which of the following is an explanatory thesis reality tv

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From poe and hitchcock to...reality tv.

Kelsey W. Phelps , Brigham Young University - Provo Follow

This thesis expands the discussion of the mass appeal and sustained success of reality TV by initiating an examination of the direct connections between reality TV and cinematic and written fiction. As reality TV has firmly established itself as a successful genre of entertainment over the last two decades, scholarship has been slow to follow. The majority of existing scholarship focuses on reality TV as a descendant of the documentary and emphasizes the role of the non-professional, the average person, as the star. Reality TV's appropriation of structural elements from general fiction is acknowledged only briefly and the use of specific techniques borrowed from fiction is largely unexplored. Although reality TV is a variation of the documentary, this thesis explores reality TV's creation of its voyeuristic appeal through the appropriation of key elements that come directly from fiction. Specific techniques used to create a voyeuristic appeal in reality programs, such as the morally ambiguous character and the confession, can be traced, respectively, to the surprising sources of Alfred Hitchcock and Edgar Allan Poe. Reality TV, in appropriating these techniques from Hitchcock and Poe, has a similar formula for entertainment: the thrill of voyeurism as a sublime experience. The consistent appeal of reality TV cannot be fully understood without an awareness of its connections to these two great artists.

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Phelps, Kelsey W., "From Poe and Hitchcock to...Reality TV?" (2010). Theses and Dissertations . 2526. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/2526

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Edgar Allan Poe, Alfred Hitchcock, reality TV, voyeurism, sublime

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Understanding Reality Television Reality TV – Audiences and Popular Factual Television Reality TV – Realism and Revelation

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Helen Piper, Understanding Reality Television Reality TV – Audiences and Popular Factual Television Reality TV – Realism and Revelation, Screen , Volume 47, Issue 1, Spring 2006, Pages 133–138, https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjl012

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Su Holmes and Deborah Jermyn (eds), Understanding Reality Television. Abingdon/New York: Routledge, 2004, 302 pp.

Annette Hill, Reality TV – Audiences and Popular Factual Television. Abingdon/New York: Routledge, 2005, 231 pp.

Anita Biressi and Heather Nunn, Reality TV – Realism and Revelation . London: Wallflower Press, 2005, 183 pp.

The ever-expanding range of programming we now speak of as ‘reality TV’ was commonly observed to enter a new phase around the turn of the millennium, putting us into what Annette Hill neatly dubs its ‘third wave’ (p. 24). Closely associated with transmission of the first series of Big Brother (Channel 4, 2000–), the shift was accompanied by a discernible intensification of the histrionic commentaries in magazines, tabloids and web-sites with which ‘reality’ forms are now inter-dependent. Some five years later, it should not be surprising that an erstwhile trickle of academic interest in the popularization of factual programming should begin to resemble a mini-glut of new publications. This review will consider three of these, although I should acknowledge that others are forthcoming, not least Jonathan Bignell's contribution ( Big Brother – Reality TV in the Twenty-First Century ), due for publication in December 2005.

Although all three of the studies under review pay close attention to Big Brother , it is the earliest of these, Understanding Reality Television , that it most dominates. The series is the central topic or an exemplary text for five of the fourteen chapters in this edited collection, and is cited in most others. This is evidently at the expense of the docusoap, which does not even make it to the index – echoing the manner in which it was rudely elbowed aside by turn-of-the-century commissioners scrabbling for the ‘game-docs’ that then came to epitomize the contemporary face of reality TV.

The problem here for television studies is that assumptions about Big Brother as the reality form par excellence are already looking rather dated, even if – and this is an important qualification – the theoretical modifications prompted by its innovations have a significantly longer shelf-life. In this particular regard I would emphasize Su Holmes's important reconfiguration of Dyer's ordinary/exceptional dialectic that lies at the heart of celebrity and stardom in ‘Approaching celebrity in Big Brother ’ and her exposition of the series' paradigmatically ‘fervent’ pursuit of the ‘real self’ and the authentic identity. Similarly, by theorizing the intimate temporal dimensions of Big Brother and other formats, and re-appraising their (inter)active audiences, Misha Kavka/Amy West and Estella Tinknell/Parvati Raghuram (respectively) manage to productively develop long-standing textual and cultural concepts.

More so than any previous cycle of generic development, reality TV itself constantly reminds us how fallacious is the desire for an all-explanatory theory or a definitive analysis, and indeed, that there is as yet no consensus as to what ‘it’ actually is. In their introduction Holmes and Jermyn suggest that this absence of an agreed definition is precisely because it could not be extricated from questions of generic hybridity, specific issues of theory, criticism and methodology, and reality TV's ‘relationship with the history and status of the documentary form’ (p. 2). Indeed, if the three studies under consideration here have anything in common, it is a shared concern with the genealogy of the forms, genres, modes of address, subjects, aesthetic characteristics and thematic preoccupations of this field of programming. Although there is no consensual definition, there is apparently a consensual resistance to one particular idea assumed to be widespread: that reality TV represents a radical departure or innovation in the history of programming. For example, the first three chapters in Holmes and Jermyn's collection each deal with an influential antecedent: Bradley Clissold demonstrates the Cold War ideological resonance of Candid Camera (USA, 1948–), Jennifer Gillan exposes how The Osbournes (MTV, 2002–) resurrects a 1950s star-sitcom format, and Deborah Jermyn proposes that Crimewatch (BBC, 1984–) clearly foreshadowed many contemporary reality programmes (including those altogether unconcerned with crime), partly because of similarities in the ‘spectacle of actuality’ (p. 72), but also, rather interestingly, because of the manner in which more recent debates appear to mimic the concerns of the controversies that surrounded emerging crime-appeal formats in the 1980s.

The complexity of Woolcock's work reveals the unrealised potential of many of the reality TV docusoaps that were produced in the same period to provide a voice for ordinary people in an entertaining fashion. (p. 63)

To give credit where it is due, the textual analyses themselves are sensitive and insightful, and there is much here to satisfy an interest in the modes of documentary address, but it is counter-productive to regard popular television through a prism of that which it is not. The first chapter does little to mitigate this, offering only a random and largely extraneous sashay through ‘the debates around reality TV’. However, just as I was (rather uncharitably) concluding that none of the research had been conducted with popular television in mind, the book shifts gear and we are into altogether more salient territory. The remaining chapters address, in turn, therapeutic culture, self-revelation, the public expression of private trauma in talk shows and lifestyle programming, the questionable ethics of CCTV and reality crime programming, and lastly an exploration of David Blaine's public incarceration in ‘Above the Below’. Much of this (and earlier) material will be familiar from previous publication as articles in Screen and other journals, but it makes for a perceptive and incisive contribution and deserves a book format (if not this format exactly). I would have been more appreciative had the study engaged more directly with mainstream terrestrial programming. Moreover, although it is clearly a British study, and the titles of British programmes are constantly offered as (presumably self-evident) examples, the early emphasis on documentary auteurs gives way in later chapters to analyses that privilege American texts such as The John Walsh Show and Judge Judy , apparently to demonstrate particular extremes (of trends, sensibilities, ideologies). Thus we move from a narrative of what British reality TV could or should have been to a narrative of what it is in danger of becoming. What holds the book tenuously together is less an interest in reality television than a glimpse into its ‘cultural moment’, although for that at least it deserves some acknowledgement.

watch popular factual television with a critical eye, judging the degree of factuality in each reality format based on their experience of other types of factual programming. In this sense, viewers are evaluators of the reality genre, and of factual programming as a whole. (p. 173)

Yet, although the complicated legacy of reality TV is a factor in its reception, one must still wonder at the collective gusto currently being expended in the anxiety to restore what Corner calls ‘the specific national history of factual television’ to the debate (‘Afterword’ to Holmes and Jermyn, p. 291). A perception of reality TV as ‘radical’ does not after all depend upon the purity of its generic innovations, and still less on its political accomplishments (for all the populist cant about ‘democratization’). Rather it arises from associated phenomena such as: the shift such an unprecedented volume of reality programming has brought about in what schedulers like to call ‘the mix’; the irreversible changes that these programmes have effected in the way in which we understand other, more conventional forms such as ‘straight’ documentary and drama; the expansion to the notion of what constitutes ‘a television text’ (to include simultaneous webcam streaming, text messaging, and so forth); the sheer faddish frenzy of everyday discourse that surrounds reality TV and its real/celebrity players; and even, as Daniel Biltereyst argues, the extension of programming marketing to include the whipping up of hostile ‘moral panics’, henceforth renamed ‘media panics’ (in Holmes and Jermyn, pp. 105–8). Clearly none of these would represent an aesthetic paradigm shift, but surely they amount to a cultural one?

Which of course is not to suggest that we should turn our attention away from the television screen, but we may, I think, need reminding that ‘radicalism’ is not inscribed in the text itself, but in the way it favours change more broadly. In this respect, publication of Annette Hill's qualitative audience research is both timely and necessary. The study sensibly begins with an introduction to the production contexts of reality TV and the discourses around its reception, as well as providing a refreshingly lucid account of its origins. One of her early arguments is that critical condemnation (metaphors of drug addiction and war are apparently much in evidence) ‘fails to take into account the variety of formats within the genre’ and hence she identifies at least ten common sub-genres such as ‘infotainment’, ‘reality talent’ and ‘reality life experiment’ formats (pp. 7–8). Later she attempts more actively to defend particular programmes and formats on the basis of their capacity to offer debating and learning opportunities.

These opportunities suggest the three main principles around which Hill organizes her findings. Chapters 4, 5 and 6, respectively, consider ‘performance and authenticity’ (how audiences judge ‘truth’ according to how real people act), ‘the idea of learning’ (including the acquisition of informal practical and social understandings) and the ‘ethics of care’. These chapters also throw up a number of paradoxes central to the process of watching hybrid popular entertainment. For example: ‘the more entertaining a factual programme is, the less real it appears to viewers’ (p. 57). Similarly, ‘In fictional programming, it is a sign of a good drama if television viewers find it entertaining. In factual programming the reverse is true’ (p. 86). However, the real beauty of this section lies in the way Hill extrapolates from viewers' responses an extremely complex, media-literate and ambiguous relationship between ‘real people’ in the audience, and ‘real people’ on the television. Arguably, it is this demanding process of ‘people watching’, and the commensurate need to interpret, weigh up and learn from it, that provides the principal source of audience fascination with these programmes rather than the debased, voyeuristic and even salacious impulses more commonly ascribed to them.

I am far less comfortable with Chapter 6, which jumps from a general discussion of moral philosophy (and its utility) to articulating a quite particular ‘ethics of care’ drawn from Buddhist and feminist ethical principles. Brave as Hill is to wade into this territory, I do think the sheer complexity of the issues introduced takes the matter beyond the reach of this particular study. Although she is circumspect, the highly selective criteria of moral judgement she proposes themselves work to close off the very questions a discussion of reality TV ethics should be asking. By this I mean questions posed by the fault lines of liberal oppositions between, say, moral boundaries and taste boundaries, or cultural absolutism and cultural relativism. At the very least, should we not first acknowledge that no ‘ethics’, however hotly debated, can exist in universalizing isolation from particular and competing religious, social and political traditions? Although in this chapter Hill also introduces issues relating to viewing ethics, she sidesteps them in favour of carving out a potential role for health-based reality programming to foster an ‘ethics of care’ (particularly in relation to self and family): a role we might once have more confidently described as ‘ideological’.

Just as textual approaches begin to wobble when they are obliged to confront broader social changes and to speculate about actual audiences, so too are there limits to the textual analysis and insight available from audience-centred approaches. I think Hill bumps against these limits most noticeably when she attempts to valorize texts by applying the principles she has introduced inductively, but with support from deductions drawn from audience research. So it is that a family focus-group discussion is supplied as evidence that Changing Rooms can promote debate about good or bad ways to re-decorate, or what Hill – apparently without irony – calls ‘an ethics of care for the home’ (p. 128). A rather less forgiving reading of ‘makeover’ television is available in Gareth Palmer's incisive chapter ‘“The new you”: class and transformation in lifestyle television’ (Holmes and Jermyn, pp. 173–90).

The more challenging questions about ‘the ethics of watching people's private lives on television’ (p. 133) are reduced to an ethical comparison of the different treatment of pet deaths in Animal Hospital (BBC 1994–2004) and Animal ER (Channel 5, 1998–). It is an interesting discussion and I would not want to underestimate the intense emotions of animal lovers, but it can hardly be considered a rehearsal for the ethical questions that arise about the treatment (and watching) of human subjects. It is no accident that Hill hazards firm injunctions only in respect of children and animals, who are clearly unable to exercise informed consent. Biressi and Nunn tackle rather thornier issues regarding the privatization of public space, and the use/sale of CCTV footage (Chapter 7), but there will continue to be calls for ever greater toughness, not least because the endless reinvention of reality TV has involved the shattering of so many taboos. Mercifully, Hill was sensible enough to offer the previous chapter as an invitation for further debate about ethics, rather than as a definitive word on the matter, and I would have to echo this. Public, journalist-driven debate is already polarizing into a democratizing/debasing dichotomy, in which ‘willing participation’ or ‘right to know’ are the inevitable and only responses to claims of misrepresentation or ‘breach of privacy’. A vigorous exchange of academic views on the ‘radical’ moral implications of reality TV might yet enlarge this debate beyond its present boundaries.

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Savvy viewers and (simulated) reality TV: An analysis of The Bachelor's appeal to viewers

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Teaching Media Quarterly

Vol. 7 No. 3 (2019): Teaching with Reality Television

Lesson Plan

Copyright (c) 2019 Rebecca Burditt

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License .

Reality TV, Genre Theory, and Shaping the Real

Rebecca Burditt

Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Keywords: reality TV, genre theory, documentary

The following series of lesson plans highlight reality TV’s reliance upon the structures and conventions of popular narrative entertainment. Although much reality TV conveys information through documentary modes (interviews, handheld camerawork, on-location shooting), such programs also make ”reality” conform to familiar narrative and genre codes. This unit emphasizes how and why reality TV reproduces Hollywood tropes by introducing reality TV’s industrial, production, and post-production techniques. It encourage students to recognize that the pleasure contemporary audiences glean from reality TV comes, in part, from the application of genre film’s storytelling techniques and dominant ideologies to scenarios involving unscripted non-actors. What follows therefore probes one of reality TV’s central paradoxes: that the it is valued for its authenticity, and yet the “realness” that it offers is only seductive because it gives us the comforts, joys, and closure that real life cannot. The unit includes screenings of The Bachelorette, What Would You Do and The Real World, and readings by both reality TV and film genre scholars. The unit culminates in a group project and presentation in which students are assigned a reality TV episode and required to reconceptualize it as a genre film. 

Topic Areas

Media Literacy Gender Race Sexuality Justice Environment Media Production Media Technologies Class and Work Media Industries

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The New York Times

The learning network | everyone’s a critic: analyzing sitcoms as cultural texts.

Everyone’s a Critic: Analyzing Sitcoms as Cultural Texts

Media Studies

Teaching ideas based on New York Times content.

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Overview | What can television sitcoms teach us? In this lesson, students investigate the claim recently made in The New York Times that new hit sitcoms are proof that “we’ve reached the End of Comedy.” They watch sitcoms with a critical eye and ultimately choose a writing project that demonstrates a close viewing that treats the shows like literary texts.

Materials | Computers with Internet access, chart paper and markers. Optional: television equipped with DVD or streaming video, DVDs of sitcoms.

Warm-Up | Ask students to define “sitcom,” which you might remind them is an abbreviation of “situation comedy,” by finding commonalities in the American comedy shows they watch. Features include humor, generally realistic events and characters, length of 30 minutes (minus commercial breaks) and resolution by the end of the episode. They also are usually scripted, use familiar settings like coffeehouses and are organized into seasons. Which sitcoms do they think are emblematic of the genre?

Students might briefly compare and contrast the sitcom with other television genres like sketch comedy, drama and reality. What overlaps can they identify? Do any shows straddle two or more genres? How important is it to watch sitcoms in the intended sequence, as compared with episodes of a drama or reality series?

Next, ask students what they think the purposes and benefits are of watching sitcoms. What role do they play in our culture? Do sitcoms offer cultural commentary, or are they just meant for mere entertainment? Is it worth critiquing and analyzing them? What cultural value do sitcoms have long after they have been broadcast?

Next, have the class brainstorm “stock” storylines, situations or gags they have seen multiple times in sitcoms, or which they imagine are not unique. Ask: How can a shopworn concept or conceit be made to seem “new” or “fresh” as opposed to merely recycled? Is using stock scenarios in contemporary shows evidence that sitcom writers have run out of ideas? Inform the class that they will now read an article by a Times television critic arguing that sitcoms have run out of fresh material.

Related | In “Naked Truth: New Sitcoms Are Re-Runs,” Neil Genzlinger gives his assessment of the newest crop of sitcoms, and concludes that the lack of innovation in these shows is a sign that “we’ve reached the End of Comedy”:

Certainly no series introduced this fall is breaking new ground. Ms. Deschanel’s show — her character moves in with three guys — is a role-reversed “Three’s Company.” “Up All Night” on NBC, with Christina Applegate and Will Arnett, is working new-parent territory explored 60 years ago by “I Love Lucy.” On “Last Man Standing,” Tim Allen is basically doing a Tim Allen impersonation, trying (unsuccessfully) to conjure the magic of his earlier show, “Home Improvement.” So it’s not that the new series are going places I’m not willing to follow; it’s that they are going places I’ve already been. After an exhaustive study that consisted of watching several new shows and several old ones, I have concluded that all television jokes going back to those first flickering black-and-white images fall into one of five categories. All those categories have been worked so heavily and so well in the past that comedic time has shrunk and comedic tone has degenerated; shows don’t want to risk building their humor slowly or subtly because they’re afraid audiences have already seen too many dumb-dad or balky-toaster bits and will grow impatient.

Read the entire article with your class, using the questions below.

Questions | For discussion and reading comprehension:

• Why does Mr. Genzlinger dispute other critics’ claims that the sitcom has made a comeback?
• What five categories of jokes does he say the new shows employ?
• How can the concept of using (or not using) subtlety to get laughs changed in the past 20 years?
• How has the speed of jokes’ unfolding changed?
• What evidence does Mr. Genzlinger offer to back his claim that even viewers much younger than him are tired of “rehashing” the same jokes?

RELATED RESOURCES

From the learning network.

• That’s Funny: Comedy Across the Curriculum
• Student Opinion: What Is Your Favorite Comedy?
• Student Opinion: Does Pop Culture Deserve Serious Study?

From NYTimes.com

• In a Gloomy Economy, T.V. Sitcoms Are Making a Comeback
• Interactive Feature: The New York Times’ Fall TV Ratings Pool
• Old Sitcoms as Telling Time Capsules

Around the Web

• Classic TV Database
• Great Moments in Sitcom History: A Eulogy
• Pivotal Sitcoms in TV History

Activity | Begin with the argument Mr. Genzlinger made that “The New Girl” is a “role-reversed Three’s Company.” Watch the same clip—or others—from “Three’s Company” and then watch parts of “The New Girl” episodes to test the theory that Jess is like Jack Tripper.

Then put “The New Girl” through the same questions from the warm-up: Who are these people? Where are they? Why are they together? What can you tell about them from what they say, how they look, how they interact with one another? What, if anything, does the show say about life, friendship, relationships between women and men and so on? Then ask: Does the show imitate real life? Do people you know act like this? Do you think people try to act like these characters? If so, who and why? Do you think in 1980, people imitated—or were imitated by—the characters on “Three’s Company”? Are shows like “The New Girl” entering the mainstream and becoming part of our shared cultural shorthand and vernacular?

Alternatively or additionally, show the two “feeding the baby” scenes that Mr. Genzlinger mentioned, from “Third Rock from the Sun” (1996) and “Up All Night” (2011).

Tell students that how they “read” a sitcom will be the basis for the rest of this lesson, drawing on how they have analyzed works of literature, drama, film or visual arts. Here are some ways to approach a sitcom analysis project:

Single Show Theory: Students choose one sitcom to be the subject of an in-depth study. They “read” what the situations, plots, dialogue, sets and characters to determine what, if anything, the show reflects about real life at the time of its making. They pull examples from across several episodes, or across the series (if working with a long-running show like “Seinfeld” or “The Simpsons”). They write essays that suggest the show’s worldview and whether it changes over time. For a creative option, students suppose that the world created by the show is the actual world and they live in it—what would their character be like? What struggles and triumphs would they likely encounter? Is it a limiting or limitless world?

Is Everything Old New Again?: As in the “Three’s Company”/”New Girl” comparison, students find a category into which two or more shows fit, like families with kids, shows about teens, college life, workplace , hospital or school settings, those that have single parents, multigenerational households, the “fish out of water” and so on. They write mock memos to a television executive about how each show, drawing examples from various episodes, approaches the common topic and weigh in on whether they believe the topic is “tired” and should not be recycled in future shows, or whether the shows investigated prove that it’s possible to “make it new.”

Tracing the Progress: How are affinity groups depicted in sitcoms? Students choose a specific group, like women, homosexuals, people of color or the handicapped, and investigate how sitcoms depict the group over time. They write an analysis of how television sitcoms have, or haven’t, evolved to be more inclusive, and what the shows may have reflected in the larger culture at the time.

Generational Viewing: Students plan an event in which they watch and discuss television shows with people of different ages, including, if possible, episodes that were favorites of each person when he or she was 13 or 14. They share what the show said about the world at the time, any aspects that were considered provocative at the time and make any observations about how sitcoms have changed over time, even including the words characters use, how long it takes for action or a joke to develop, and of course, any commonalities. Students write a reflection on the experience.

Investigative Viewing: Students choose a topic to investigate over time in the course of sitcom history. These might include big issues like the concept of family, signifiers of social class or the use of euphemisms and explicit references. Or they might look into the frequency with which characters do mundane things like household chores or homework. They choose a series of shows to watch and pull examples to back their argument about the topic and write a researched essay on their findings.

Character Study: Students find a character from a sitcom to study as they would a character from literature. What are the character’s strengths, flaws, motivations and dreams? How does he or she act? Who are the people around him or her? Are any of them foils? They use events and dialogue from the show as evidence. They then look for other characters, from other sitcoms or from literature to compare. For example, someone working with Jenna Hamilton from the MTV sitcom “Awkward” might also study the Stratford sisters from “10 Things I Hate About You,” Lindsay Weir from “Freaks and Geeks,” Daria Morgendorffer from “Daria” or Mallory Keaton from “Family Ties.” Students write a compare-and-contrast essay about the characters.

Sitcom Critics Unite: Students delve into lists that cover many decades of sitcom history, choosing a handful of shows they have never seen. They find and watch a few episodes of each one, taking notes on the humor, acting, level of complexity, uniqueness of the plot or perspective, and so on. They observe any commonalities. They make podcasts or videos that feature their critiques.

Going Further | Students choose a year from the primetime schedule for network television , then do research to discover which shows are sitcoms. (Those working with shows from the 1980’s and 1990’s will find video montages of titles and casts of sitcoms helpful here.) Students learn about the shows, watch as many episodes as they can, and write a critique that identifies each show’s strengths and weaknesses, and if warranted, has a Neil Genzlinger-style “roundup” of jokes or show elements that borrow from older shows, or seem like “copycat” aspects within the group being studied. Students present their groups in chronological order, chiming in when someone discusses a long-running show that they also critiqued.

Students can also hold a sitcom festival using video-sharing Web sites to locate relevant scenes, providing commentary about their selections and what they illustrate about sitcoms and popular culture.

Standards | This lesson is correlated to McREL’s national standards (it can also be aligned to the new Common Core State Standards ):

Art Connections 1. Understands connections among the various art forms and other disciplines.

Behavioral Studies 1. Understands that group and cultural influences contribute to human development, identity, and behavior. 2. Understands various meanings of social group, general implications of group membership, and different ways that groups function.

Arts and Communication 1. Understands the principles, processes, and products associated with arts and communication media. 2. Knows and applies appropriate criteria to arts and communication products. 3. Uses critical and creative thinking in various arts and communication settings. 4. Understands ways in which the human experience is transmitted and reflected in the arts and communication. 5. Knows a range of arts and communication works from various historical and cultural periods.

Language Arts 1. Uses the general skills and strategies of the writing process. 2. Uses the stylistic and rhetorical aspects of writing. 3. Uses grammatical and mechanical conventions in written compositions. 4. Gathers and uses information for research purposes. 5. Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process. 7. Uses skills and strategies to read a variety of informational texts. 8. Uses listening and speaking strategies for different purposes. 9. Uses viewing skills and strategies to understand and interpret visual media. 10. Understands the characteristics and components of the media.

Comments are no longer being accepted.

I agree that there’s lack of innovation in sitcome, the same ideas were essentially recycled over and over again. At the same time, I think it still works because the audience hasn’t changed much, we as people still appeal to the same things as people from 50, 60 years ago. however, I would like to see more subtlety in the sexual jokes in modern day sitcom, it’s just not pretty to hear certain over and over again out loud.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Reality-TV'

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Raskin, David Cante Richard C. "Reality / tv / celebrity." Chapel Hill, N.C. : University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2006. http://dc.lib.unc.edu/u?/etd,448.

Mace, Joan Y. "Rupturing the "reality" of reality TV| Contemporary video artists examining the discursive effects of the reality TV phenomenon." Thesis, California State University, Long Beach, 2014. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=1568901.

Since reality TV exploded onto the scene at the turn of the millennium, its impact on culture and society has been evaluated within various disciplines. The televisual phenomenon's influence on the art world, however, has been scarcely examined. This thesis rectifies this omission by exploring the uncharted intersection of reality TV and contemporary art history. Examining the artworks of video/installation artists Gillian Wearing, Phil Collins, Alex Bag, Kalup Linzy, Ryan Trecartin, and Keren Cytter through the theoretical frameworks of Jean Baudrillard, Judith Butler, and Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari reveals the discursive effects of reality TV on areas such as the simulated nature of reality, gender performativity, and binary structures. The artists recontextualize the codes that structure reality TV in order to provide their viewers with the tools to question the reality of reality TV.

Helén, Henrik. "Reality-TV ur publikens synvinkel." Thesis, Växjö University, School of Social Sciences, 2006. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:vxu:diva-499.

Cherry, Kristin L. "Reality TV and interpersonal relationship perception." Diss., Columbia, Mo. : University of Missouri-Columbia, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10355/5532.

Bauer, Fredrika, and Frida Schiller. "Dokusåpor - nästa generations Bolibompa? Barn, TV och dokusåpor i skolans värld Reality TV – the Next Generations' Childrens Programme? Children, TV and Reality TV in the School Environment." Thesis, Malmö högskola, Lärarutbildningen (LUT), 2006. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-27638.

Angst, Trix Käslin Annemarie. ""Traumjob" - Führung im Zeitalter von Reality TV /." Zürich : Hochschule für Angewandte Psychologie, 2005. http://www.hapzh.ch/pdf/2s/2s0814.pdf.

Phelps, Kelsey W. "From Poe and Hitchcock to...Reality TV?" BYU ScholarsArchive, 2010. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/2526.

Schwäbe, Nicole Helen. "Realfabrik Fernsehen: (Serien- )Produkt "Mensch" Analyse von Real-Life-Soap-Formaten und deren Wirkungsweisen /." [S.l. : s.n.], 2004. http://deposit.ddb.de/cgi-bin/dokserv?idn=970389140.

Bacchin, Rodrigo Boldrin [UNESP]. "Reality-show: a tv na era da globalização." Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/11449/98962.

Cardo, Valentina. "A new citizenship? The politics of reality TV." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.492859.

Bacchin, Rodrigo Boldrin. "Reality-show : a tv na era da globalização /." Araraquara : [s.n.], 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/11449/98962.

Krämer, Carmen [Verfasser]. "Menschenwürde und Reality TV : Ein Widerspruch? / Carmen Krämer." Baden-Baden : Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, 2020. http://d-nb.info/122016240X/34.

Martinez-Sheperd, Ivonne. "Portrayals of women in prime time reality TV programs." [Ames, Iowa : Iowa State University], 2006.

Johansson, Malin. "Finns det ett förnedringsmoment i de svenska reality-programmen? : En attitydstudie om inställningen till reality-program." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för mediestudier, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-87472.

Sung, Chit-cheung Matthew, and 宋哲彰. "Representing gender and workplace discourse on reality TV: The Apprentice." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2008. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B41508786.

Garner, Andre. "Reality TV singing competitions take Broadway down a discordant path." Thesis, California State University, Long Beach, 2014. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=1527933.

This thesis illustrates the effect of reality television singing competitions on Broadway musical theatre. Chapter 1 examines the current Broadway casting climate prioritizing name recognition. Chapter 2 explores the genesis of musical theatre singing styles. Chapter 3 offers Stanislayski and Uta Hagen's acting techniques as a guide for musical theatre acting, analyzes the Jukebox musical, and investigates the reality TV singing style and its relevance to the musical theatre actor. The chapter then scrutinizes the hypocritical stance taken by reality TV singing shows toward the Broadway singing style. Chapter 4 examines the loss of storytelling on musical theatre and advocates the seeking of mastery in the acting process. Chapter 5 explores the circumstances that allow for Broadway to incorporate pop music. Chapter 6 reinforces storytelling's importance to musical theatre.

Sung, Chit-cheung Matthew. "Representing gender and workplace discourse on reality TV The Apprentice /." Click to view the E-thesis via HKUTO, 2008. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record/B41508786.

Beard, Andrew, and Andrew Beard. "Horror Begins at Home: Family Trauma in Paranormal Reality TV." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/12458.

Cannito, Newton Guimarães. "A TV 1.5 - A televisão na era digital." Universidade de São Paulo, 2009. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/27/27153/tde-21102010-103237/.

Biondi, Olivia. "Gender stereotypes in reality TV : an investigation of the Real world /." abstract and full text PDF (free order & download UNR users only), 2007. http://0-gateway.proquest.com.innopac.library.unr.edu/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:1447814.

Pook, Patrik, and Hannah Oksa. "Rekonstruera verkligheten : En receptionsanalys av fenomenet reality-TV i nutidens Sverige." Thesis, Högskolan i Halmstad, Sektionen för hälsa och samhälle (HOS), 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-24469.

Araújo, Rafael Fonseca de. "A linguagem dos reality TV shows norte-­americanos: análise e classificação." Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, 2017. https://tede2.pucsp.br/handle/handle/19961.

Sandberg, Sebastian. "Realityserier, online vs TV : En undersökning om intresset för realityserier." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för medier och journalistik (MJ), 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-96394.

Spittle, Steve. "Reality TV and identity in late modernity : texts, talk and television culture." Thesis, University of Portsmouth, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.439183.

Lin, Joanne Bee Yin. "Nationalising the real : the cultural politics of reality TV in postcolonial Malaysia." Thesis, University of East London, 2009. http://roar.uel.ac.uk/3619/.

Malko, Anastasia. "A study of the reality game show concept “Survivor” : how national identities are represented in a transnational reality format." Thesis, Södertörns högskola, Institutionen för kultur och lärande, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-21726.

Holmes, Haley K. "Coyote Ugly Librarian: A Participant Observer Examination of Lnowledge Construction in Reality TV." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2007. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc3663/.

Holmes, Haley K. O'Connor Brian C. "Coyote Ugly librarian a participant observer examination of knowledge construction in reality TV /." [Denton, Tex.] : University of North Texas, 2007. http://digital.library.unt.edu/permalink/meta-dc-3663.

Wetterborg, Caroline, and Cecilia Persson. "Stekta ägg och vissen säd : En innehållsanalys av ofrivillig barnlöshet i reality-TV." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för mediestudier, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-77349.

Vogel, Robert J. "To Teach and to Please: Reality TV as an Agent of Societal Change." Thesis, Boston College, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/2653.

Stern, Danielle M. "Women and Reality TV in Everyday Life: Toward a Political Economy of Bodies." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1177094639.

Casey-Sawicki, Katherine Ann. "The circulation of reality tv and internet activism real world meet the Zapatistas /." [Gainesville, Fla.] : University of Florida, 2004. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/UFE0004900.

Swiatkowski, Paulina, and Paulina Swiatkowski. "Reality TV, Relational Aggression, And Romance: The Effects of Reality Show Viewing On Relational Aggression and Relational Quality in Romantic Relationships." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/626679.

Hultén, Isabelle, and Emil Lundberg. "Hur verklig är reality-tv? : En studie kring dokusåpan Paradise Hotel utifrån deltagarnas perspektiv." Thesis, Högskolan för lärande och kommunikation, Högskolan i Jönköping, HLK. Medie- och kommunikationsforskning, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-14433.

WANG, Jie. "The Popularity of Dating TV Reality Shows in China : On the Perspective of Audience." Thesis, Högskolan i Jönköping, Internationella Handelshögskolan, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-15652.

Tammi, Lisa, and Sabina Kirschner. "Hur uppfattas etik och moral i reality-tv? : En studie ur deltagar- och tittarperspektiv." Thesis, Högskolan i Halmstad, Sektionen för hälsa och samhälle (HOS), 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-20874.

Pinto, Leandro. "Spektakulärt dålig smak : Om representation av smak, status och klass i svensk reality-TV." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för mediestudier, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-87010.

Hultgren, Agnes. "Gifta på låtsas? : Hur den moderna kärlekens normer och investeringsstrategier förmedlas i reality-TV." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Sociologiska institutionen, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-445648.

Lagerdahl, Sandra. "Reality: Redigerad verklighet." Thesis, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Sektionen för planering och mediedesign, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-919.

Detta är en reflektionsdel till en digital medieproduktion.

Nilsson, Malin. "Andar, finns dom? : Representationen av övernaturliga fenomen i tv-programmen Det okända och Hemsökta hus." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för mediestudier, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-96149.

MENDES, Patrícia Monteiro Cruz. "Saúde imaginária: a reprogramação do corpo no reality show." Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, 2016. https://repositorio.ufpe.br/handle/123456789/20158.

Wedén, Hanna, Fanny Fellman, and Moa Grönroos. "Välkommen till Paradise Hotel : En kvantitativ studie om tv-tittares motiv för att titta på Paradise Hotel." Thesis, Mittuniversitetet, Avdelningen för medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-21593.

Nygårds, Mathilda, and Sofie Olsson. "Alla kollar på det och kollar man inte på det så har man ändå koll på det : En publikundersökning om följare till Paradise Hotel och deras uppfattning kring seriens verklighet." Thesis, Högskolan i Halmstad, Akademin för hälsa och välfärd, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-27787.

Bunai, Dominique Christabel. "If This Is a "Real" Housewife, Who Are All These Women Around Me?: An Examination of The Real Housewives of Atlanta and the Persistence of Historically Stereotypical Images of Black Women in Popular Reality Television." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/49683.

Sigge, Sanner, and Julia Bengtsson. "Man kopplar inte en varg : En studie om motstånd, makt och genus i Paradise Hotel." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Medier och kommunikation, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-433689.

Dyer, Caitlin Elizabeth. "Reality Television: Using Para-Social Relationship Theory and Economic Theory to Define the Success of Network Reality Programming." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2010. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc33144/.

Johansson, Emma, and Elin Jakobsson. ""Fet och olycklig VS Smal och lycklig" : En kvalitativ innehållsanalys av hur tv-programmet Biggest Loser Sverige 2018 framställer överviktiga." Thesis, Högskolan för lärande och kommunikation, Högskolan i Jönköping, HLK, Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-42978.

Rossi, Monika. ""Super Nanny" - Erziehungsberatung via Fernsehen : stärkt ein Real-People-Format im Fernsehen elterliche Erziehungskompetenzen der Zuschauenden? /." Zürich : Hochschule für Angewandte Psychologie, 2005. http://www.hapzh.ch/pdf/2s/2s0853.pdf.

Andresen, Ingeborg. "Fetma som underhållningsvärde : Porträtteringen av överviktiga karaktärer i TV-serien Here Comes Honey Boo Boo ur ett klass och genus perspektiv." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, JMK, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-125981.

Imsirovic, Asmirelda, and Bierlich Alessandra Nilsen. "Säger en bild mer än tusen ord? : En kvalitativ studie av deltagarna i TV-programmet Paradise Hotel utifrån ett genusperspektiv." Thesis, Mälardalens högskola, Akademin för hälsa, vård och välfärd, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-32903.

Reality TV and Real Ethics

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Nicholas Aufiero

Alicia Armijo

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CASE STUDY: Love Island and the Ethics of Relationships

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For those who don’t tune into reality TV, a compelling new series has been attracting attention and provoking debate about the ethics of televised relationships. The hit series, Love Island , focuses on a group of attractive, young singles who are flown to an isolated villa in Mallorca to find love. In just a matter of weeks, contestants will seek a significant other among their cohort. If that wasn’t challenging enough, the contestants must compete to stay in the game. If they successfully get through the series without being dumped or voted off, contestants are scrutinized by the audience who votes for their favorite couple at the end of the show (Martin, 2019). Some might find this show to be a recipe for disaster while others might find this to be nothing but a net gain for everyone involved—for both contestants and for viewers.

Many would argue that this show is ripe with demonstrable benefits for those who are daring enough to compete. Who wouldn’t enjoy a free holiday at a booze-filled villa in the Mediterranean surrounded by beautiful singles? It is basically a month-long slumber party for adults with a chance to win a £50,000 prize. More than that, many contestants reap the long-term benefits of massive social media followings that allow them to make a living off of sponsoring brands. As noted writer Jenny Éclair of The Independent affirms, “This could potentially be your magic golden Willy Wonka ticket to Lamborghini land” (Eclair, 2019). Without question, being a  Love Island  contestant is a sure-fire way to get your day in the spotlight and benefit financially to boot.

Fans of the hit series also contend that  Love Island  invites open discussion about what it means to be in a healthy relationship. As audiences get to know the contestants, they can begin to relate to them and see commonalities in their relationships. By watching the dramas on the show, audiences can self-reflect and explore questions about relationships that may not have occurred to them outside this medium. In fact, in a recent blog post, famed actress Lena Dunham shared her experience of indulging in the show. In doing so, she explored important questions about the complexities of romantic relationships. Like many of the contestants on the show, she found herself asking, “Can you love again after the hurt? What does partnership mean? And what does it mean to know someone if you don’t know yourself?” (Dunham, 2019). Raising such questions are valuable for coming to a better understanding of ourselves in our relationships.

Importantly, this show is an effective way to promote a national dialogue about relationships.  RAZZ Magazine writer, Charlotte Foster, explains that viewers can “point at the screen while saying ‘they should not treat another human being like this’” when they see psychological abuse” (RAZZ, 2018). By recognizing abuse, we’re in a better position to address it where it exists off-screen. Just as Lena Dunham was able to see the shortcomings of her relationships portrayed in the show, so too will millions of other  Love Island  viewers.

Even so, many would argue that  Love Island  may not be the most legitimate foundation for cultivating real-life healthy relationships. The show presents unhealthy examples of relationships and so cannot inform audiences about what is necessary to develop healthy ones. Since most viewers live such radically different lives from participants on the show, it is unlikely that they could come away from watching it with applicable lessons for their lives. As a case in point, the contestants are all incredibly fit, tan, and beautiful socialites in their twenties. The relationships that are represented are heteronormative and masculine-centric ones. Moreover, as Luanna de Abreu Coelho from RAZZ Magazine points out, “contestants are chosen and rejected by other islanders based almost entirely on appearance” ( RAZZ , 2018). Of course, healthy relationships are not primarily motivated by physical attraction.

Another reason that many have found this show problematic is due to its unhealthy effects on the show’s contestants. The show achieves its supreme drama by effectively cutting them off from the outside world. The extreme isolation and the competitive nature of that social dynamic creates a unique and unnatural social environment. The show’s provocation of contestants under the watchful eye of cameras has recently led to serious public concerns about the contestants’ mental health. Following the suicides of two ex-contestants of  Love Island , the English Parliament began an inquiry into the “production companies’ duty of care to participants, [asking] whether enough support is offered both during and after filming, and whether there is a need for further regulatory oversight in this area” (“Committee Announces,” 2019). After finishing their two-month stint in Mallorca,  Love Island  contestants come back to the real world as celebrities. However, that celebrity status quickly fades when the next stirring season of  Love Island  comes out. Contestants go from relative obscurity to fame and back again within a year. This instability would certainly be taxing on anyone’s mental health.

Love Island  has captured the attention of millions of viewers in recent years. The show could spark much-needed discussion about relationships. At the same time, it is questionable whether this or any reality TV show can serve as a pedagogical tool for guiding viewers to cultivate healthy relationships.

Discussion Questions:

• Are creators of reality TV shows morally responsible for the psychological effects on their on-screen participants? Why or why not?
• What are the ethical problems with reality TV? What values are in conflict in this case study?
• Do the possible benefits of sparking a conversation about healthy relationships outweigh its possible harms for contestants? Explain your reasoning.
• What principles would you suggest to someone who wanted to make an ethical reality TV series about relationships?

  Further Information:

“Bafta TV Awards: Britain’s Got Talent,  Love Island  and Blue Planet II win.”  BBC News , May 2018, Available at:  https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-44102374

“Committee Announces Inquiry into Reality TV.”  UK Parliament Website , May 2019, Available at:  www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/digital-culture-media-and-sport-committee/news/reality-tv-inquiry-launch-17-19/

Dunham, Lena, “Lena Dunham on  Love Island : ‘I’m Asking the Same Question They Do – Can You Love after Hurt?’”  The Guardian , July 2019, Available at:  www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/jul/27/lena-dunham-love-island-can-you-love-after-hurt

Forrester, Charlotte, and Coelho, Luanna de Abreu. “It’s Debatable: The Ethics of  Love Island .”  RAZZ , July 2018, Available at:  https://razzmag.com/2018/07/11/its-debatable-the-ethics-of-love-island/

Eclair, Jenny. “If You’re Thinking of Applying for  Love Island , the Reality TV Suicide Rate Should Make You Think Again.”  Independent , March 2019, Available at:  https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/love-island-mike-thalassitis-sophie-gradon-suicide-reality-tv-a8838491.html

Martin, Laura. “When Is the  Love Island  2019 Final Tonight? Start Time, How Long the Final Episode Is and Prize Money Explained.”  INEWS , July 2019, Available at:  https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/love-island-2019-final-prize-when-date-how-many-episodes-634661

Nicholas Aufiero & Alicia Armijo The UT Ethics Project/Media Ethics Initiative Center for Media Engagement University of Texas at Austin December 5, 2019

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