Reality television is a genre of television programming which presents unscripted dramatic and humorous situations. It features ordinary people instead of actors. Reality TV has increased after witnessing the success of Big Brother a popular offering where viewers watch people interact in a house. Big Brother is a famously well known world wide reality TV show, and it is also the best known program for this type of genre. It consists of a group of 16 contestants who are from different gender, social class, ethnicities, and gender groups, who are living together in the Big Brother house and are isolated from the outside world and are being watched, all to win a cash prize . What is different about reality TV is that it claims to show “realism” and it exposes various representations of people. Reality TV has dramatically changed the viewing habits of people and is drawing them into a world of voyeurism, and away from the typical entertainment television.
Thursday 18 December 2008
Essay Plan Task
Introduction
Introduce question talking about:
-Conventions of Reality TV:
1- Contestants are voted off one at a time to leave a winner.
2- There are private interviews with contestant’s everyday, allowing them to have time to express their private thoughts.
3- Contestants have to complete a range of tasks - often to earn food for that day
4- Although contestants are filmed 24 hours a day, the program is edited down just one hour of material - the identity of contestants is therefore constructed by editors.
5- Viewer participation is increasing - viewers can vote off contestants by phone, by text, or interactive TV. This audience participation is helping to grow the genre.
6- Contestants become C list celebrities simply by taking part in the program. Most of them gain little in the way of prizes or prize money so it is the fame that attracts them to the genre.
-Big Brother Reality TV show, a group of people live together in the Big Brother house and are isolated from the outside world and are being watched. Lasts for 3 months with 16 participants, who each try to win a cash prize without being evicted.
-Related texts (1948 - Candid Camera, 1964 - Seven Up and Nummer 28)
Paragraph One:
How reality TV has changed?
Reality television has dramatically changed the viewing habits of people and is drawing them into a world of voyeurism, away from the typical entertainment television. Reality television is the stars on that appear in reality TV show will do anything for fame and fortune, the more outrageous, the better. Reality TV shows have increased after witnessing the success of Big Brother a popular offering where viewers watch people interact in a house. The genre of reality TV has now extended and is now covering every area of life from monstrous kids that need a "Supernanny" to geeks paraded before beautiful girls "Beauty and the Geek". This type of programming (reality TV) has become more preferred for many who find watching ordinary people, more entertaining than watching talented actors and comedians. Watching people embarrass themselves in front of the cameras has become a sport for television viewers. Contestants may want to be a celebrity and wanting to be a celebrity can make people do some strange and outrageous things as many of the current reality shows prove. And it's clear that many viewers enjoy watching others make a complete fool of themselves. Reality television has pushed genuine entertainment out of the way as more and more viewers watch reality TV show which some people might describe as mindless nonsense in preference to programs featuring great actors and excellent story lines. The rise in reality television is reflections of the changing tastes on viewers who are clearly don't fuse about quality of programming as they have been in the past. Maybe people will change their viewing habits when reality television is actually nothing of the kind. Some people say that reality TV should be name "contrived television" as it is a form of television relying on editing to make boring, everyday situations appealing to an audience that is easily pleased.
Paragraph Two:
The audience & TV Big Brother is not the highest rated programme. If I was to compare Big Brother with a soap it would be misleading, as soaps are aired in the evening where as Big Brother is aired much later giving it a smaller audience.
The audience builds thorough around eviction time. Jade Goody eviction - 19th January had high levels of views. The hardest audience type to get watching television is younger people. They have other things to do in life. BUT Big Brother is good at attracting a young audience. Audience group % of total 8-16 11.5 16-34 49.3 35-54 29.2 55+ 10.0 Male 42.4 Female 57.7 The people who watch reality TV shows, when asked to comment on reality TV assume that it should have "non actors and no script". BUT they don't know there watching something that has een made by producers to make television entertaining.
Jacques Derrida explored the relationship between the institution and the audience. He suggests - The audience deconstructs a text within the context of its logos. So there is not a single meaning to the texts, but different meanings and interpretations based on the way the audience chooses to receive the text. E.g. the audience may have previous knowledge of related texts. (So big brother's audience may have watched other reality TV shows and then seemed interested in Big Brother)
Reception Theory - The meaning is created in the interaction between the audience and text. So meaning is created as the viewer watches and processes the film. The reception theory places the viewer in context, taking into account all of the various factors that might influence how they read and create a meaning from the text Also need to include Active audience theory: any of various theories of audience behavior that see the audience as active participants in the process of decoding and making sense of media texts.
Paragraph Three:
Stereotypes - How real is Reality TV? (Big Brother)
These shows claim “realism”. It’s the way the programmes are shot and should be in a genre of observational documentaries. Ordinary contestants seem to be treated as celebrities even before they appear on the show as they get their expenses covered for them, so this is an even bigger desire for them to be on television. Jade Goody has seen her life transform and “Nasty” Nick Bateman had a successful career in the media. Psychotherapist for the 1st ever series said it would be wrong to “throw in people who would disagree” – like putting a racist black guy together, we know opposites like that would have a big fight and stop communicating and in the house they had to keep communicating for a long time. To achieve dramatic narrative producers would heartlessly edit footage. FOR EXAMPLE – in an Australian series 82,750 hours of material was edited to 70hours. Live shows where broadcasted. Also the audience is being misled as what they are being shown in ten minutes delayed to make sure of unsuitable material. BUT recently police are investigating charges of racism. Big Brother is constructed to attract and hold a audience. It uses “real” people in “real” situations, BUT chooses to manipulate them to produce narrative/dram and conflict.
Paragraph Four:
Cost &economical factors
Reality shows were cheap, there was no need to pay writers/actors/no rehearsals etc. they used ordinary people, it was a cheap way to make television. Hour long drama - £875,000 per hour Reality TV - £114, 00 per hour! Shilpa Shetty was paid between £200,000 and £300,000 for appearing in the show Big Brother gave channel 4 its most popular rating – 10 million viewers. 2nd series of Big Brother had 4.5 million viewers – 70 % increase. 3rd Big Brother – 10 million text messages 10 million viewers for its finale Advert slot during Big Brother costs - £40,000
Paragraph Five:
Genre - As a whole do reality TV shows, show a true representation relating to its genre. Compare to other texts with similar genre.
In many reality television shows, the viewer and the camera are passive observers that follow people going about their daily personal and professional activities; this style of filming is often referred to as fly on the wall or factual television. Often plots are constructed on reality TV shows through editing or planning situations.
Paragraph Six:
Compare Big Brother with other texts.
Conclusion:
Answer my question of, what are the conventions of reality TV shows and seeing if they match the convention or Reality TV shows.
Useful Keywords:
-Audience participation: the practice of involving the audience in television and radio productions by inviting their votes or opinions or their direct participation in the activities that form the basis of the program.
-Realism: a film and television style that attempts to represent the real world.
-Reality television: a style of television which claims to represent real-life situations rather than scripted pre-recorded constructs, and which places members of the public in everyday or contrived situations and then films their behavior for “live” transmission.
-Reception theory “audience studies”: an active audience theory, associated with the work of John Fiske, Michel de Certeau and researcher David Morley, which sees the audience as being actively engaged in the interpretation of media texts rather than as passive consumer.
Useful Books.
1)Mckee, Alan, (2003): Textual Analysis a beginner’s guide. SAGE publications Ltd London,
2)Marshal, Jill and Werndly, Angela (2002): The Language of Television.
3)Dyla, Eddie: BFI Film & Television handbook 2003. British Film Institute.
4)Dyla, Eddie: BFI Film & Television handbook 2004. British Film Institute.
5)Dyla, Eddie: BFI Film & Television handbook 2004. British Film Institute.
7)Dyla, Eddie: BFI Film & Television handbook 2004. British Film Institute.
Useful Websites.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_television
http://technorati.com/tag/reality-tv?language=en&authority=a4
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/List-of-reality-television-programs
http://www.realitytvworld.com/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/realitytv
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/1459878.stm
Historical Text Task
The Up Series was a series of documentary films, it followed the lifes of 14 British children who where ages 14years old since the 1964.The fourteen children that where selected, showed and represented the different socio-economic backgrounds in Britain at that particular time. Also the assumption at that time was that each child's social class predicted their future. The children that where selected were chosen to represent the different social classes in Britain in the 1960s.
There were a mixture of children that where selected boys and girls.
3)John, Charles and Andrew - attended a pre-preparatory school in London - Kensington.
8)Tony - Tony was chosen from a primary school from the East End of London. He wanted to be a jockey at 7, and was at a stables training for it at 14.
9)Paul - Was at a charity-based boarding school when he was 7, due to his parents being divorced he was left with his father.
10)Simon - Was the only participant with an ethnic minority background also he was chosen from the same charity home as Paul. He was a illegitimate child, and never go to know his black father and was therefore had to leave the charity home to live with his mother.
11)Nick - Raised on a small farm in Arncliffe, which was a tiny village in the Yorkshire Dales. He was educated in a one-room school, and later at a boarding school.
13)Neil - Was the most unpredictable out of the entire group. At seven he was funny, full of life and hope. By the time of 21 Up he was homeless in London
12)Peter - Peter went to the same middle-class Liverpool suburban school as Neil and, at seven, they both wanted to be astronauts.
14)Bruce - Was concerned with poverty and racial discrimination and he wanted to become a missionary. He was at a prestigious boarding school. At the age of seven, he said that his greatest desire was to see his father, who was living in Rhodesia, and he seemed a little abandoned
7)Jackie, Lynn and Sue - three girls were chosen from the same primary school in a working class neighborhood of London.
4)Suzy -comes from a wealthy background, and was first filmed while she was at a boarding school.
The original hypothesis of 7 Up, was that the class structure is so strong in the UK that a person's life path would be set at birth. Also the idea of class immobility held up in most cases, but not in others as the series has progressed, as the children from the working classes remained working class people, but Tony was seens to have become more middle class.The series became popular enough that the participants often speak of being recognized in public.
- The reality show 7 Up, does relate to my text as it films people and follows there lives, but it is also diffrent as the 7 up show follows childrens lives where as big brother follows the lives of people ages 18 and over. But 7 up shows the the diffrent class systems in people where as Big Brother focuses less on people social class, and more about there personlities.
Wednesday 17 December 2008
Contemporary Adverts
This advert shows a role change as women are admiring men, where as in most advert men are gazing at women taking there clothes of etc… this relates to the male gaze. But in this advert a group of women are glaring at a man drinking a can of coke this could be a role reversal and could also, be introducing the female gaze or also the new man, as men are acting differently here.
Lynx Effect
This shows female dominance as the guy is wanting the females to be all over him yet they are being objectified and seen as sex objects by wearing outfits that show of most of their body. Their roles switch throughout the advert showing a balance of male and female power within society, however the advert is dominated by female characters and there is only one man.
Historical Adverts
Women in adverts are usually represented in a sexual way. The Shake and Vac advert is an example of how women are objectified domestically. In the advert the woman is the first person and only person we see, which connotes that women are made for these roles. They have a woman advertising this product and also the voiceover is of a woman which again conveys the point that a woman’s role is a housewife.
Flash Advert
Again Flash is a cleaning product and again this advert is being aimed at women. The 1960’s had a revolution that involved the pill, this advert contrasts with these issues.
This advert is about cleaning and the only person in this advert is a woman like the Shake and Vac advert.
Cadbury's Flake Advert
In this advert a woman is eating a chocolate flake in a very seductive way. This advert is different from Shake and Vac and Flash, as they are not about cleaning products. The expressions of the woman are sexual and attract a male audience.
Tuesday 16 December 2008
Female Director's
1) Male-dominated industry
2) Small list of female screenwriters
3) To involved in bring up kids
4) Personality
5) Men carry equipment like an army unit, so it then it makes sense to put a man in charge
5 women directors
1) Gurinder Chadha – Bride and Prejudice/Bend It Like Beckham
Kenya, moved to Southall, got a job as BBC radio reporter. Began making documentaries in 1989.
2) Mira Noir – The Namesake/Monsoon Wedding
Born in India and is a New York film director and producer. Production – Mirabai Films.
3)Jane Campion – Sweetie/the Piano
Academy award-nominated film maker and academy award winning screenplay writer. New Zealand director and live in U.S.
4)Sharon Maguire – Bridget Jones Diary/the Godfather
Studied English and drama. She got a job with BBC as producer/director of The Late Show.
5)Phyllida Lloyd - Mamma Mia
3 ways female directors could be improved.
1)Join male directors and gain knowledge
2)Change there so that they have male name's
3)
Cover Work 12.12.08
Gunter
-Women in magazine adverts prior to 1970’s rarely shown to be in paid work, & when they were, it was stereotypical roles (secretary/hairdresser)
-Number of “housewife” images declined after 1950’s BUT image was common in 1960 & 1970’s
-Advertising on TV in early 1970’s was stereotyping all ads featuring women; three quarters were kitchen and bathroom products.
-Similarities in gender representations from country to country, and sexism in adverts aimed at children
Cumberbatch
-Advertisers became wary of showing women doing housework (seen in 7% of adverts)
Scheibe
-Women found to be more concerned about beauty/cleanliness/family and pleasing others
-Men achievements and having fun.
Macdonald
-Advertisers generally lagged behind women’s magazines in the cultivation of new models of address, even when the evidence suggested that commercial advantaged could be gained from modernising their approach.
-Fait adverts – “When I’m not lying on car I’m a brain surgeon”
Gender in Contemporary advertising
Women and men are usually equal
1998 study found over 750 prime-time TV ads from 1998 found women were twice as likely as men to be in commercials for domestic products – Bartsch et al.
Macdonald
-Summarises changed from late 1980’s-1990’s: Believing both feminism’s battle had been won, and its ideology was now harmless by virtue of being out of date, advertisers invented “post feminism” as a utopia where women could do whatever the pleased, provided they had sufficient will and enthusiasm.
Greer
-Selling Beauty – She is a failure is she is not beautiful
UK beauty industry takes £8.9 billion a year out of women’s pockets.
They teach little girls that they need make-up and train them to use it.
-Reminds us that situation is unchanged till today.
-Since she wrote “The Female Eunch” (1960’s) – “Women who were unselfconscious and unmade up thirty years ago” are now “infected” with the need to conform to certain images of beauty.
-30 years ago it was enough to look beautiful; now a woman has to have a tight toned body, including her buttocks and thighs, so that she is good to touch, all over
Walter
-1998 – today’s women more or less happy with how they look, where as men felt unsatisfied with their own appearance “If only 4% of men think they are attractive, we should not be too quick to argue that only women feel cast down by pressures of beautiful ideals”
-A feminist but refuses to see fashion and beauty advertising as a conspiracy to keep women down.
Cortese
-“Ad deconstruction reveals a pattern of symbolic and institutionalised sexism”
-Female prototype displays youth/good looks/sexual seductiveness/perfection
-Analysis in men in advertising – reveals men often shown as the “perfect provocateur”
-Today’s man has pumped his Pecs and shoulders and exhibits well defined abs… not many years a, the slick and refined look defined fashion’s ideal man. Now the muscular guy dominates the runways and magazine pages.
The representation of women in commercials
“Hi we’d like a large thin crust pizza”
“That’s Ok I’ll clean up”
Cleaners
Housewife
Repair shop – Women can’t take on men’s roles
Exploitation of women in ads
Jean Kilbourne – “We are exposed to over 2,000 ads a day, constituting perhaps the most powerful educational force in society”
“Turning a human being into a thing is almost always the first step in justifying violence against that person”
Bodies only
Bugle Boy – “In an extremely competitive environment, you kind of go back to T&A
Sex objects
Dehumanization
Lazier-Smith, Furham & Bitar - “We often find no representational connections in contemporary advertising. One of the common registers of print advertising is of the naked or sexually-posed woman selling a product”
Stereotypical roles
STOP THE EXPLOITATON OF WOMEN IN ADVERTISEMENTS!
Tuesday 9 December 2008
Bibliography: Books
– Mckee, Alan, (2003): Textual Analysis a beginner’s guide. SAGE publications Ltd London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi. PG 95
2) “The uses ad gratifications approach was developed. This model assumed that the individuals in the audience determined their own selection and use of media texts and meanings which they used to gratify certain needs, such as finding a diversion from everyday life, and that the media had little power”
- Marshal, Jill and Werndly, Angela (2002): The Language of Television. PG 4
3) “Channel 4’s Big Brother3 had sex, greed and fear on auto hold for most of the duration of its summer season. The makers of Big Brother manipulated the audiences, manipulated their gormless contestants, manipulated the tabloid and broadsheet press, manipulated the So Graham Norton shows wit neatly tied-in cross referencing and probably even unintentionally manipulated themselves”
- Dyla, Eddie: BFI Film & Television handbook 2003. British Film Institute. PG 24
4) GRAPH – Number 44: Average TV Audience Share (%) of TV Channels 2002.
- Dyla, Eddie: BFI Film & Television handbook 2004. British Film Institute PG 57.
5) “While Big Brother 4 final drew in a peak audience of 7.4 million viewers fell some 2 million short of last year’s final. For the first time since channel 4 started showing Big Brother three years ago, the final attracted fewer viewers than the debut show”
- Dyla, Eddie: BFI Film & Television handbook 2004. British Film Institute PG 23
6) “They have to satisfy the television audiences by being “real” and “authentic” while at them same time keeping the other housemates on their side” PG 20something -Creeber, Glen: Fifty Key Television Programmes. Edward Arnold (publishers) limited
7) "In 2003 Reality TV shows still dominated prime time slots with karaoke programmes like Fame Academy and Pop Idol generating unworthily levels of mass adulation for their starry- eyes contestants"
- Dyla, Eddie: BFI Film & Television handbook 2004. British Film Institute PG21
8) "Audience research sometimes claims to the find "the reality" of the interpretations made by audiences"
– Mckee, Alan, (2003): Textual Analysis a beginner’s guide. SAGE publications Ltd London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi. PG 84
9) “Genres are flexible, subject to a constant process of change and adaptation. Generic boundaries can never be rigidly defined, and all generic groupings are susceptible to extensive subdivision”
- Maltby, Richard (2003): Hollywood Cinema. UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
10) “Genre can be approached from the point of view of the industry and its infrastructure, from the point of view of their aesthetic traditions, from the point of view of the broader socio-cultural environment upon which they draw and into which they feed, and from the point of view audience understanding and response”
- Neale, Steve (2002): Genre and Contemporary Hollywood. London: British Film Institute.
Monday 8 December 2008
1940's-1990's
World War 2, during this time period women got jobs as men went to war, their were genre like “film noire”, and also there were attractive and scary women(“the femme fatale”) this lead to male backlash.
Mrs. Miniver (1942) – shows how the Miniver family copes during war. Also it shows how Mrs. Miniver has to protect her family during war time.
1950
In the 50’s rock ‘n’ roll had become a famous music genre. Also people became more interested in branded names.
“Jailhouse Rock"(1957) - shows a woman who is a business partner of Elvis's character. She is smart in business and holds things together for Elvis's but again in the end she is shown as wanting to be married.
"High Noon” – is a western cowboy related movie. Men are shown to be the main protagonist, and women where seen to be frightened and in need of protection.
1960
Sexual Revolution. Still women where seen as less assertive, less intelligent and less prevalent.
Mary Poppins (1964) – this shows how women are seen as housewife, and looking after children, but also what every child’s dream nanny is like.
The Sound Of Music (1965) - is a musical
1970
Second wave feminism.
Alien (1979) - female character takes lead.
Slasher genre – The Final girl, Carols Clover “men women and the chain saws” (1999)
1980
“Terminator” (1984) - shows stronger women
“3 Men and a Baby” (1987) – the new man, women are seen as tougher and men are seen to be caring. Also this film shows that nuclear families were not as dominant.
1990
Back lash against feminism
“Fatal Attraction” (1987) - shows powerful women, must be mad
Monday 1 December 2008
Representation of Women Today
-Advertisers have not realized that audiences will only laugh at images of the pretty housewife, and reacted by showing women how to be sexy at work instead.
-Gay characters have slowly started to be prominent on TV and movies.
Gender In contemporary TV programmes
-During the 1990’s and the new century, gender roles on TV became equal and non-stereotyped.
-Key study – 1992-1993 Elasmar, Hasegawa and Brain, was not published until six years in
1999.
-1992-1993 and 1995-1996 - Prime time TV shows men took 61% woman had the other 39%
-Overall the 1992-1993 study found that “the women on prime time TV in early 1990’s was young, single, independent, and free from family and work place pressures”
-Producers seemed to give up on feeling that they might need to challenge gender representations. Example: the internationally popular sit-com Friends (1994)
3 men – fit easily within conventional models of masculinity but are sensitive and gentleness.
3 women – feminine and intelligent and non-housewifely.
-This model is different from other shows from the 1990’s – ER. Dawson’s Creek, Frasier, the West Wing and dramas and reality TV shows.
-Ally McBeal – show sides with the women and often shows them making fun of the men – characteristic.
-Sex and the City – male sexual performances are subject to laughter and scathing review.
-Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997) –made a impact on teen TV, she was heroic and powerful.
-Superman was re launched – The New Adventures of Superman (1993-1997) he was sweet and insecure and always consulting his small town parents about emotional turmoil.
- But Buffy the Vampire is more confident and assertive
-NYPD blue (1993) – produced a study of modern masculinity over the years.
Their colleague Greg Medavoy has been presented as a “joke” character
-Queer as Folk – offered visions of masculinity, which made a break with TV traditions.
-Many conventions of masculinity and femininity remain, albeit often in a revised from which takes account of egalitarianism and concern about stereotypes.
-It also remains that men continue to dominate in certain areas. E.g. in the UK the BBC’s coverage of 2001 general election was led from the studio by authoritative, middle ages white men (Dimbleby, Paxman, Snow) who handled the serious politics and statistics whilst the one main female reporter (Fiona Bruces) had the job of talking to “ordinary people”
Gender in Contemporary Movie
Gender in Contemporary Movies
Case Study 1: Charlie's Angels (2000)
Case Study 2: What Women Want (2000)
Representation of Women in the Past
Overview of representations of gender in the media - 1990 to present.
-Magazines, newspapers and adverts all contain images of women and men that might feed or challenge our ideas about gender.
Women and Men on TV
Gunter (1995) & Elasmar (1999)
-1950's, 1960's and 1970's - 20-30% of characters were female, by 1980 there were more women in leading roles, but there were still more men.
-Miles (1975) - equal proportions of men and women in situation comedies, even though gender roles could be seen as sexist.
-1987- study found female characters to be common in comedy programmes(43%)
-Gunter(1970's)- found marriage parenthood and domesticity were shown on TV to be more important for women than men
-McNeil - Female characters were unlikely to work, especially if they were wives or mothers, and when they did, it wasn't seen on screen.
-1970's- men as dominant characters and the decision makers on TV
Overall-(Gunter 1995)
-Men likely to be ore assertive or aggressive while women likely to be passive.
Men: adventurous, active and victorious
Women: weak, ineffectual, victimised, supportive, laughable or 'merely token females'
Consequences were highlighted by Gaye Tuchman in a article "The Symbolic Annihilation of Women by the Mass Media" (1978)
-TV claims women don’t count for much. Underrepresented
-Women that were shown to be working were portrays as "incompetents and inferiors"
-Men were shown to solve emotional and practical problems - leaving women with little value in the TV world.
-Mid 1980's took women seriously, and women’s issues
-TV remained stubborn and didn't change their "degrading and trivialising views of women"
-1980's - women’s roles as police and crimes increased
-TV detectives investigate, rape, and sexual abuse made a difference. (Cagney and lacey, the Bill, Juliest Bravo)
-Rape stories seen to build drama around the feminist critique of police attitudes
-1950's most popular films focused on male heroes. Men typically made decisions, assertive, confident and dominant.
-Women had important roles - frightened, in need of protection and direction and offering love and support to the male lead characters.
-1960's - Gender roles id not differ greatly from the previous decade
-1970's - Leia Star Wars(1977) was good at shooting storm troopers, but she was also the prized princess that the heroic boys had to rescue, and win the heart of.
-1980's - Ripley become stronger in Aliens(1986) and Sarah Connor was courageous in The Terminator(1984)
-Character of Indiana Jones, typical macho action-adventure and on the other hand he is tender to women
- Women's roles were more complexity. Raiders of the Lost
-Feminist critics, Marjorie Rosen "the cinema Woman is a Popcorn Venus, a delectable but insubstantial hybrid of cultural distortions"
Rosen charted the changing representations of women in