont les dimensions de l'identité qui en sont l'objet. On a à juste titre plusieurs fois souligné les similitudes, au moins sur le plan de la forme, entre l'exposition de soi qui est en jeu dans la téléréalité et le registre de la confession, remarquant d'ailleurs que dans quantité d'émissions du genre, les révélations les plus intimes ont lieu dans cet espace qu'on nomme le « confessionnal » 1 Parmi plusieurs, on peut citer notamment Ehrenberg, 1995;Jost, 2002;Ory, 2005;Bignell, 2005, Dovey, 2000Biressi et Nunn, 2005;Jagodzinski. 2005. ...
Le développement qu’a connu l’individualisme en Occident depuis la seconde moitié du XXe siècle et le pressant besoin des individus de se singulariser et de se définir qui en a découlé a coïncidé avec un effritement constant de la frontière de la vie privée, les individus se montrant toujours plus enclins à raconter et à révéler publiquement les aspects les plus intimes de leur existence. Dans bien des contextes, notamment à la télévision et dans les médias sociaux, les formes biographiques d’exposition de la vie privée qui ont longtemps dominé ont été progressivement concurrencées et parfois remplacées par une mise en public du présent en train de se vivre. Au-delà du constat suivant lequel ces différents types de débordement du privé dans l’espace public tiennent de la quête de reconnaissance de chacun, que peut-on comprendre de l’évolution de l’exposition publique de la vie privée en regard des formes contemporaines de subjectivité ? Laissant de côté les lectures normatives du phénomène et m’appuyant sur la thèse de Charles Larmore concernant le caractère pratique de l’identité, je fais l’hypothèse que les nouvelles formes d’exhibition publique du privé constituent une forme d’engagement, permettant à l’individu de se constituer comme sujet dans la durée. Prenant appui sur une analyse exploratoire de l’émission de télé-réalité Occupation double, cet article développe la réflexion en lien avec cette hypothèse.
... ways of 'being modern' (Bignell, 2005, p. 59). Many people, particularly youth around the world, are willing to try Western activities, to 'taste' the feeling of being 'modern' (Ohnuki-Tierney, 1997; Tsu, 2005;Yan, 2006). ...
This thesis investigates how self-funded Chinese international students in Australia negotiate their position in a transnational context. Employing a longitudinal and cross-sectional research methodology, it is one of the few studies that pay close attention to the individual voices and agencies of these students.
Recent rapid growth of the international education industry reveals an interplay of national, institutional and personal interests as complex as dependent on market forces. While cross-border education is fundamentally organised and managed by nation-states and therefore functions primarily to serve their best economic and political interests, the current schema, whereby developed countries supply educational products to students from developing countries, is also premised on the notion of a global cultural hierarchy. Western institutions, positioned advantageously at the top end of this hierarchy are thus able to capitalise on their relative position and status in the international education marketplace.
In the Sino-Australian case, most Chinese students come to Australia with the shared hopes of obtaining better English language skills, a recognised tertiary qualification and permanent residency status - prerequisites for a future life ideally set in a borderless landscape. However, although both Chinese and Australian governments are engaged in cultivating and maintaining a qualified and highly skilled work force, the existence of social hierarchies within both societies, and globally, complicates individual student choice.
The findings of this study indicate that whilst living overseas, Chinese international students discover that neither societies overseas nor those at home can be perceived as ‘flat’. Most face significant challenges when attempting to retain their own domestic mobility whilst chasing individual international aspirations, and all find they must constantly reassess and compare their personal circumstances across a transnational context in order to maximise their overseas experience. Many students feel that it is easier to capitalise on their personal skills and qualifications in China rather than their overseas study destination, while others still long for a better quality life in Australia.
By and large, Chinese international students tend to use their resources and skills as instruments that enable them to avoid trading-off their domestic advantages for international mobility. And despite being driven foremost by personal and familial interests, their efforts to become skilled and respected individuals have also improved China’s status amongst the developed nations of the world.
... Algunos de estos teóricos, como Kilborn (2003, 2008) o Hill (2005, presentan estudios centrados en el desarrollo de la telerrealidad en el contexto británico. Bignell (2005), por su parte, estudia el fenómeno Big Brother como nuevo concepto de formato televisivo. En definitiva, todos están de acuerdo en que una de las características esenciales de este género es la hibridación, como ya apuntaba Bondebjerg (1996: 134): ...
Des de fa poc més d’una dècada, un nou format televisiu és present en les graelles de la televisió espanyola: el dating show. Es tracta d’espais d’entreteniment, una combinació entre diferents formats i continguts com són el concurs i el reality. En aquest tipus de programes preval la recompensa emocional i queda en un segon pla el component monetari propi dels concursos tradicionals. Amb aquesta recerca es pretén observar com aquest tipus de programes construeixen una narració fonamentada en els elements propis i prèviament establerts per la cinematografia. L’estudi es desenvolupa a través de l’anàlisi de contingut d’aquests recursos. Entre d’altres, s’han tingut en compte les estructures narratives, els guions utilitzats, la revisió de l’espai i el temps, el punt de vista del narrador i dels concursants i el treball de postproducció que tenen aquests formats. La mostra seleccionada està formada pels programes classificats com a dating shows emesos en l’última dècada en les televisions generalistes que han aconseguit més audiència, com ara Granjero busca esposa (Cuatro, 2008-), ¿Quién quiere casarse con mi hijo? (Cuatro, 2012-), Un príncipe para… (Cuatro, 2013-2016), Casados a primera vista (Antena 3, 2015-) o First Dates (2016-), entre d’altres. S’arriba a la conclusió que aquests «nous» formats no són sinó una reformulació dels mecanismes tradicionals propis de l’arquitectura narrativa, acomodada a les tendències socioculturals que predominen en els mitjans de comunicació actualment.
... Andrejevic (2009, 2011), for example, have shown how an RTV program in the nations of the former republic of Yugoslavia, which has ostensibly aimed to reconnect and integrate the citizens of the former republic after the war, has in effect reinforced ethnic tensions and stereotypes that were suppressed during the days of Tito. In addition, in articulating various identities, RTV is glocalized, attaching cultural meanings to the nations in which it is broadcast and providing opportunities for the audience to recognize themselves as members of national communities (Bauman, 2002;Bignell, 2005;Cottle, 2000;Waisbord, 2004). ...
This article looks at the experience of Mizrahi contestants in Master Chef Israel as exemplifying the limitations certain ethnicities impose on the incorporation of native culinary knowledge into the realm of haute cuisine. It also considers how such ethnicities can serve as obstacles to winning reality television shows. Specifically, I ask how Mizrahi participants can use their ethnicity explicitly within the context of reality TV to negotiate the articulation of their culinary knowledge and food practices into the public discourse on haute cuisine. I argue that Mizrahi contestants are pushed either to use ethnicity as a resource to enrich their cookery, to acknowledge the limitations it imposes on their kitchens or to use it as a stock of knowledge to be enriched so they become better Mizrahi cooks. The three versions of ethnicity, which work simultaneously in the show, point to the dynamic and changing nature of ethnicity and its ability to provide its holders with various modes of participation in the culinary sphere.
... Reality television programs that showcase romance and dating programs, game shows and dramas, lifestyle and makeover programs, infotainment, crime and court programs, and contests (Creeber et al. 2008;Murray and Ouellette 2009;Nabi et al. 2006) also participate in the construction and reinforcement of national narratives. By documenting real-life situations of ordinary people in a supposedly unplanned script, they often recruit immigrant contestants to flag the nation, even while presenting these immigrants in allegedly authentic ways (Bauman 2002;Bignell 2005;Cottle 2000;Creeber et al. 2008;Holmes and Jermyn 2004;Newcomb 2007;Pozner 2010;Smith and Wood 2003). ...
The rhetoric of nations, such as Israel, often assigns immigrants social positions in nationalist reconstructions. Given the active role the media has taken in reconstructing the nation, this paper suggests looking at Master Chef Israel (MCI) as an arena in which immigrant contestants are staged as recruited to engage in the reconstruction and branding of Israel. A narrative analysis of five seasons of MCI and interviews with 15 contestants tracked three narratives, each of which reveals a different mode of branding Israel. The show branded Jewish immigrants as equipped with the necessary capital to become Israelis, while those who converted to Judaism and immigrated to Israel were expected to show commitment both to their new religion and to their new country. In the third narrative, MCI staged the patriotism of individuals who immigrated after marrying an Israeli citizen as a gradually emerging sentiment based on the extent to which their difference enabled the incorporation of an Israeli component into their overall identity.
... Scholarly conversations regarding audience voting concentrate on two themes: interactivity and democracy. The discussion of the first theme considers audiences as active consumers, customers, players, and participants in the program (Syvertsen, 2004) and their participation, voting via phone-ins, and text messaging particularly, can generate a considerable amount of revenue (Bignell, 2005). Thus the industry benefits from loyal viewers' economic contribution, while viewers feel empowered in influencing the show's outcome. ...
This article critically examines the blind audition and the voting system in The Voice of China to understand how the singing competition show narrates the most contemporary political, social, and cultural ideology of the Chinese society in the discourse of globalization. The article starts with an overview and some highlights of the show. Then this article explores how the blind audition serves as the venue for the ordinary Chinese viewers to engage with an illusion of fairness in a society. Next, this article investigates how the re-creation of the voting mechanism in the show symbolizes the fantasy of democracy and how it negotiates the power between the public and the state. I conclude with the argument that societal discourses on the blind audition and voting systems on a singing competition show reveal growing public awareness of and concern with issues of equity and fairness in the cultural arena of traditional esthetic standards as well as the societal arena of electoral politics.
... The popularity of reality TV with its entertainment overtones has opened the boundaries of diaspora media attracting home audiences to what has traditionally been a highly polarized space. The genre of reality TV provides access for viewers into the lifestyle and behavior of ordinary people which can also benefit from this space to advance alternative information and awareness on important social issues (Bignell, 2005). One striking feature is the ability to bypass flow of information from official sources of mass media, and give a voice to ordinary citizens as participants. ...
p> Befarmaeed Sham , an Iranian diasporic media production adapted from the original UK reality show “Come Dine with me” features Iranian diaspora of diverse backgrounds as contestants in a cooking reality show. The success of the show has been unprecedented among audiences back home in Iran, reaching millions of households. Using discourse analysis this article examines the potential of reality TV in widening the scope of public sphere and in providing a space for participation and representation. The key practices to illustrate this are ways diaspora position themselves as subjects through discursive practices to express agency in generating, participating and sharing opinions. Casual talk and the entertaining attribute of reality TV focused on the everyday life of ordinary people, constructs a space to normalize audience engagement with what is otherwise, restrictive taboo topics embedded in themes around belonging, homeland, gender, and identity. The article concludes that the broad system of discourse used by diaspora as participants in the reality show constructs a space for representation. It can be considered as a contribution to enhancing the public sphere to not only communicate and connect with their homeland but to express opinions on broader social issues as a practice of civic engagement. This unique adaptation of reality TV is an important aspect of globalization and in using new media to mobilize diaspora in connecting to homeland.</p
... see chapters in De Fina et al., 2007). Here, the local context can manifest itself in several ways (Biltereyst, 2004;Bignell, 2005). For example, in the Australian Big Brother series, one of the most salient discourses is that of 'mateship', which stands for help and support in difficult or emotional situations, etc. (Roscoe, 2004: 184;Turner, 2005;Sinkeviciute, 2014), and a lot of challenges and tasks emphasise the housemates' bonding rather than stressing individual gain. ...
This paper explores how social identity is constructed and manifests itself in interaction in reality television discourse, two national versions of the gameshow Big Brother – Australia 2012 and UK 2012. The analysis concentrates on two forms of group formation, spontaneous and imposed, and how different attitudes towards group formation are revealed in interactional practices. The findings show that in both types of group formation, the prevailing tendency among the Australian housemates is the avoidance of public group discourse, especially when it might suggest the superiority/inferiority dichotomy. In the British house, on the other hand, groups are frequently referred to in terms of them being popular/unpopular, with the unpopular group striving to reach popularity. Furthermore, unlike in the case of spontaneous groups, unwillingly becoming a group member does not trigger group identity construction and explicit membership claims. In both houses, a strong link to the original group identity seems to be preserved.
... Reality TV poses interesting challenges when it is considered in relation to definitions of realism. I have argued in previous work (Bignell 2005a) that Reality TV is not a genre, but a label that can usefully be given to programmes that adopt a certain attitude to the functions of television, its audiences and its subjects (by which I mean its subject-matter and also the individuals who are represented on screen and who make the programmes). Television has been analysed by exploring the tensions between its characteristics of immediacy and intimacy (Gripsrud 1998), each of which carry connotations of realism. ...
This chapter examines relationships between reality television and other “realist” forms and genres of television, which may seem either close to it or distant from it. It discusses reality television's relationships with the real with special attention to the tensions and contradictions that these display, and whether they predispose reality television to critique or political comment. The definition of realism that connects it to the everyday and the taken-for-granted poses an interesting question of value. The majority of recent reality television programs are distinct from observational documentary because of the highly structured nature of their narrative form. The chapter notes that many reality television programs emphasize intimacy and invite viewers to assess how far the lives of their participants mirror the lives of viewers.
... For a television programme that lasts for 3 months, the presence of a group of loyal audience is vital. It is also the feature of reality TV in generating prolonged audience attention through the docudrama narrative style (Bignell, 2005). Music in its dramatized form creates dissonance between China and Hong Kong. ...
This article focuses on the regionalization of reality TV I am a Singer from China to Hong Kong. It explores the features of a successful flow of a reality singing contest with the concepts of mediascape, televisuality and cultural memory of pop music. The three research questions: what format structures of televisuality are being integrated in I am a Singer; how locals in China and Hong Kong interpret and appropriate I am a Singer to their experience of cultural identities and how trans-border televisual musicscape facilitates regionalization of television programme, are answered by textual analysis and in-depth interviews with 12 informants from China and Hong Kong. It is found that the focal programme is implemented with excessive performative style that holds audience’s attention, authentic music performance that resonates with post-1980s identity in China and Hong Kong, and dramatic reality contest that links to nationalism and Hong Kong people’s victimized identity. Identity politics is consumed by audience in China and Hong Kong as the dramatized excitement of the focal programme, which nurtures a group of loyal audience across China and Hong Kong.
... Mehanizmi kojima se podstiču komercijalni efekti samo su jedan od odgovora na pitanje zašto je VB toliko gledana forma. Odgovor nije jednostavan niti jednoznačan, budući da gledaoci prate ovaj šou zbog veoma raznovrsnih razloga, a u naučnim istraživanjima ponuđena su i različita psihološka, sociološka i antropološka tumačenja (Andrejević 2004, Bignell 2005, Hill 2005, Reiss and Wiltz 2004). Pojedini autori smatraju da je produkcija " Endemol " privukla gledaoce igrajući na kartu senzacionalizma i voajerizma (Nabi et al 2003, navedeno prema Ebersole andWoods 2007, 35) i na taj način, uz niske troškove proizvodnje, ostvarila veliki profit (Bagdasarov er al, 2010). ...
The reality show "Big Brother" represents a metaphor for the transformation of contemporary media toward its commercialization and the primate which is given to entertainment as opposed to classic informative and educational content, which, in Serbia, takes place in the context of post-socialist transformation. The hyper commercialized character of "Big Brother" is the product of a new guiding idea in the media sphere, which is to measure success only on the criteria of ratings. In all versions of "Big Brother" (the "ordinary" as well as VIP), the framework of the reality show is made up of two elements: the phenomenon of surveillance and the commercial principle of the programme. In this paper we wanted to take these two themes - surveillance and commercialization - and connect them through the concepts of the "panopticon"/"synopticon" and "ratings". In the analysis and discussion we will show that the newfangled criteria of "ratings" is directly dependent on the situation in which the viewers of the reality format find themselves, situations in which "many view and decide on the fate of the few". We will analyze the ways in which the very production of the reality show is geared toward influencing the ratings, through interventions and the direction done by the production team, but also the reception of the show in specialized forums. In the second case, a netography of the reception of VIP BB 2013 was undertaken, taking into account the discussions in the forum and the monitoring of YouTube videos. Based on this, we singled out the most viewed moments in the reality show, and considered the reasons why certain events and/or actors who participated in them garnered special attention among viewers, thus increasing the ratings of the show, but also multiplicating the commercial effect through the participation of viewers through different media platforms (websites, forums, online votes etc.)
... Denne utviklingen har om man bruker Paradise Hotel som eksempel, blitt ytterligere forsterket de siste årene. Vendingen bort fra det realistiske og dokumentariske uttrykket til fiksjonens estetikk tar ifølge Piper (2004) og Jonathan Bignell (2005) form som mer fokus på performativet, narrativisering og stilisering, og mindre fokus på autentisitet og realisme. Grunnen til at Paradise Hotel er et spesielt interessant objekt å studere for å forstå fiksjonaliseringsprosessen av reality-TV, er at programmet ikke prøver å skjule sin egen konstruksjon, men stiller fiksjonaliseringen villig til skue. ...
Sammendrag
Denne artikkelen undersøker det kontroversielle reality-konkurranseprogrammet Paradise Hotel Norge (TV3 2009–) som et estetisk objekt. Artikkelen argumenterer for at Paradise Hotel representerer en ny type genrehybridisering – en hybridisering mellom reality-TV og fiksjons-genrene – det vil si en reality-fiksjonsgenrehybridisering. Mer spesifikt undersøker artikkelen hvordan Paradise Hotel integrerer trekk fra de ulike fiksjonsgenrene: såpe-operaen og «den nye» situasjonskomedien. Artikkelen diskuterer også hva slags konsekvenser reality-fiksjonsgenrehybridiseringen har for den tekstlige opplevelsen av reality-TV.
... and 70s as influential reality TV predecessors, especially the French tradition of cinéma vérité and the American school of Direct Cinema (Bignell 2005;Biressi and Nunn 2005;Marcus 2014;Winston 1995). Although there were important differences between the two traditions, both depicted ordinary people, or celebrities observed as if they were ordinary, in an unusually accessible and intimate style. ...
Audiences, critics, and academics have raised significant moral concerns about reality television. The genre is commonly criticized for being exploitative, harmful, and fake. By extension, reality TV workers are morally tainted, seen as dirty workers of questionable character. This dissertation describes the sources of moral taint in reality television production and how production workers dispel this taint—making their work acceptable and even glorious to themselves and others—through everyday micro-level interaction. The data for this study comes from approximately 2 years of ethnographic observation at 2 reality TV production companies, attendance at 2 reality TV industry conferences, and interviews with 83 respondents, including reality TV production workers, television network executives, and people who auditioned to be on reality shows. Findings focus on the development process, during which production companies generate ideas for new television shows and pitch those ideas to television networks. First, I describe the development process and three significant moral dilemmas that workers face at this initial stage of production: creating negative representations (e.g. stereotypes), falsifying reality, and exploiting workers. Second, I discuss how even though some reality TV workers aspire to create “authentic” television and portray cast in a dignified manner, commercial demands sometimes pressure them into compromising their values. I find that workers justify making such creative compromises by distancing themselves from their actions or tweaking their standards of quality in their everyday shop floor talk. Third, I describe the significant creative contributions unpaid interns made at one production company and propose that supervisors dispel the moral taint of exploitation by framing their relationships with unpaid interns in terms of mentorship and friendship. Finally, I describe how people who audition for reality shows in development are concerned about workers’ professional legitimacy and moral character, and how workers craft their credentials and manage their affective styles of self presentation to convince prospective cast of their good reputation. I discuss implications of these findings for research on work and labor in cultural industries and for understanding stigmatized workers’ selves and identities in any occupation.
... An important feature of reality television is the use of the post-show interview to provide commentary about events being shown to the audience (Bignell, 2005). On Say Yes to the Dress, this includes commentary from the bride, members of her family or friends, the bridal consultant, and other employees from the salon who might have been involved in the sales interaction. ...
This paper focuses on /r/ vocalization on the reality television show Say Yes to the Dress, which features an upscale bridal salon in New York City. The study examines five bridal consultants working at Kleinfeld Bridal in Manhattan. Using the brides’ budgets as a proxy for social status, we investigate whether variation in consultants’ use of /r/ correlates with the amount of money brides state they are willing to spend on their dress, which ranges from $1,000 to unlimited. A mixed-effects model in Rbrul shows significant differences across three budget categories. We argue that although there are important methodological differences, our findings parallel Labov’s original department store study as well as later replications. Additionally, qualitative examination of show excerpts suggests that variation in /r/ may be recruited in performing particular interactional roles, as consultants use clusters of [r-1] or [r-0], depending on the positioning taken in a given interaction.
This chapter introduces the 10 contestants of The Block within the reality TV framework setting. This chapter relies on Maslow’s theoretical framework to support the observation that safety is also a motivating factor whether that be financial, psychological or physical. The show promotes the notion that shelter is essential for economic survival. This primary safety need is vital for wellbeing of the contestants. That is, the contestants are essentially aspiring to create foundations for building a better family life and the fact all the couples built five glorious homes together did represent a sense of community. This chapter considers the relevant literature concerning motivational factors for people to enter reality TV and concludes The Block’s contestants possess clear reasons for entering the contest. These include primary human needs and self-actualisation which contribute to overall health and wellbeing.
The Big Brother Naija Reality Show has become a fundamental phenomenon and ideology among young Nigerians. This is connected to the show’s production style with sophisticated interplay of blended pop culture. This has continued to dominate extant conversions to those inclined towards youths desiring self-recognition among their peers. The purpose of this paper is explore how the Big Brother Naija Reality Show has become a determinant pop culture through hegemonic ideology among Nigerian youths, as this reflects in the producer’s choice of content, presentation style, language, mainstream media, social media, location, set design, costumes, players (housemates), audience base, games, house activities and ultimate goal of the show, which is the grand price. The method is more preferable to methodology this article deployed is systematic literature review in gathering data from relevant scientific and accredited published researches collected from Elsevier, Google Scholar, ResearchGate, and ScienceDirect using appropriate keywords relevant to the topic using the principle of the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis (PRISMA). The paper observed through literature that the Big Brother Reality Show would to a larger extent continue as a major issue of contention among the youths due to its ideology base, as presented by the dominant class. It is, however, recommended that the only way the dominant pop culture among Nigerian youths could be challenged is through indigenous cultural programmes to counter the negative effects of the imperialistic dominance of Big Brother Naija Reality Show among youths if the nation does not want to lose its cultural relevance amongst comity of nations.
As the first African format of the Real Housewives franchise, The Real Housewives of Johannesburg features a majority black cast and unfolds in an African city. However, it positions a white woman, Christall Kay, in the key structural role of villainess. This article examines what pleasures are offered to viewers who are invited to consume Christall’s particularly controversial brand of entitled white villainy. As Christall is a primary source of narrative drive and conflict, elite black femininities are repeatedly pitted against her, and thus framed through the lens of Christall’s whiteness. This article contends that Christall's antagonistic role enables multiple avenues for enjoyment. As a villainess, Christall offers an ambivalent point of identification for white audiences, while the excess of Christall’s performance may allow black South African viewers to indulge in the camp delights of scrutinising entitled white femininity in post-apartheid culture.
Este artículo muestra la evolución en el dating show en España entre 1992 y 2010. Se estudian los cambios en la estructura de los programas más vistos de este subgénero del reality, que pasó de preguntar curiosidades sobre las relaciones amorosas a comprobar y desafiar su grado de complicidad En estos años, los participantes de los dating shows estuvieron condicionados por las decisiones que tomaban las productoras para hacer mejores productos de entretenimiento, pero también tuvieron libertad para mostrar su intimidad y su espontaneidad dentro de los límites definidos por el reality. Paradójicamente, hasta que las personas no aprendieron a actuar dentro de un formato y asumieron su condición de personajes, estos programas no lograron más profundidad y realismo.
Social media has, over the past decade, become a significant method of communication. People can now interact with each other more easily and more frequently than in the past thanks to websites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. This chapter concerns itself with examining how social media has enabled the public and the news broadcasters to work more closely together. Explored are three key elements. Firstly, there is a review of literature which discusses issues of convergence and the changing nature of news production. Secondly, three major news stories from 2015 act as case studies to discuss how the public contributed to the “eventisation” of the stories through the use of social media platforms. These analytical elements of the chapter feed into the broader context, which is how a media event is now defined given the changing nature of the public's role in news production. The chapter concludes by offering an explanation as to how a media event can now be potentially driven by the public's interaction with the news organisations through social media. Therefore the overarching conclusion that is reached is that the media event as defined in the traditional sense (a live broadcast) has been superseded by 24 hour rolling news channels constant live coverage of news events and that the broadcasters are increasingly reliant on a public contribution. We now have a middle tier between a traditional news story and a media event, the enhanced news story. The final conclusion of the chapter is that it is possible that an enhanced news story can easily become a media event but we need to be cautious not to be seen to be “over eventising” some stories for the sake of filling schedules.
From TIFF files to TED talks, from book sizes to blues stations—the term “format” circulates in a staggering array of contexts and applies to entirely dissimilar objects and practices. How can such a pliable notion meaningfully function as an instrument of classification in so many industries and scientific communities?
Comprising a wide range of case studies on the standards, practices, and politics of formats from scholars of photography, film, radio, television, and the Internet, Format Matters charts the many ways in which formats shape and are shaped by past and present media cultures. This volume represents the first sustained collaborative effort to advance the emerging field of format studies.
Reality TV is not a self‐contained genre, but rather occupies an intergeneric space between many different genres and platforms. This chapter analyzes the issue of performance across the intergeneric spaces of reality TV. The performance modes of reality TV are multifaceted in the sense that traditionally distinct groups of creative producers, participants/performers, and audiences become interconnected within the intergeneric spaces of the genre. The idea of performance that is the basis of the research on audiences extends the notion of performer–audience interaction in theater to everyday life. The chapter argues that perhaps more than any other academic study, performance of selves is a metatext for reality TV. From the early days of research in this genre, scholars have highlighted the ways reality TV captures on camera the banality of everyday life and the ways audiences engage with the individual and collective performances of people caught on camera.
Social media has, over the past decade, become a significant method of communication. People can now interact with each other more easily and more frequently than in the past thanks to websites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. This chapter concerns itself with examining how social media has enabled the public and the news broadcasters to work more closely together. Explored are three key elements. Firstly, there is a review of literature which discusses issues of convergence and the changing nature of news production. Secondly, three major news stories from 2015 act as case studies to discuss how the public contributed to the “eventisation” of the stories through the use of social media platforms. These analytical elements of the chapter feed into the broader context, which is how a media event is now defined given the changing nature of the public's role in news production. The chapter concludes by offering an explanation as to how a media event can now be potentially driven by the public's interaction with the news organisations through social media. Therefore the overarching conclusion that is reached is that the media event as defined in the traditional sense (a live broadcast) has been superseded by 24 hour rolling news channels constant live coverage of news events and that the broadcasters are increasingly reliant on a public contribution. We now have a middle tier between a traditional news story and a media event, the enhanced news story. The final conclusion of the chapter is that it is possible that an enhanced news story can easily become a media event but we need to be cautious not to be seen to be “over eventising” some stories for the sake of filling schedules.
The realistic mode of depiction has been an abiding feature of British television fictions intended for British audiences ever since the rebirth of the medium after the Second World War. After briefly evoking the origins of realism in British audio-visual media and some of the reasons for its continued popularity with both viewers and broadcasters, this article examines how the constant challenge of “putting ‘reality’ together” (Schlesinger) has been met by innovation and experiment in differing social, political, and economic climates since the mid-1950s and how the perception of television realism itself has evolved. In the context of reality television and today’s post-modern hybrids which blur the distinctions between fact and fiction, entertainment and information, this article concludes with a reflection on whether British television’s (re)creation of reality is an end in itself or whether it is a means of achieving other objectives.
This chapter uses Immanuel Kant’s notion of the Sublime to trace formal developments in the disaster film post-9/11. It considers how several films from that generic group attempt to stimulate and shock audiences who witnessed the mediated events of the morning of 11 September 2001. Starting from the qualitative and quantitative magnitude of the collapsing towers (matched with Kant’s dynamical and mathematical Sublimes), it proposes a third category—the ubiquital—to frame the universal images of that disaster and then considers how the post-9/11 disaster film attempts to reproduce effects of that experience. It uses three films—The Day After Tomorrow (Roland Emmerich, 2004), 2012 (Roland Emmerich, 2009), and Cloverfield (Matt Reeves, 2008)—as case studies of broader tendencies in the genre, assessing their efforts to recreate the sensory assault of that historical morning.
This chapter presents the case of the highly popular reality television show Big Brother. Drawing on semiotic analysis and extended audience research in Israel, the chapter demonstrates various practices of “mediated public intimacy” taking place between two or more contestants with the audience serving as an absent third party. Certain features built into the Big Brother format create atypical “folds” in the veil that separates insiders from outsiders. These serve to mobilize viewers’ sense of participation, moving them from the position of spectator to privileged confidants of the contestants. Interactions between viewers in everyday life and on social media locate them as accomplices and reinforce emergent feelings of collective intimacy. This analysis emphasizes the importance of social ties for understanding how media events generate national solidarity.
In the only chapter to explore a single text, this discussion analyses Kane’s adaptation of Seneca’s Phaedra. It outlines the development of the myth in ancient and more contemporary eras and examines the relationship between classical Greece and Rome and the shock and violence of the artistic scene in 1990s Britain. This chapter seeks to unearth the resonances between a classical myth about the disintegration of a royal family with specific events in modern Britain, most specifically scandals in the British royal family and the wider disintegration of the traditional family. In this way, Kane is seen to take an ancient myth and adapt it to her own context and landscape, analysing the nature of tragedy and exploring the resonant echoes between the two texts and the two eras.
The introductory Chap. 1 inserts the book in the existing scholarly conversations on global media and entertainment. It analyzes the relevance of the topic in the twenty-first century global mediascape and introduces the main themes of the study. It indicates the theoretical framework, perspective, research questions and organization of the book, and its unique contributions to the evolving body of literature on the topic.
This chapter traces Brand’s self-fashioning into a cross-media celebrity and film star and his move from digital television and radio presenting to Hollywood acting, then into political journalism and the creation of his YouTube channel The Trews. It uses this account of Brand’s career trajectory to identify the contradictory elements of his celebrity brand, its differentiation across the hybrid media system and the strongly divided responses it provokes. It identifies how he successfully adapts to new genres and cultural contexts despite periods of crisis such as ‘Sachsgate’ that threaten his public reputation. A close analysis of his notorious interview with Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight leads into an account of how he repurposes his celebrity and skills as a comedian and entertainer to seek influence in the political field.
This article argues that television’s resilience in the current media landscape can best be understood by analyzing its role in a broader quest to organize attention across different media. For quite a while, the mobile phone was considered to be a disturbance both for watching television and for classroom teaching. In recent years, however, strategies have been developed to turn the second screen’s distractive potential into a source for intensified, personalized and social attention. This has consequences for television’s position in a multimedia assemblage: television’s alleged specificities (e.g. liveness) become mouldable features, which are selectively applied to guide the attention of users across different devices and platforms. Television does not end, but some of its traditional features do only persist because of its strategic complementarity with other media; others are re-adapted by new technologies thereby spreading televisual modes of attention across multiple screens. The article delineates the historical development of simultaneous media use as a ‘problematization’—from alternating (and competitive) media use to multitasking and finally complementary use of different media. Additionally, it shows how similar strategies of managing attention are applied in the ‘digital classroom’. While deliberately avoiding to pin down, what television is, the analysis of the problem of attention allows for tracing how old and new media features are constantly reshuffled. This article combines three arguments: (1) the second screen is conceived of as both a danger to attention and a tool to manage attention. (2) To organize attention, the second screen assemblage modulates the specific qualities of television and all the other devices involved. (3) While being a fragile and often inconsistent assemblage, the second screen spreads its dynamics—and especially the problem of attention—far beyond television, e.g. into the realm of teaching.
MasterChef is a competitive cooking show, currently broadcast in over 50 countries in a format that combines features of career-oriented programmes with conventional game show procedures. The remarkable success of the franchise and its subsequent spin-offs has sparked a growing body of work on ‘the MasterChef phenomenon’, most of it dealing specifically with MasterChef Australia (e.g. Lewis 2011; Bednarek 2013). The popularity of the programme has much to do with the format. As Chalaby (2011: 294) has noted in a discussion of the TV format trade as a global industry, reality, talent and factual entertainment formats are ‘designed to create dramatic arcs and produce story lines’ where ‘the narrative arc is based on the journey that the contestant makes which, in the most dramatic cases, transforms their lives’ (emphasis in original).1 While global phenomena, however, these programmes would appear to be ultimately dependent on the audience’s identification and affirmation of aspects of the national culture and identity. Turner (2005), in a study on cultural identity, soap narrative and reality TV, shows how the Australian Big Brother gradually transformed the discourse of the original British version with its ‘expectations of conflict and sexual adventure’ and emphasis on extroversion. Turner attributes this ‘indigenization’ in part to production choices in the editing stages to focus on narrative strategies typical of Australian soap opera (‘upbeat, sunny, community oriented’), and to emphasise the soap opera’s ‘suburbanality’ in the Australian-ness of the house, with its pool, barbecue, vegetable garden and chicken coop.
The relationship between information and the nation-state is typically portrayed as a face-off involving repressive state power and democratic flows: Twitter and the Arab Spring, Google in China, WikiLeaks and the U.S. State Department. Less attention has been paid to those scenarios where states have regarded information and its diffusion as productive of modernity and globalization. It is the central argument of this book that the contemporary nation-state, especially in the global South, is far from hostile to the current informational milieu and in fact makes crucial use of it in order to develop adequate modes of governance, communication and sociality in a networked world. This book focuses on India - an emerging country that has recently witnessed a "software miracle" - to highlight the critical role informatics has historically played in the national imagination and to demonstrate how the state, private capital and civic society have drawn upon and engaged the precepts and protocols of the information age to fashion an "info-nation".
Chapter 5 focuses first on a successful global case of the new wave of non-scripted entertainment programs: the Big Brother format. The program constitutes a successful example of glocalization of entertainment: A global format is distributed and adapted locally worldwide, activating global, local, and “glocal” factors. Subsequently, the specific business practices associated with the development, distribution, and adaptation of non-scripted entertainment programs are explicated, analyzing the differences with scripted entertainment, as feature-length motion pictures and TV series, drama or comedy.
Chapter 4 focuses on the rise of non-scripted programs in the global TV marketplace. This theme is developed through the analysis of the genre, defining its boundaries and contours, while tracing its historic roots in the twentieth century TV landscape. The commercial success of this genre is analyzed, as well as the issues and concerns stemming from its rise.
In recent years, Indian TV screens have seen a proliferation of reality shows focused on romance and dating. This essay examines a range of dating formats arguing that such shows offer rich insights into the ways in which contemporary Indian media culture is negotiating and promoting models of gendered individualism and ‘enterprising’ modes of selfhood. Drawing upon data from a study funded by the Australian Research Council on lifestyle and reality TV in South East Asia, our analysis focuses on the complex relationship between the ideals of aspirational modernity and choice-based selfhood promoted by these shows and the realities of ongoing gendered social and economic inequities and the continued cultural potency of religious and familial notions of duty.
Although it is quite easy to conceive of a number of conventionalised impoliteness formulae that, depending on context, do not lead to the hearer’s evaluations of impoliteness, there are many situations when the speaker aims to be genuinely impolite and does not try to mitigate his/her verbal behaviour. This paper reports the findings of an analysis of twenty-nine genuinely impolite verbal behaviours that occurred in the
Big Brother
UK 2012 house. The main objective of this study is to examine the triggers for genuine impoliteness and determine which aspects of the hearer’s face and rights s/he claims for him/herself are targeted in such interactions. The results reveal that impoliteness among the housemates is triggered by previous impolite (non-)verbal behaviour, implied negativity or personal dislike of the target. The speaker, in his/her turn, tends to associate the target with a negative aspect or behaviour, question his/her mental, emotional state or knowledge, deny the freedom of expression or participation and, finally, warn or threaten the target.
HBO's hit series "Sex and the City" has a huge international fanbase and has picked up major awards. This critical celebration of the life and times of Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha looks at the series as a new departure for TV comedy drama. It discusses its position in an increasingly complex television landscape and pioneers innovative approaches to the study of contemporary television culture. The book explores among many other issues female fandom and fan culture; fashion and fashion journalism; male archetypes and the search for Mr Right; third wave feminism; sex and the single girl and indeed sex and the citizen. The book includes a full episode guide, reports from the "Sex and the City" Manhattan tour and a map of "Sex and the City" New York.
The following notes explain the differences between Neo-Television and Paleo-Television. They deal with the most sadistic American show, technical innovations, the behaviour of the Neo-TV viewer, and furthermore, they offer a word of prophecy.
The emergence of a relatively new genre, ‘reality television’, has helped to break down the division between text and audience in significant ways, and this presents us with interesting questions for cultural studies. In this article we consider one such text, the enormously successful ‘reality gameshow’ Big Brother, and explore the extent to which it challenges or helps to reconfigure current conceptualizations of the audience and the ‘television text'. We outline some of the issues involved in analyzing Big Brother and situate the program within the context of the complex history of cultural studies’ attempts to ‘think the audience’ for popular media.
Blurred Boundaries explores decisive moments when the traditional boundaries of fiction/nonfiction, truth and falsehood blur. Nichols argues that a history of social representation in film, television and video requires an understanding of the fate of both contemporary and older work. Traditionally, film history and cultural studies sought to place films in a historical context. Nichols proposes a new goal: to examine how specific works, old and new, promote or suppress a sense of historical consciousness. Examining work from Eisenstein's Strike to the Rodney King videotape, Nichols interrelates issues of formal structure, viewer response and historical consciousness. Simultaneously, Blurred Boundaries radically alters the interpretive frameworks offered by neo-formalism and psychoanalysis: Comprehension itself becomes a social act of transformative understanding rather than an abstract mental process while the use of psychoanalytic terms like desire, lack, or paranoia to make social points metaphorically yields to a vocabulary designed expressly for historical interpretation such as project, intentionality and the social imaginary. An important departure from prevailing trends in many fields, Blurred Boundaries offers new directions for the study of visual culture.
Rethinking questions of identity, social agency and national affiliation, Bhabha provides a working, if controversial, theory of cultural hybridity - one that goes far beyond previous attempts by others. In The Location of Culture, he uses concepts such as mimicry, interstice, hybridity, and liminality to argue that cultural production is always most productive where it is most ambivalent. Speaking in a voice that combines intellectual ease with the belief that theory itself can contribute to practical political change, Bhabha has become one of the leading post-colonial theorists of this era.
I can remember when the telly meant something. If you watched a documentary, watched a drama, they made you think about life and not whether you had the right wallpaper to match your kecks.
Big Brother is a hybrid format that is both innovative and engaging and, as such, warrants critical attention. In an attempt to move the debate beyond discussions of ‘tabloidization’ and narratives of decline, this paper examines Big Brother in terms of the production strategies, textual innovations and the various ways in which audiences are able to interact with this media event. It is argued here that Big Brother is an important precursor to fully interactive TV, and a significant prototype for future media events.
This paper addresses some theoretical problems raised by the citation of examples of popular television drama in teaching and writing about British programmes of the 1960s and 1970s. It argues that examples shape theorists' and students' understanding because citing an example relies on a notion of a canon whose constitution, inclusions and exclusions represent a larger context and history. Yet an example must therefore exceed the field it stands for, and also be more than typical. This duality between representativeness and exceptionalness is necessarily the case, and the paper ranges widely over recent writing to demonstrate its implications in academic work on programmes including Doctor Who and The Avengers. It also refers to the processes of commissioning and writing in the author's own work and considers the use of examples in different academic publishing contexts. The paper argues for the reflexivity of television pedagogy and publication as situated rhetorical practices, to raise questions of methodology that necessarily but sometimes unconsciously energise the discipline of Television Studies, and especially the study of television history.
In this article, the author focuses on Big Brother in relation to audience attraction. I outline the context of factual entertainment and its audience, and the specific experience of watching Big Brother. Seen in relation to factual entertainment as a whole, Big Brother is one of the least popular examples of “documentary as diversion.” Seen in relation to gamedocs, Big Brother is one of the most popular examples of new factual entertainment. The author's research, which uses quantitative and qualitative audience studies, indicates that attraction to Big Brother is based on the social and performative aspects of the program. The focus on the degree of actuality, on real people's improvised performances in the program, leads to a particular viewing practice: audiences look for the moment of authenticity when real people are “really” themselves in an unreal environment. This, the author argues, is the popularity of the gamedoc, evident in its early incarnation, and writ large in Big Brother spin-offs and sub-sequent series.
Contends that Martin Allor ("Relocating the Site of the Audience," same issue) ignores, misunderstands, or misrepresents the "dominant" social science tradition in audience studies. Focuses on the contributions of critical approaches to the study of media audiences. (MS)
Surveillance-based reality television has emerged as a resurgent programming genre in the US and Western Europe during a time when the online economy is becoming increasingly reliant upon surveillance as a form of economic exploitation. The portrayal of surveillance through ‘reality TV’ as a form of entertainment and self-expression can thus be understood as playing an important role in training viewers and consumers for their role in an ‘interactive’ economy. This article relies on interviews with cast members and producers of MTV’s popular reality show ‘Road Rules’, to explore the form of subjectivity that corresponds to its implicit definition of ‘reality’. This form of subjectivity reinforces the promise of the interactive economy to democratize production by relinquishing control to consumers and viewers. Surveillance is portrayed not as a form of social control, but as the democratization of celebrity - a fact that has disturbing implications for the democratic potential of the internet’s interactive capability.
Documentary is a slippery genre to define; classifications can be out of date before the printers’ ink has dried. Acceptable documentary practice depends on a subtle three-sided process of negotiation. On one side are the habits and beliefs of audiences, what viewers will put up with or believe in. On another are the demands of cinema and television as media, how the film or programme will fit with current practices and expectations. On the third are the aspirations of film-makers and participants, cynical or idealistic, motivated to show, but also to hide.