Real-life Narratives

Question 1

Reality TV Basics

Answer 1

Factual TV has been dominated since the 1990s

Began with Trauma TV e.g bondi rescue

Realism dominant mode of storytelling, ever novel has often passed themselves as ‘real life stories’

Listening to someone tell the story of their life is a very powerful and effective way

Question 2

Feral Genre - Hill (2005)

Answer 2

‘Feral Genre’ - a range of popular factual genres in the 1980s and 90s has endured ‘hybrid genes’ = reality TV

Is it reality or made for TV reality

‘Reality’ business - the apprentice

Hill believed reality TV is feral, ‘an experiment gone wild’

It’s ability to work across ‘factual & entertainment’

Question 3

Hyper Reality - Boudrillard

Answer 3

Image or simulation is now more real than real

Our very own experiences in real life collapse

The world we live in is replaced by a copy world

Reality TV - is it actually real life?

Question 4

Types of reality Tv include…

Answer 4

Docusoap: a documentary type following particular occupation or location over a period of time

• focus on ‘characters’ & self performance
• episodes lad from crisis to resolution
• faced-paced editing creating effect of ‘drama

Transformations TV: make over shows etc

• fairy tale structure
• magically transformed
• problems are individual but society can relate
• ‘big reveal’

PROPP & TODROV

Question 5

Audience & Reality TV

Stewart Hall

Default critical mode

Answer 5

Default critical mode: people watch ‘trash tv’ - and see themselves as trash for watching it - criticise themselves

However other people believe that reality tv actually deals with taboo issues well

Stewart Hall - audience reception theory

Question 6

Guantlett & Hill - ‘electric wall paper’

Answer 6

Electric wall paper - the idea that tv is put on in the background even if people aren’t watching it

Reality TV dominates schedules

Question 7

Ideology

Answer 7

‘Ideology is a representation of the imaginary relationship of individual to their conditions of existence’

Ideology of the ‘real’ -

• seem to celebrate the ‘ordinary’ & give voice to the marginalised (working class)
• no more than a freak show - Dovey. Places the television of intimacy within cultural context & important stresses that the TV of ‘real life’ express a broader political/economic change

Question 8

Interactivity

Feminisation of prime time tv

Answer 8

Shows like big brother and ex factor you can vote

Apps etc

Prime time feminism - shows are feminised, cooking, cleaning etc

Question 9

Gareth Palmer 2002

Answer 9

Palmer says that lifestyle programming feeds into and contributes to Britains pre-occupation with style and give us outlets for styling (home and gardens)

Cinderella effect: reflective of our social construction of deviance

Socially constructed narrative

Someone transforming from being ‘average’ can transform into a princess (PROPP)
‘Short intensive moment of fame’ Palmer (2005)

Question 10

Silverstone (1985)

Answer 10

“Public broadcast are the site of contemporary mythic culture”

• TV is like a myth. Tv appropriates mythic cultures raising various societal issues
• myth is in every life and is intrinsically bound with TV
• TV culture consists of simple stories easily recognisable and continually reiterated with similar stories from other cultures and countries
• science revolves the demands of myth, with reality & fantasy being blurred. TV is a contemporary expression of myth

Question 11

Bondebjerg 2004

Reflex Modernity

Answer 11

Reality TV is a major event, everyone is obsessed with everyone else’s lives

Reality TV is a metaphor or symptom of the development of commercialised and globalised media culture

“A reflection of the deep mediation of every day life, thus intensifying an innate social curiosity”

Reflex Modernity - the idea that the public and the private spheres merge. Politicians on chat shows, Barca Obama on Ellen etc (shows that usually talk about sensitive or taboo topics)

People’s lives aren’t private anymore

Question 12

IBRAHIM (2007) was

Answer 12

• talk about reality TV: there is little space between reality and fiction
• the popular attraction to makeover programmes is bound with mythical and folk tradition in everyday culture (fairytale, prop, todrov)
• mythical narrative - making sense of the world and historical thing, relates to contemporary narratives e.g real life narratives (making sense of societal issues etc) but is it really real? I.e relationships in made in Chelsea

Bachelor - rich pick the beautiful women (myth)