- Module 5 -

Final Draft!..

2009-05-07T22:01:00.004+01:00

“Reality shows manipulate... viewers who realize that their favourite reality shows are cast, contrived and edited to be dramatic may have no idea”[1]

What are the typical conventions of Reality TV shows making particular reference to Big Brother?

The typical conventions of any Reality Television show is that they offer “a set of rules”[2] whereby the contestants must obey by to make it relate to its genre. Other conventions of Reality TV show include: “contestants voted off, private Interviews, tasks, and being filmed 24 hours”[3], and this is all too win a cash prize. There has been an increase in viewers for Reality TV shows after the success of Big Brother, with statistics showing that “the first British Big Brother Series (2000) had over 7.5million viewers voting on the final eviction”[4]. What is different about reality TV is that it claims to show “realism”, but does it just expose different representations of people? Moreover Reality TV has changed the viewing habits of people, now drawing them into a world of voyeurism like the reality TV show Candid Camera whereby the audience “was not able to contribute or affect events in any ways”[5] and away from the typical entertainment television.

The history of reality TV had started from the programme Candid Camera 1948. This type of reality TV is a “voyeuristic programme, where the participants are not aware that they are being filmed”[6], but in the 21st century we are now introduced to reality TV shows such as, The Osbournes, I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, Supernanny and Big Brother, whereby the contestants now know that they are being filmed. This can start that argument that is reality TV in the 21st century really real? As now the contestants know that they are being filmed, so this may influence then to act differently. The programme Dead Set is an acted out programme copying the conventions of Big Brother. Dead set fall under the fictional genre, as it helps the audience to understand what Big Brother may be like. If we were to compare Big Brother with Dead Set we would be able to see a difference as contestants on Big Brother know that they are being filmed and they may act in certain ways, where as on Dead set, their aim is too act and maybe mock Big Brother.

Different types of reality TV shows have a mixture of codes and conventions “to concoct something different”[7] from the different types of reality TV shows such as: “Docusoaps”, “Voyeuristic TV”, “Reality game shows” and “Celebrity reality games shows”, it is harder to label what genre they belong to. “Genres work by providing conventions which allow efficient communication between the producers and audiences”[8], this may be the case in some shows such as Big Brother, where by they have a mixture of “Docusoaps” conventions, where the audience is being passive, and “reality game shows” where “these programmes incorporate voyeuristic elements”[9]. Reality TV programmes may also be seen as “fly on the wall … Reality TV is a development of this form of documentary”[10] again reality programmes follow the conventions of many different reality TV programmes allowing them to have a very flexible genre due to the fact that if the “genre were, literally, the same, there would simply not be enough difference to generate either meaning or pleasuring”[11], relating to the uses and gratifications, where the audiences would not be able to use the media for their own personal use.

Also in Big Brother there is a hint of “Celebrity reality game shows”, as some series of Big Brother have had celebrities competing in tasks. From reality TV taking different conventions from documentaries and other reality TV programmes, we can say that Big Brother belongs to a hybrid genre, as it takes codes and conventions from these genres to again “concoct something different”; therefore from these mixtures of genres this creates the communication between the producer and the audience.
In many reality television shows, such as I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here the viewers and the camera are passive observers whereby they follow the contestants going about their daily personal and professional activities, the media here is seen to “inject a drug and that the audience’s behaviour and opinions are therefore directly affected”[12], as they are just consuming what they are being shown and not denoting the text to create there own meanings. Here we can see that the audience would be injected with the hypodermic needle model as the media is injecting the passive audience with ideologies, the audience is seen as passive who accept what the media gives to them.

Reality TV shows have increased after witnessing the success of Big Brother a popular offering to reality TV programmes, where the viewers watch people interact in a house, but also other statistics show that “while Big Brother series four final drew in a peak audience of 7.4 million, viewers fell two million short of last years final”[13] this may suggest that the audience had become more “actively engaged in the interpretation of media texts rather than as passive consumers”, showing that they may have realized that the conventions of reality TV shows are not very realistic and do not confirm with the conventions of reality TV programmes.
The genre of reality TV has now extended due to the fact that “different audiences will use a genre in different ways at different times”[14], there are many different types of reality TV programmes that thrive to please their intended audience and this may be why there are a wide variety of reality TV programmes. Super nanny and Beauty and the Geek, are both reality TV programmes that have very different conventions, and this maybe be due to the fact that “genre can be approached…from the point of view audience understanding and response”[15], the change in conventions means that they will gain a different and wider audience.
The change in conventions may suggest that the audiences are less active and slightly more passive, as in Supernanny parents may learn how to control their children, and in Beauty and the Geek the women and men, may also may learn how to act.

Reality TV has a wide range of different programmes which have different conventions to conform by to create there own audience group moreover, reality TV is being more preferred for those people who find watching ordinary people do outrageous thing, more entertaining than watching talented actors and comedians. “Reality TV” therefore is feeding their audiences as they know something that is acted out is obviously a fantasy, but the audience do not think about the editing that is done in these programmes to portray certain things therefore, they are allowing themselves to be injected with the thought that what they are watching is reality. Again the audience is being effected by the effects theory they are being injected by the media and believing what they see.

These shows claim “realism”, but “decisions on which shots to include were key”[16] so that they could gain viewers. Other reality TV shows such as The Up Series (1964) followed the lives of 14 British children aged 14years, there were shown to represent different socio-economic backgrounds in Britain at the particular time. The up Series was a serious documentary to inform its audience on the subject of that there child’s social class can predict their future. This reality programmes was a serious programme and also had a meaning behind it plus had something to education its audience about, unlike Reality TV shows in the 21st century where the makers now “manipulated the audiences…contestants…the tabloids and broadsheet press”[17], just in aid for themselves to gain viewers.

Watching other people embarrass themselves in front of cameras has become the new entertainment for viewers, and this could refer to the concept of “dumbing down” “Children can no longer tell the time? Dumbing down must be to blame”[18] society is now choosing to watch contestants do strange and outrageous things just to be entertained, where as in the 20th century society may have watched reality TV shows such as The Up Series to gain advice on what they would want their child’s social class to be. Therefore in the 20th century the media wanted to educate their audiences where as nowadays the media is choosing to allow their audiences to watch reality TV shows that may not have any form of serious social issues, neither any form of education. The media may have resorted to not educating their audience as now society in the 21st century is facing an economical crash and the media may just want to find quicker and faster ways to entertain their audience and earn money.

This rise in reality television and also the change in genre and conventions towards reality television reflect the changing tastes of the viewers, who are clearly not affected about the quality of programming as there has been in the past. This may suggest that men and women do not have a great concern about the different and new conventions of reality TV programmes, as they now go out to work. They do not have the time to sit at home and watch good quality movies, with a good narrative structure; they may just want people that they can relate to on TV. It might be that people will change their viewing habits when reality television is nothing of the kind. Maybe reality TV should be name "contrived television" as after all, it is a form of television relying on the editing which makes boring, everyday situations appealing to an audience that is easily pleased and is easily being injected by what the media is giving them.

Big Brother is not the highest rated programme. If Big Brother where to be compared with a TV soap this may be misleading, as TV soaps are aired in the evening where as Big Brother is aired much later giving it a much more smaller audience. But research shows that “In 2003 Reality TV shows still dominated prime time slots”[19]. Reality television has pushed genuine entertainment out of the way and more and more viewers are beginning to watch reality TV show’s, rather than watching programmes that were to feature great actors and included excellent story lines. But a new reality show just like Big Brother was constructed to attract and hold an audience as it claims to use “real” people in “real” situations, and also chooses to manipulate them to produce narrative and conflict in the programmes.

Big Brother has a variety of different contestants in the house, and favourite contestants may be more likeable on the outside world. When Jade Goody was evicted on 19th January, Big Brother had a high level of viewer, this may be for the reason that, she had created a lot of drama, and the audience may have wanted her to stay or go. On one occasion of Big Brother Jade Goody was “allegedly racist bullying of Shetty on Celebrity Big Brother”[20], therefore on this series of Big Brother Jade has caused a situation which attracted a higher audience and also an audience type that may have wanted to watch this certain eviction interview for surveillance purposes. Recently after Jade’s death the media is sympathizing with this issue as they are giving TV shows on Jade life from the start of her career to the end. This may show just how much audiences are injected by the media, as when Jade was preserved in a negative way after Big Brother, audiences disliked her. Whereas now when the media is screening Jade’s death and being sympathetic towards her death, so are the audiences, this again shows how audience are injected by the hypodermic needle model.

Also Big Brother may have a high number of viewers due to the different varieties of Big Brother shows, also “producers provide different programmes and viewing experiences for different audiences”[21]. This shows a new convention to reality shows, as they provide a wider range of access for their audiences to watch and catch up with what is happening on the show.

The hardest audience type to encourage in watching television is the younger generation, but Annette Hills Research (2002), showed that “young and educated viewers were more likely to watch Big Brother, with more women than men, and also 16-24 years-olds[22]”. Big Brother is a certain type of reality TV show that is superior at attracting a young audience. Statistics show the audience group % of total 8-16 11.5, 16-34 49.3, 35-54 29.2, and 55+ 10.0 also Male 42.4 and Female 57.7. They may have been a higher percentage in females, as they may use reality TV as a form of “diversion in the form of escape from reality, emotional release or pleasure”[23] to their normal lives. Moreover there may be a high percentage of teenagers due to “the actual range of opportunities available to the audience” for example they could use there mobile phones to text votes during eviction this also shows the change in technology. There were also a percentage of men that watched Big Brother and this could be explained by the “available showing at pubs”[24]. The high views for Big Brother may be explained to the new conventions and the wide range of availability it has to its audiences.

Often “the producers of the show would have audiences believe that they simply present unmediated highlights-but is that possible”[25], for example in Big Brother 4 “did Jon really bore the other lads to sleep with his detailed knowledge of Star Wars, or did the producers shape the footage that way to construct a representation of Jon that could be easily mocked”. This also they may be seen as biased, as Jon may have been a disliked character in the “outside world”[26] therefore this footage had been edited for him to be seen as a boring character, therefore “the audience’s behaviour and opinions are being directly affected”[27]. These shows claim “realism”. But it is the way the programmes are shot and maybe they should be in a genre of observational documentaries as they are watching people and how they go about living their everyday lives. In reality TV shows such as Big Brother ordinary contestants are seen to be treated as celebrities even before they appear on the show, as they get their expenses covered for them, so this may be an even bigger encouragement and desire for them to be on television, and also win the cash prize, furthermore this may encourage contestants to act in a way to be liked. Jade Goody had seen her life transform and “Nasty” Nick Bateman had a successful career in the media after appearing on Big Brother. During the “casting process”[28], “contestants were drawn from a variety of ethnic backgrounds covering some of the major ethnic communities in the UK”[29], this shows that Big Brother is trying to create a reach towards a wider audience and have someone they can relate too, here Big Brother may be following the conventions of The Up Series as they represented contestants from different social classes and Big Brother was represent ting contestants from different ethnic backgrounds. During the “casting process” they may choose people that they may be seen to cause argument and throw people who would be see to cause big fights and stop communicating in the house and in the house they have to keep communicating for a long time, this again shows how Big Brother, moulds the show to gain viewers, could this also be a new convention for reality TV shows? To place opposites just to certain arguments or is it another way to gain viewers.
Reality shows are cheap there is no need for them to pay for writers, actors, or any rehearsals etc. They use ordinary people, and this is there way of a cheap way to make television. Hour long drama cost around £875,000 per hour and Reality TV cost £114, 00 per hour. Shilpa Shetty was paid between £200,000 and £300,000 for appearing on the show, and this gave Big Brother its most popular rating of 10 million viewers. It may have gained this popular rating due to two argumentative people, they may have placed Jade Goody in Big Brother again as they know what high ratings they had given them before.

There are many different types of Reality TV programmes ranging from Docusoaps to celebrity reality game shows, reality TV has also been labelled as a development of fly on the wall documentaries as they take the conventions of this type of documentary. We know that “genres are flexible”[30], but are the main conventions of reality TV shows flexible, as the “conventions of a genre are always in play rather than being simple”, therefore reality TV programmes only change the conventions as a whole just to please and to gain a wider audience. We have learnt that there are a wide range of reality TV shows, which have active and passive audience types, for comparison I’m a Celebrity Get Me out Of Here and Supernanny, an audience that is watching I’m a Celebrity Get Me out Of Here, is active as they may see certain characters acting a in certain way to gain votes, and in Supernanny there is a passive audience as they are being taught and told on how to treat there children. Moreover these audiences are again being feed by the hyperdermic needle as the passive audience is agreeing with what the media gives them. The conventions of these two reality TV programmes are different as in Supernanny the children are not being voted off, as this is not one of the conventions of this show, but the audience is still watching the children being observed, and in I’m a Celebrity Get Me out Of Here like Big Brother the viewer can choose which contestants they want voted off and also which contestant they want to see perform tasks. But these to different reality TV programmes still belong to the genre type of reality TV.

Over all the new and different conventions of these reality TV shows maybe the reason as to why people would rather watch reality TV programmes rather than good quality TV as said before. Also there are varies different conventions that apply for each and every different reality TV programme which may be the reason why there are so many different reality TV programmes around. These different conventions appeal to the different audience types but will reality TV taken over good quality TV, and will one day reality TV be the development of another genre, from the conventions set by reality TV.

Word count: 3,400

Bibliography

'Works Cited'

Book’s

BFI Film and Television Handbook 2003. London: British Film Institute. (2003).

Branston, G., Branston, G., & Stafford, R. (2003). The Media Student's Book. New York: Routledge.

Dyja, E. (2003). BFI Film and Television Handbook (B F I Film Handbook). London: British Film Institute.

Genre and Contemporary Hollywood. London: British Film Institute. (2002).

Maltby, Richard (1995)

Mckee, A. (2003). Textual Analysis: A Beginner's Guide. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Ltd.
Neale, Steve (1980)

Phillips, Patrick (1996)

Probert, D. (2005). As/A Level Media Studies Essential Word Dictionary (Essential Word Dictionaries). Unknown: Philip Allan Updates.

Revision Express AS and A2 Media Studies - Pearson Education LimitedTudor Andrew (1986)

Internet

She survived Jade, Jo and Channel 4. Now Shilpa reaps her reward Media The Guardian . (n.d.). Retrieved February 3, 2009, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/jan/27/india.bigbrother.

Children's TV is not all that bad! Media The Guardian . (n.d.). Retrieved May 4, 2009, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2001/nov/20/broadcasting.g26

Magazines

MediaMagazinedecember 2003english and media centre

'Works Consulted'

Books

Annette Hill’s research (2002)

Internet

BBC NEWS Entertainment Reality TV 'dents' acting roles. (n.d.). Retrieved February 12, 2009, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4318982.stm
Big Brother - Media UK. (n.d.). Retrieved February 12, 2009, from http://www.mediauk.com/the_knowledge/i.muk/Big_Brother
Big Brother - Media UK. (n.d.). Retrieved February 12, 2009, from http://www.mediauk.com/the_knowledge/i.muk/Big_Brother
Celebrity Big Brother row goes global Media MediaGuardian . (n.d.). Retrieved February 12, 2009, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/jan/17/bigbrother.politicsandthemedia
Children's TV is not all that bad! Media The Guardian . (n.d.). Retrieved May 4, 2009, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2001/nov/20/broadcasting.g26
Fans of reality TV statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved February 12, 2009, from http://www.big-boards.com/board/397/
History of Reality TV. (n.d.). Retrieved February 12, 2009, from http://www.reality-tv-online.com/articles/history-reality-tv.html
How Reality TV Fakes It - TIME. (n.d.). Retrieved May 4, 2009, from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1154194,00.html
Reality TV Media guardian.co.uk . (n.d.). Retrieved February 12, 2009, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/reality-tv
Reality television - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved February 12, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_television
Seven Up! (1964) (TV). (n.d.). Retrieved February 12, 2009, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058578/

[1] How Reality TV Fakes It - TIME. (n.d.). Retrieved May 4, 2009, from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1154194,00.html
[2] Patrick Phillips (1996)
[3] Revision Express AS and A2 Media Studies - Pearson Education LimitedReality
[4] Branston, G., Branston, G., & Stafford, R. (2003). The Media Student's Book. New York: Routledge.
[5] Revision Express AS and A2 Media Studies - Pearson Education LimitedReality
[6] ibid
[7] MediaMagazine¦december 2003¦english and media centre – keymediaconcepts
[8] Mckee, Alan, (2003): Textual Analysis a beginner’s guide. SAGE publications Ltd London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi. PG 95
[9] Revision Express AS and A2 Media Studies - Pearson Education LimitedReality
[10] ibid
[11] Steve Neale (1980)
[12] Probert, D. (2005). As/A Level Media Studies Essential Word Dictionary (Essential Word Dictionaries). Unknown: Philip Allan Updates.
[13] Dyla, Eddie: BFI Film & Television handbook 2004. British Film Institute PG 23
[14] Richard Maltby (1995)
[15] Neale, Steve (2002): Genre and Contemporary Hollywood. London: British Film Institute.
[16] Branston, G., Branston, G., & Stafford, R. (2003). The Media Student's Book. New York: Routledge.
[17] Dyla, Eddie: BFI Film & Television handbook 2003. British Film Institute. PG 24
[18] Children's TV is not all that bad! Media The Guardian . (n.d.). Retrieved May 4, 2009, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2001/nov/20/broadcasting.g26
[19] Dyla, Eddie: BFI Film & Television handbook 2004. British Film Institute PG21
[20] She survived Jade, Jo and Channel 4. Now Shilpa reaps her reward Media The Guardian . (n.d.). Retrieved February 3, 2009, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/jan/27/india.bigbrother.
[21] MediaMagazine¦december 2003¦english and media centre – keymediaconcepts
[22] Annette Hill’s research (2002)
[23] Probert, D. (2005). As/A Level Media Studies Essential Word Dictionary (Essential Word Dictionaries). Unknown: Philip Allan Updates.
[24] Branston, G., Branston, G., & Stafford, R. (2003). The Media Student's Book. New York: Routledge.
[25] MediaMagazine¦december 2003¦english and media centre – keymediaconcepts
[26] ibid
[27] Probert, D. (2005). As/A Level Media Studies Essential Word Dictionary (Essential Word Dictionaries). Unknown: Philip Allan Updates.
[28] Branston, G., Branston, G., & Stafford, R. (2003). The Media Student's Book. New York: Routledge.
[29] MediaMagazine¦december 2003¦english and media centre – keymediaconcepts – media representations
[30] Andrew Tudor (1986)

Notes...

2009-04-27T20:37:00.002+01:00

Representations of women has changed from the due to - changes in society and certain historical events taking place

Portrayed in the media as an object of the male gaze. Eg. naked or semi-naked women on covers of men’s magazines.

Women are hardly seen as news reporters

Sex objects, ‘blond bimbo’ stereotype.

Eve blamed on why women are being objectified and stereotyped.

Madonna - pure
Whore - impure and sexuall

Previously women limited to smaller roles in movies due to expectations and stereotypes before the second wave of feminism.

After second wave feminism women were fighitng back against dominance of male gender and in movies women were getting more roles

Men still the dominant gender in leading roles especially in television.

Role of the woman has become more noticeable due to men now becoming more feminine with gays, heterosexuals and the portrayal of the ‘new man’.

2009-04-10T16:59:00.002+01:00

1)Compare two examples, from different decades, of any media genre of your choice. Describe and account for the major differences and similarities between them?

Introduction
Introduce my two chosen texts. My two chosen texts will be the original Texas chainsaw massacre 1974 and 2003 Texas chainsaw massacre. I will talk about the general plot of the two different films and a few point on how they have developed over time.

Paragraph One
Whether the changes in the genre and films reflect the zeitgeist , and see what social factors could be responsible for the differences in the films.

Paragraph Two
How technology has adapted a lot since 1974 to 2003. How the mask of the leather face has changed more. Props used such as the chainsaw and the meat hooks.

Paragraph Three
Same generic codes used in both films such as both films have a final girl, Leather face the killer, same murder weapon, group of friends.

Paragraph Four
Difference in representation between the two TCM‘s, how the representation of teenagers has changed.

Conclusion
How the spirit of the age is responsible for the difference in the movies, and how they changed certain thing to please its audience.

2)Outline recent significant development in one genre of your choice. Illustrate your answers with example
(January ‘03 b)

Introduction
Which genre I have choose and explaining why I chose that particular genre over others.

Paragraph One
State that I will compare both Texas chain saw massacre as well as Halloween and Scream.

Paragraph Two
Talk about the mise en scene and make reference to what is going on in society at that particular time and how it reflects what is being shown in the film.

Paragraph Three
Use terminology we have learnt in class such as the audiences knowingness that separates post modern from the movies in the past that have come before it.

Paragraph Four
Highlight Scream making reference to scary movie. Talk about how they create irony and poke fun of the genre formula and set of rules that have been put in place by directors of past genre movies.

Conclusion
Talk about how the slasher genre has developed. Talk about audience expectations, censorship and updated zeitgeists and how producers have had to change their style to keep up with the changing times, therefore this is why the slasher genre and other genres change over time.

3)“Genres must adapt in order to survive” discuss
(June ‘04 b)

Introduction
Introduce the slasher genre, and how it has changed in order to survive.

Paragraph One
Changes in society /ideologies/values and representation. The era of feminism changed everything from being subservient and controlled in Psycho to the changed in Switchblade Romance. The final girl- needs phallic symbol to show her masculine side.

Paragraph Two
Talk about, audience expectations. Making reference to TCM.

Paragraph Three
Censorship and codes of conduct of TCM and how they have changed.

Paragraph Four
Technology and how it has changed to adapt.

Paragraph Five
Any other changes that have to occur to make the genre adapt.

Conclusion
Genres have to adapt because of society and their expectations. Talk about economical factors too.

TCM Essay

2009-04-02T10:15:00.003+01:00

Compare the two versions of TCM. How and why are they similar or different, paying close attention to ideas/theories about the ways genres repeat themselves and the wider contextual factors that have influenced any changes.

Both The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (2003) are both from the slasher genre and therefore follow the same generic convention such as the final girl and the stereotypical male killer.

However since they have been produced in two different eras, they have different audience expectations and the film and plot maybe slightly different. The 1947 TCM would appeal to a target audience of males and females as they have both male and females characters, also the age group of their audience would be 18-35 class, c1, c2 and d. The target audience for the 2003 TCM would be male and females again but for the age group of 16-35 and their class being b, c1, c2 and d as the effect of he 2003 TCM are more interesting. Also both TCM’s will attract different audience types as the 1947 TCM was censored and as a result it was not as gruesome as the 2003 TCM.

Firstly there is a difference in the narratives in both the 1947 TCM and also the 2003 TCM. The 1947 TCM opens up of a dead armadillo and then is followed by a medium shot of the five friends, who are going to check on relatives graves in a cemetery. They pick up a hitchhiker man, who is crazy. Where as in the 2000 TCM, there are also five friends but they are on there way to see a Lynyrd Skyynyrd concert and instead the hitchhiker is female instead of being male and shots herself instead of slitting her wrist like the male does in 1934 TCM.
Secondly the beginning of both 1934 TCM and 2003 TCM is different. The 193 TCM opens with a narration, with word scrolling down the screen, the deep voice set the atmosphere for the audience. Then there are a lot of flashing shots of rotting hands and teeth followed by complete darkness and a corpse with a close up shot of the sun to set the scene of a hot summer’s day in Texas. The 2003 TCM, opens with black and white footage of police going through a house and again words are scrolling down like the 1934 TCM.

Moreover the 1934 TCM is different as Todorov’s theory can be applied throughout it, as there is a equilibrium at the beginning and a disequilibrium, and finally there seems to be a happy ending as there is a final girl. Where as the 2003 TCM has disequilibrium

The final girl must follow a theory of sex equals death. This theory is applied in the 2003 TCM as the couple die as they have had sex.
There is a visible final girl in both 1947 TCM and 2003 TCM, this gives the idea that they are seen to be more superior to males as they are the ones who survive. This goes against the stereotype that women usually stay at home and are seen as housewives.

Overall both 1947 TCM and 2003 TCM are two very similar and also different movies. The final girl in 1947 TCM had relied on someone to come in and distract the leather face, but the 2003 TCM Erin had gotten away on her own without being hitched hiked unlike the first movie she also got her revenge on the Sheriff in the process by running him over in his police car. Also the two movies were different as they represent women in two different ways depending on the zeitgeist in the 1947 TCM women were seen as weak, where as in the 2003 TCM they are seen powerful.

Similarities and differences in TCM 1974 and TCM 2003

2009-03-31T12:15:00.003+01:00

Similarities

Both films are slasher
Same genre codes, such as the girl screaming
Use the chainsaw to present a phallic object
A psycho killer- from a family of cannibals
Have group of friends- which get lost...
SEX= death theory
Killer has a mask

Differences

Made in different eras- therefore their target audience expectations are different
The new one is not censored
The ending is very different
The family members-younger wants to save the friends
2003 has a women who is the hitchhiker, which is unlike the 1974 man being the hitchhiker
2003 women shots herself 1974 man cuts himself

2nd Draft

2009-03-31T11:47:00.000+01:00

What are the typical conventions of Reality TV shows making particular reference to Big Brother?

The typical conventions of any Reality television show is that they offer “a set of rules”[1] whereby the contestants must obey by to make it relate to its genre. Other conventions of reality TV show include: “contestants voted off, private Interviews, tasks, and being filmed 24 hours”[2], and this is all too win a cash prize. There has been an increase in viewers for reality TV shows after the success of Big Brother, with statistics showing that “the first British Big Brother Series (2000) had 7.5million viewers voting on the final eviction”[3]. What is different about reality TV is that it claims to show “realism”, but does it just expose different representations of people? Moreover Reality TV has changed the viewing habits of people, now drawing them into a world of voyeurism like the reality TV show “Candid Camera” whereby the audience “was not able to contribute or affect events in any ways”[4] and away from the typical entertainment television.

The history of reality TV had started from the programme “Candid Camera” in 1948, this type of reality TV is a “voyeuristic programme, where the participants are not aware that they are being filmed”[5], but in the 20th century we are now introduced to reality TV shows such as, “The Osbournes, “I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here”, “Supernanny” and “Big Brother”, where the contestants now know that they are being filmed. This can start that argument that is reality TV in the 20th century really real? As contestants know that they are being filmed, so they may act different, the programme “Dead Set” is a acting out programme copying the conventions of Big Brother. If we were to compare “Big Brother” with “Dead Set” would we be able to see a difference as contestants on “Big Brother” know that they are being filmed and they may act in certain ways.

Different types of reality TV shows have a mixture of codes and conventions “to concoct something different”[6] from the different types of reality TV shows such as: “Docusoaps”, “Voyeuristic TV”, “Reality game shows” and “Celebrity reality games shows”, it is harder to label what genre they belong to. “Genres work by providing conventions which allow efficient communication between producers and audiences”[7], this may be the case in some shows such as Big Brother, where by they have a mixture of “Docusoaps” conventions, where the audience is being passive, and “reality game shows” where “these programmes incorporate voyeuristic elements”[8]. Reality TV programmes may also be seen as “fly on the wall … Reality TV is a development of this form of documentary”[9] again reality programmes follow the conventions of many different reality TV programmes allowing them to have a very flexible genre due to the fact that if the “genre were, literally, the same, there would simply not be enough difference to generate either meaning or pleasuring”[10], relating to the uses and gratifications, where the audiences would not be able to use the media for there own personal use’s.
Also in Big Brother there is a hint of “Celebrity reality game shows”, as some series of Big Brother have had celebrities competing in tasks.
From reality TV taking different conventions from documentaries and other reality TV programmes, we can say that Big Brother belongs to a hybrid genre, as it takes codes and conventions from these genres to again “concoct something different”, therefore theses mixtures of genres creates the communications between the producer and audience.
In many reality television shows, such as “I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here” the viewers and the camera are passive observers whereby they follow the contestants going about their daily personal and professional activities, the media here is seen to “inject a drug and that the audience’s behaviour and opinions are therefore directly affected”[11], as they are just consuming what they are being shown and not denoting the text to create there own meanings.
Reality TV shows have increased after witnessing the success of Big Brother a popular offering to reality TV programmes, where viewers watch people interact in a house, but also other statistics show that “while Big Brothers 4 final drew in a peak audience of 7.4 million, viewers fell 2 million short of last years final”[12] this may suggest that the audience had become more “actively engaged in the interpretation of media texts rather than as passive consumers”, showing that they may have realized that the conventions of reality TV shows are not very realistic and not conveying with the genre of reality TV programmes.
The genre of reality TV has now extended due to the fact that “different audiences will use a genre in different ways at different times”[13], there are many different reality TV programmes that thrive to please there intended audience and this may be why there are a wide variety of reality TV programmes. "Super nanny" and "Beauty and the Geek", are both reality TV programmes that have very different conventions, and this maybe be due to the fact that “genre can be approached…from the point of view audience understanding and response”[14], the change in conventions means that they will gain a different and wider audience.
The change in conventions may suggest that the audiences are less active and slightly more passive, as in “Supernanny” parents may learn how to control their children, and in “Beauty and the Geek” the Beauty’s and the Geek, also may learn how to act.

Reality TV has a wide range of different programmes which have different conventions to obey by to create there own audience group moreover, reality TV is being more preferred for those people who find watching ordinary people do outrageous thing, more entertaining than watching talented actors and comedians. “Reality TV” therefore is feeding there audiences as they know something that is acted out is obviously a fantasy, but the audience do not think about the editing that is done in these programmes to portray certain things therefore, they are allowing themselves to be injected with the thought that what they are watching is reality.

These shows claim “realism”, but “decisions on which shots to include were key”[15] so that they could gain viewers. Other reality TV shows such as The Up Series (1964) followed the lives of 14 British children aged 14years, there were shown to represent different socio-economic backgrounds in Britain at the particular time. The Up Series was a serious documentary to inform its audience on the subject of that there child’s social class can predict their future. This reality programmes was a serious programme and also had a meaning behind it plus had something to education its audience about, unlike Reality TV shows in the 20th century where the makers now “manipulated the audiences…contestants…the tabloids and broadsheet press”[16], just in aid for themselves to gain viewers.

Watching other people embarrass themselves in front of cameras has become the new entertainment for viewers, and this could refer to the concept of “dumbing down” as now society is choosing to watch contestants do strange and outrageous things just to be entertained, where as in the 19th century society may have watched reality TV shows such as “The Up Series” the gain advice on what they would want there child’s social class to be. Therefore in the 19th century the media wanted to educate their audiences where as nowadays the media is choosing to allow their audiences to watch reality TV shows that may not have any form of serious social issues, neither any form of education. The media may have resorted to not educating there audience as now social in the 20th century the economy is facing the recession and the media may just want to find quick and fast way to entertain their audience and earn money.

This rise in reality television and also the change in genre and conventions towards reality television reflect the changing tastes of the viewers, who are clearly not fused about the quality of programming as there has been in the past. This may suggest that men and women do not have a great concern about the different and new conventions of reality TV programmes, as they now go out to work. They do not have the time to sit at home and watch good quality movies, with a good narrative structure, they may just want people that they ca to relate to on people TV. It might be that people will change their viewing habits when reality television is nothing of the kind. Maybe reality TV should be name "contrived television" as after all, it is a form of television relying on the editing which makes boring, everyday situations appealing to an audience that is easily pleased and is easily being injected by what the media is giving them.

Big Brother is not the highest rated programme. If Big Brother where to be compared with a TV soap this may be misleading, as TV soaps are aired in the evening where as Big Brother is aired much later giving it a much more smaller audience. But research shows that “In 2003 Reality TV shows still dominated prime time slots”[17]. Reality television has pushed genuine entertainment out of the way and more and more viewers are beginning to watch reality TV show’s, rather than watching programs that were to feature great actors and included excellent story lines. But a new reality show just like “Big Brother” was constructed to attract and hold an audience as it claims to use “real” people in “real” situations, and also chooses to manipulate them to produce narrative and conflict in the programmes.

Big Brother has a variety of different contestants in the house, and favourite contestants may be more likeable on the outside world. When Jade Goody was evicted on 19th January, Big Brother had a high level of viewer, this may be for the reason that, she had created a lot of drama, and the audience may have wanted her to stay or go. On one occasion on Big Brother Jade Goody was “allegedly racist bullying of Shetty on Celebrity Big Brother”[18], therefore on this series of Big Brother Jade has caused a situation which attracted a higher audience and also an audience type that may have wanted to watch this certain eviction interview for surveillance purposes.
Also Big Brother may have a high number of views due to it’s varies different Big Brother shows, also “producers provide different programmes and viewing experiences for different audiences”[19]. This shows a new convention to reality shows, as they provide a wider range of access for their audiences to watch and catch up with what is happening on the show.

The hardest audience type to encourage in watching television is the younger generation, but Annette Hills Research (2002), showed that “young and educated viewers were more likely to watch Big Brother, with more women than men, and also 16-24 years-olds[20]”. Big Brother was a certain type of reality TV show that was superior at attracting a young audience. Statistics show the audience group % of total 8-16 11.5, 16-34 49.3, 35-54 29.2, and 55+ 10.0 also Male 42.4 and Female 57.7. They may have been a higher percentage in females, as they may use reality TV as a form of “diversion in the form of escape from reality, emotional release or pleasure”[21] to their normal lives. Moreover there may be a high percentage of teenagers due to “the actual range of opportunities available to the audience” for example they could use there mobile phones to text votes during eviction this also shows the change in technology. There were also a percentage of men that watched Big Brother and this could be explained by the “available showing at pubs”[22]. The high views for Big Brother may be explained to the new conventions and the wide range of availability it has to its audiences.

Often “the producer’s of the show would have audiences believes that they simply present unmediated highlights-but is that possible”[23], for example in Big Brother 4 “did Jon really bore the other lads to sleep with his detailed knowledge of Star Wars, or did the producers shape the footage that way to construct a representation of Jon that could be easily mocked”. This also they may be seen as biased, as Jon may have been a disliked character in the “outside world”[24] therefore this footage had been edited for him to be seen as a boring character, therefore “the audience’s behaviour and opinions are being directly affected”[25]. These shows claim “realism”. But it is the way the programmes are shot and maybe they should be in a genre of observational documentaries s they are watching people and how they go about living their everyday life’s? In reality TV shows such as Big Brother ordinary contestants are seen to be treated as celebrities even before they appear on the show, as they get their expenses covered for them, so this may be an even bigger encouragement and desire for them to be on television, and also win the cash prize, furthermore this may encourage contestants to act in a way to be liked. Jade Goody had seen her life transform and “Nasty” Nick Bateman had a successful career in the media after appearing on Big Brother. During the “casting process”[26], “contestants were drawn from a variety of ethnic backgrounds covering some of the major ethnic communities in the UK”[27], this shows that Big Brother is trying to create a reach towards a wider audience and have someone they can relate too, here Big Brother may be following the conventions of “The Up Series” as they represented contestants from different social classes and Big Brother was represent ting contestants from different ethnic backgrounds. During the “casting process” they may choose people that they may be seen to cause argument and throw people who would be see to cause big fights and stop communicating in the house and in the house they have to keep communicating for a long time, this again shows how Big Brother, moulds the show to gain viewers, could this also be a new convention for reality TV shows? To place opposites just to certain arguments or is it another way to gain viewers.
Reality shows are cheap there is no need for them to pay for writers, actors, or any rehearsals etc. They use ordinary people, and this is there way of a cheap way to make television. Hour long drama cost around £875,000 per hour and Reality TV cost £114, 00 per hour. Shilpa Shetty was paid between £200,000 and £300,000 for appearing on the show, and this gave Big Brother its most popular rating of10 million viewers. It may have gained this popular rating due to two argumentative people, they may have placed Jade Goody in Big Brother again as they know what high ratings they had given them before.

There are many different types of Reality TV programmes ranging from Docusoaps to celebrity reality game shows, reality TV has also been labelled as a development of fly on the wall documentaries as they take the conventions of this type of documentary. We know that “genres are flexible”[28], but are the main conventions of reality TV shows flexible, as the “conventions of a genre are always in play rather than being simple”, therefore reality TV programmes only change the conventions as a whole just to please and to gain a wider audience. We have learnt that there are a wide range of reality TV shows, which have active and passive audience types, for comparison “I’m a Celebrity Get Me out Of Here” and “Supernanny”, an audience that is watching “I’m a Celebrity Get Me out Of Here”, is active as they may see certain characters acting a in certain way to gain votes, and in “Supernanny” there is a passive audience as they are being taught and told on how to treat there children. Moreover these audiences are again being feed by the hyperdermic needle as the passive audience is agreeing with what the media gives them. The conventions of these two reality TV programmes are different as in “Supernanny” the children are not being voted off, as this is not one of the conventions of this show, but the audience is still watching the children being observed, and in “I’m a Celebrity Get Me out Of Here” like Big Brother the viewer can choose which contestants they want voted off and also which contestant they want to see perform tasks. But these to different reality TV programmes still belong to the genre type of reality TV.

Over all the new and different conventions of these reality TV shows maybe the reason as to why people would rather watch reality TV programmes rather than good quality TV as said before. Also there are varies different conventions that apply for each and every different reality TV programme which may be the reason why there are so many different reality TV programmes around. These different conventions appeal to the different audience types but will reality TV taken over good quality TV, and will one day reality TV be the development of another genre, from the conventions set by reality TV.
[1] Patrick Phillips (1996)
[2] Revision Express AS and A2 Media Studies - Pearson Education LimitedReality
[3] Branston, G., Branston, G., & Stafford, R. (2003). The Media Student's Book. New York: Routledge.
[4] Revision Express AS and A2 Media Studies - Pearson Education LimitedReality
[5] Revision Express AS and A2 Media Studies - Pearson Education LimitedReality
[6] MediaMagazine¦december 2003¦english and media centre – keymediaconcepts
[7] Mckee, Alan, (2003): Textual Analysis a beginner’s guide. SAGE publications Ltd London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi. PG 95
[8] Revision Express AS and A2 Media Studies - Pearson Education LimitedReality
[9] Revision Express AS and A2 Media Studies - Pearson Education LimitedReality
[10] Steve Neale (1980)
[11] Probert, D. (2005). As/A Level Media Studies Essential Word Dictionary (Essential Word Dictionaries). Unknown: Philip Allan Updates.
[12] Dyla, Eddie: BFI Film & Television handbook 2004. British Film Institute PG 23
[13] Richard Maltby (1995)
[14] Neale, Steve (2002): Genre and Contemporary Hollywood. London: British Film Institute.
[15] Branston, G., Branston, G., & Stafford, R. (2003). The Media Student's Book. New York: Routledge.
[16] Dyla, Eddie: BFI Film & Television handbook 2003. British Film Institute. PG 24
[17] Dyla, Eddie: BFI Film & Television handbook 2004. British Film Institute PG21
[18] She survived Jade, Jo and Channel 4. Now Shilpa reaps her reward Media The Guardian . (n.d.). Retrieved February 3, 2009, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/jan/27/india.bigbrother.
[19] MediaMagazine¦december 2003¦english and media centre – keymediaconcepts
[20] Annette Hill’s research (2002)
[21] Probert, D. (2005). As/A Level Media Studies Essential Word Dictionary (Essential Word Dictionaries). Unknown: Philip Allan Updates.
[22] Branston, G., Branston, G., & Stafford, R. (2003). The Media Student's Book. New York: Routledge.
[23] MediaMagazine¦december 2003¦english and media centre – keymediaconcepts
[24] MediaMagazine¦december 2003¦english and media centre – keymediaconcepts - editing
[25] Probert, D. (2005). As/A Level Media Studies Essential Word Dictionary (Essential Word Dictionaries). Unknown: Philip Allan Updates.
[26] Branston, G., Branston, G., & Stafford, R. (2003). The Media Student's Book. New York: Routledge.
[27] MediaMagazine¦december 2003¦english and media centre – keymediaconcepts – media representations
[28] Andrew Tudor (1986)

'Scary Movie' franchise

2009-03-31T11:42:00.002+01:00

Scary Movie

Film directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans in 2000.
The original title for Scream was “Scary Movie” which was used later.
It is an American dark comedy and parodies the horror, slasher, and mystery genres.
The tagline for scary movie is “No mercy. No shame. No sequel.” And changed for Scary movie 2.

Scary Movie 2

Released in 2001.
American comedy film.Scary Movie 3
2003 American comedy film.
Directed by David Zucker.

Scary Movie 3

2003 American comedy film.
Directed by David Zucker.

Scary Movie 4

Fourth and last film of Scary Movie.
Directed by David Zucker.

Pastiche - A literary/artistic genre. The word has two meanings:"hodge-podge" or an imitation.

Parody - Are works created to mock, comment on, or poke fun at an original piece of work.Spoof - is a comedy that satirizes other film genres or classic films.

The main conventions for this genre are:

Sarcasm
Huge stereotyping, e.g. the dumb blonde, the hardboiled detective
Mocking other films/scenes from serious movies
Violence with no consequence for the characters' actions
Obvious meanings to characters' actions/names
Joking around with no purpose
Random scenes, many layers

Irony - Literary or rhetorical device, in which there is discordance between what somebody says or does and what they mean or what is generally understood. Irony is a mode of expression that calls attention to the character's knowledge and of a audience.

Intertextuality - Is the shaping of texts meanings by other texts. It can refer to an author’s borrowing and transformation of a text or to a reader’s referencing of one text in reading another.Scary Movie can be seen as a parody and also a spoof.

Cover Work Fri 27.03.09

2009-03-29T13:38:00.003+01:00

'Elm Street' horror franchise

A Nightmare on Elm Street is an American horror franchise that consists of eight slasher films, a television show, novels, and comic books.

The franchise is based on the fictional character of Freddy Krueger, introduced in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), who stalks and kills teenagers in their dreams; if Freddy kills the teenager in the dream world then they are ultimately killed in the real world.

'Wes Craven's New Nightmare' (1994)

Wes Craven's New Nightmare is a 1994 horror-fantasy metafilm

Although the seventh instalment in the Nightmare on Elm Street series, New Nightmare is not part of the series

The plot focuses on Freddy invading the real world and haunting the actors and crew responsible for the Nightmare on Elm Street films.

References to other horror films.

A Nightmare on Elm Street is also referenced in the high school janitor. Fred, played by Craven, wears an outfit resembling Freddy Krueger's.

At one point Billy sneaks into Sidney's room through her window, startling her, in a way that quotes Glen sneaking into Nancy's room in A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Halloween is referenced many times throughout the film. When Casey's parents come home and see that something is wrong, her father says to her mother, "Drive down to the Mackenzies', which a quote from Halloween is.

Billy's surname, Loomis, is the same as that of Donald Pleasence's character in Halloween, which in turn was the name of Marion Crane's lover in Psycho.

As Stu and Billy reveal themselves to Sidney as the killers, they stand head to head, echoing a famous still photo from the film The Thing with Two Heads (1972).

When is dragged across the lawn by her murderer it strongly resembles a scene from Dementia 13.

The blood pooling at Gale's feet by the news van is reminiscent of a scene in Night of the Living Dead where blood pools on the floor by Barbra's feet.

Many films are briefly mentioned during a scene in which Billy and Stu visit Randy at work at a video store. Films Randy mentions include Candy man, The Howling, Prom Night, Everybody's All-American. Frankenstein is showing on the monitors.

Sidney mentions The Town That Dreaded Sundown while she, Dewey and Tatum are buying food for the party.

Joseph Whipp, who plays Sheriff Burke in Scream, also plays the sheriff in A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Frances Lee McCain, playing Mrs. Riley, also played the part of Billy's mother, Lynn Peltzer, in 1984's Gremlins.

Scream

Scream is a 1996 film directed by Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson.

The film revitalized the slasher film genre in the mid 1990s

Scream became a major commercial success upon its release, and was one of the highest grossing films of 1996.

As a result it spawned two sequels, Scream 2 and Scream 3.

A fourth film was announced by The Weinstein Company in July 2008.

Scream Two

Scream 2 (1997) is a horror thriller film, the second part of the Scream trilogy.

As with the other films in the trilogy, Scream 2 combines straight-forward scares with dialogue that satirizes conventions of slasher films.

Scream Three

Scream 3 is a 2000 film - the third instalment in the successful Scream series of satirical horror films.

It was originally meant to be last instalment of the Scream series, but in 2008, Scream 4 was officially announced by Dimension Films.

This is the only part of the Scream trilogy not to be written by Kevin Williamson

Cover Work Tues 24.03.09

2009-03-29T12:49:00.012+01:00

'Halloween: UK'

This movie confirms to its generic conventions, so I wouldn’t change the movie dramatically.
I would use the same iconographies such as:

Knifes

Blood

Masked killer

I will also keep the music use at the beginning the same as it is known as the Halloween theme tune; therefore people will be familiar with it. I would change the setting from large houses, as this is too common and stereotypical, instead I would use a mansion therefore creating a new convention.
Women in horror films are most of the time represented as the weaker sex who dies first; therefore I would change the order in which characters. Furthermore I would use characters who my audience can relate to such as, over weight characters in order to break the stereotype that all actors are anorexic also reflecting the Zeitgeist.

'Friday 13th'

The original Friday the 13th film was produced and directed by Sean S. Cunningham he wanted Friday the 13th to be “shocking, visually stunning, and make you jump out of your seat"

The first film was meant to be "a real scary movie" and at the same time make the audience laugh. Friday the 13th began its life as nothing more than a title.

Following the success of Friday the 13th in 1980, Paramount Pictures began plans to make a sequel. "We wanted it to be an event, where teenagers would flock to the theatres on that Friday night to see the latest episode."
The initial ideas for a sequel involved the Friday the 13th title being used for a series of films, released once a year.With every film repeating the same premise, the filmmakers had to come up with little tweaks to provide freshness so the audience would return.

The concept of a crossover between Freddy and Jason was not new since Paramount had approached New Line, years before they had gained the rights to Friday the 13th, about doing a crossover film.

Freddy and Jason were finally set to meet in 2003. One of the biggest hurdles for the film was developing a story that managed to bring the two horror icons together.

Cover Work Tues 17.03.09

2009-03-29T12:43:00.002+01:00

Targets:

Embed quotes, so that they make sense

Use more key concepts, e.g. Media Language

Use more theorists

Link arguments to SHEP

Next steps to improve:
Use targets in my 2nd draft to make it better and rewrite the paragraphs so they make sense.

13D1 & 13C2 Cover Work: Wed 10.03

2009-03-22T15:23:00.007Z

Unit 1: Introducing Genre

Genre is actually a French word for "Type" or "Category"

Genres are not fixed; they are used to help us understand films.

Films outside the main stream are called "art films" which are intended for select or specialist audiences

Unit 2: Genre Classification

Most genres offer a narrative of Reassurance

The repertoire of elements features iconography, style, setting, narrative, characters.

Iconography can be both visual image and sound image

Unit 3: Hollywood and Genre

Genre declined as genre theorist argued that "genres began as fairly loose groupings that gradually evolved towards a "mature" or "classic" period."

"B" films and genres, like genre fiction, were seen as "low status" by critics and commentators

Hollywood is a generic cinema, which is not quite the same as saying it is a cinema of genres" Richard Maltby, 1995

Unit 4: Audiences and Genres

Audiences get from film genres. These pleasures are the following:

Emotional Pleasures-Some genres are generically designed to make the audience feel emotional in different ways

Visceral Pleasures- This is how the film is style to have a physical effect on audiences

Intellectual Puzzles- This allows the audience to interact and allows them to try and unravel the mystery of "who dunnit"

Counter-Culture Attraction- Where the audience can unravel the genre from the conventions of the films or in other words, the "Repertoire of Elements"

Unit 5: Stars and Genres

Theorist "Ellis" stated that "Stars hold a "promise" to audiences”

Ellis (1992) and Dyer (1987) have suggested ways in which audiences engage with stars and why they have become central to our understanding of Hollywood cinema.

Dyer identified various major stars from the studio system as representing "social types" across a range of films:

“Good Joe"

"Tough guy"

"Pin up"

"Rebel"

"Independent women"

2009-02-24T09:51:00.002Z

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jan/19/prince-harry-racism-newspapers - prince Harry calls a soldier "our little Paki friend"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2005/jan/24/mondaymediasection.race - asians not having equal opportunties.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/feb/08/bafta-awards-2009-winners - shows how far indian film have come.

http://www.asiansinmedia.org/news/article.php/television/1628 - representations of the new asian family in Eastenders.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/2367945.stm - Asian media's bright future

Independent Study - First Draft

2009-02-03T23:37:00.007Z

- I dont know why my footnotes aren't there, but I have done them!

What are the typical conventions of Reality TV shows making particular reference to Big Brother?

The typical conventions of any Reality television show is that they offer “a set of rules” whereby the contestants must obey by to make it relate to its genre. There are also other conventions which contestants must obey by and this is all too win a cash prize. There has been an increase in viewers for reality TV shows after the success of Big Brother. What is different about reality TV is that it claims to show “realism”, but does it just expose different representations of people? Moreover Reality TV has changed the viewing habits of people, now drawing them into a world of voyeurism like the reality TV show “Candid Camera” whereby the audience “was not able to contribute or affect events in any ways” and away from the typical entertainment television.

The history of reality TV had started from the programme “Candid Camera” this type of reality TV is a “voyeuristic programme, where the participants are not aware that they are being filmed”, but in the 20th century we are now introduced to reality TV shows such as, “The Osbournes, “I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here”, “Supernanny” where the contestants now know that they are being filmed. This can start the argument that is reality TV in the 20th century really real? As contestants know that they are being filmed, so they may act different, the programme “Dead Set” is a acting out programme copying the conventions of Big Brother. If we were to compare “Big Brother” with “Dead Set” would we be able to see a difference as contestants on “Big Brother” know that they are being filmed and they may act in certain ways.

Different types of reality TV shows have a mixture o conventions “to concoct something different” from the different types of reality TV shows such as: “Docusoaps”. “Genres work by providing conventions which allow efficient communication between producers and audiences” , this may be the case in some shows such as Big Brother, as they have a mixture of “Docusoaps” conventions, where the audience is being passive, and “reality game shows” where “these programmes incorporate voyeuristic elements” .Reality TV is a development of this form of documentary”
Also in Big Brother there is a hint of “Celebrity reality game shows”, as some series of Big Brother have had celebrities competing in tasks.
From reality TV taking different conventions from documentaries and other reality TV programmes, we can say that Big Brother belongs to a hybrid genre, as it takes codes and conventions from these genres to again “concoct something different”, therefore theses mixtures of genres creates the communications between the producer and audience.

In many reality television shows, such as “I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here” the viewers and the camera are passive observers.
Reality TV shows have increased after witnessing the success of Big Brother a popular offering to reality TV programmes, where viewers watch people interact in a house, but also other statistics show that “while Big Brothers 4 final drew in a peak audience of 7.4 million, viewers fell 2 million short of last years final” this may suggest that the audience had become more “actively engaged in the interpretation of media texts rather than as passive consumers”, showing that they may have realized that the conventions of reality TV shows are not very realistic and not conveying with the genre of reality TV programmes.

The genre of reality TV has now extended due to the fact that “different audiences will use a genre in different ways at different times” , there are many different reality TV programmes that thrive to please there intended audience and this may be why there are a wide variety of reality TV programmes. "Super nanny" and "Beauty and the Geek", are both reality TV programmes that have very different conventions, and this maybe be due to the fact that “genre can be approached…from the point of view audience understanding and response” , the change in conventions means that they will gain a different and wider audience.

Reality TV has a wide range of different programmes which have different conventions to obey by to create there own audience group moreover, reality TV is being more preferred for those people who find watching ordinary people do outrageous thing, more entertaining than watching talented actors and comedians. “Reality TV” therefore is feeding there audiences as they know something that is acted out is obviously a fantasy, but the audience do not think about the editing that is done in these programmes to portray certain things therefore, they are allowing themselves to be injected with the thought that what they are watching is reality.

These shows claim “realism”, but “decisions on which shots to include were key” so that they could gain viewers. Other reality TV shows such as The Up Series (1964) followed the lives of 14 British children aged 14years, there were shown to represent different socio-economic backgrounds in Britain at the particular time. The Up Series was a serious documentary to inform its audience on the subject of that there child’s social class can predict their future. This reality programmes was a serious programme and also had a meaning behind it plus had something to education its audience about, unlike Reality TV shows in the 20th century where the makers now “manipulated the audiences…contestants…the tabloids and broadsheet press” , just in aid for themselves to gain viewers.

Watching other people embarrass themselves in front of cameras has become the new entertainment for viewers, and this could refer to the concept of “dumbing down” as now society is choosing to watch contestants do strange and outrageous things just to be entertained, where as in the 19th century society may have watched reality TV shows such as “The Up Series” the gain advice on what they would want there child’s social class to be. Therefore in the 19th century the media wanted to educate their audiences where as nowadays the media is choosing to allow their audiences to watch reality TV shows that may not have any form of serious social issues, neither any form of education. The media may have resorted to not educating there audience as now social in the 20th century the economy is facing the recession and the media may just want to find quick and fast way to entertain their audience and earn money.

This rise in reality television and also the change in genre and conventions towards reality television reflect the changing tastes of the viewers, who are clearly not fused about the quality of programming as there has been in the past. This may suggest that men and women do not have a great concern about the different and new conventions of reality TV programmes, as they now go out to work. They do not have the time to sit at home and watch good quality movies, with a good narrative structure, they may just want people that they ca to relate to on people TV. It might be that people will change their viewing habits when reality television is nothing of the kind. Maybe reality TV should be name "contrived television" as after all, it is a form of television relying on the editing which makes boring, everyday situations appealing to an audience that is easily pleased and is easily being injected by what the media is giving them.

Big Brother is not the highest rated programme. If Big Brother where to be compared with a TV soap this may be misleading, as TV soaps are aired in the evening where as Big Brother is aired much later giving it a much more smaller audience. But research shows that “In 2003 Reality TV shows still dominated prime time slots” . Reality television has pushed genuine entertainment out of the way and more and more viewers are beginning to watch reality TV show’s, rather than watching programs that were to feature great actors and included excellent story lines. But a new reality show just like “Big Brother” was constructed to attract and hold an audience as it claims to use “real” people in “real” situations, and also chooses to manipulate them to produce narrative and conflict in the programmes.

Big Brother has a variety of different contestants in the house, and favourite contestants may be more likeable on the outside world. When Jade Goody was evicted on 19th January, Big Brother had a high level of viewer, this may be for the reason that, she had created a lot of drama, and the audience may have wanted her to stay or go. On one occasion on Big Brother Jade Goody was “allegedly racist bullying of Shetty on Celebrity Big Brother” , therefore on this series of Big Brother Jade has caused a situation which attracted a higher audience and also an audience type that may have wanted to watch this certain eviction interview for surveillance purposes.
Also Big Brother may have a high number of views due to it’s varies different Big Brother shows, also “producers provide different programmes and viewing experiences for different audiences” . This shows a new convention to reality shows, as they provide a wider range of access for their audiences to watch and catch up with what is happening on the show.

The hardest audience type to encourage in watching television is the younger generation, but Annette Hills Research (2002), showed that “young and educated viewers were more likely to watch Big Brother, with more women than men, and also 16-24 years-olds ”. Big Brother was a certain type of reality TV show that was superior at attracting a young audience. Statistics show the audience group % of total 8-16 11.5, 16-34 49.3, 35-54 29.2, and 55+ 10.0 also Male 42.4 and Female 57.7. They may have been a higher percentage in females, as they may use reality TV as a form of “diversion in the form of escape from reality, emotional release or pleasure” to their normal lives. Moreover there may be a high percentage of teenagers due to “the actual range of opportunities available to the audience” for example they could use there mobile phones to text votes during eviction this also shows the change in technology. There were also a percentage of men that watched Big Brother and this could be explained by the “available showing at pubs” . The high views for Big Brother may be explained to the new conventions and the wide range of availability it has to its audiences.

Often “the producer’s of the show would have audiences believes that they simply present unmediated highlights-but is that possible” , for example in Big Brother 4 “did Jon really bore the other lads to sleep with his detailed knowledge of Star Wars, or did the producers shape the footage that way to construct a representation of Jon that could be easily mocked”. This also they may be seen as biased, as Jon may have been a disliked character in the “outside world” therefore this footage had been edited for him to be seen as a boring character, therefore “the audience’s behaviour and opinions are being directly affected” .
These shows claim “realism”. But it is the way the programmes are shot and maybe they should be in a genre of observational documentaries s they are watching people and how they go about living their everyday life’s? In reality TV shows such as Big Brother ordinary contestants are seen to be treated as celebrities even before they appear on the show, as they get their expenses covered for them, so this may be an even bigger encouragement and desire for them to be on television, and also win the cash prize, furthermore this may encourage contestants to act in a way to be liked. Jade Goody had seen her life transform and “Nasty” Nick Bateman had a successful career in the media after appearing on Big Brother. During the “casting process” , “contestants were drawn from a variety of ethnic backgrounds covering some of the major ethnic communities in the UK” , this shows that Big Brother is trying to create a reach towards a wider audience and have someone they can relate too, here Big Brother may be following the conventions of “The Up Series” as they represented contestants from different social classes and Big Brother was represent ting contestants from different ethnic backgrounds. During the “casting process” they may choose people that they may be seen to cause argument and throw people who would be see to cause big fights and stop communicating in the house and in the house they have to keep communicating for a long time, this again shows how Big Brother, moulds the show to gain viewers, could this also be a new convention for reality TV shows? To place opposites just to certain arguments or is it another way to gain viewers.

Reality shows are cheap there is no need for them to pay for writers, actors, or any rehearsals etc. They use ordinary people, and this is there way of a cheap way to make television. Hour long drama cost around £875,000 per hour and Reality TV cost £114, 00 per hour. Shilpa Shetty was paid between £200,000 and £300,000 for appearing on the show, and this gave Big Brother its most popular rating of10 million viewers. It may have gained this popular rating due to two argumentative people, they may have placed Jade Goody in Big Brother again as they know what high ratings they had given them before.

There are many different types of Reality TV programmes ranging from Docusoaps to celebrity reality game shows, reality TV has also been labelled as a development of fly on the wall documentaries as they take the conventions of this type of documentary. We know that “genres are flexible” , but are the main conventions of reality TV shows flexible, as the “conventions of a genre are always in play rather than being simple”, therefore reality TV programmes only change the conventions as a whole just to please and to gain a wider audience. We have learnt that there are a wide range of reality TV shows, which have active and passive audience types, for comparison “I’m a Celebrity Get Me out Of Here” and “Supernanny”, an audience that is watching “I’m a Celebrity Get Me out Of Here”, is active as they may see certain characters acting a in certain way to gain votes, and in “Supernanny” there is a passive audience as they are being taught and told on how to treat there children. Moreover these audiences are again being feed by the hyperdermic needle as the passive audience is agreeing with what the media gives them. The conventions of these two reality TV programmes are different as in “Supernanny” the children are not being voted off, as this is not one of the conventions of this show, but the audience is still watching the children being observed, and in “I’m a Celebrity Get Me out Of Here” like Big Brother the viewer can choose which contestants they want voted off and also which contestant they want to see perform tasks. But these to different reality TV programmes still belong to the genre type of reality TV.

Over all the new and different conventions of these reality TV shows maybe the reason as to why people would rather watch reality TV programmes rather than good quality TV as said before. Also there are varies different conventions that apply for each and every different reality TV programme which may be the reason why there are so many different reality TV programmes around. These different conventions appeal to the different audience types but will reality TV taken over good quality TV, and will one day reality TV be the development of another genre, from the conventions set by reality TV.

Bibliography

2009-02-03T23:31:00.006Z

'Works Cited'

Book’s

Andrew Tudor (1986)

(2003). BFI Film and Television Handbook 2003. London: British Film Institute.

Branston, G., Branston, G., & Stafford, R. (2003). The Media Student's Book. New York: Routledge.

Dyja, E. (2003). BFI Film and Television Handbook (B F I Film Handbook). London: British Film
Institute.

(2002). Genre and Contemporary Hollywood. London: British Film Institute.

Mckee, A. (2003). Textual Analysis: A Beginner's Guide. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Ltd.

Patrick Phillips (1996)

Probert, D. (2005). As/A Level Media Studies Essential Word Dictionary (Essential Word
Dictionaries). Unknown: Philip Allan Updates.

Revision Express AS and A2 Media Studies - Pearson Education Limited

Richard Maltby (1995)

Steve Neale (1980)

Internet

She survived Jade, Jo and Channel 4. Now Shilpa reaps her reward | Media | The Guardian . (n.d.). Retrieved February 3, 2009, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/jan/27/india.bigbrother.

Magazines

MediaMagazine|december 2003|english and media centre

'Works Consulted'

Annette Hill’s research (2002)

2009-01-27T10:37:00.002Z

What are the typical conventions of reality TV shows making particular reference to big brother?

Craig Coates: "I refuse to diminish my character to survive in this house"

Reality television offers “a set of rules which allow us to “shape” reality, thus making it appear less random and disordered”[1]. The main conventions of reality TV feature ordinary people instead of actors, moreover it consists of a group of contestants who are completely conflict with each other 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. Reality TV increased after the success of Big Brother where the audience “interplay between confirmed expectation and novelty”[2]. 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 where they “collectively believe it to be”[3], and takes them away from the typical entertainment television making “genres flexible”[4].

[1] Patrick Phillips (1996)
[2] Douglas Pye (1975)
[3] Andrew Tudor (1986)
[4] Richard Maltby (1995)

Self Evalutation

2009-01-27T07:30:00.003Z

Attainment - C

Effort – 2 – I have put a lot of effort into my work this term, for example my blogwork and also in lessons e.g. bring correct equipment, organising folder…

Punctuality – 1 – I am not ever late to lessons only Ms Jones

Submission and quality of homework – 2 – I do hand my homework in on time but I do not think that the quality of it is up to standards as I rush it a lot, this might be one of my ebi’s.

Ability to work independently – 2 – This term I have work independently a lot due to my independent study.

Quality of writing – 3 – I often rush my work, therefore it might not be of good quality

Organisation of Media folder – 1 – my media folder is organised very well, and a different folder for each teacher

Oral contributions in class – 2 – As sometimes I do not understand and wait for others to speak first

Standard of Module 5 blog – 1 – Is up to date with what Ms Jones has told us to post up there

Standard of Module 6 blog - 1 – This blog is also up to date with extra research

WWW
• Organisation of media folder
• Attendance
• Concentration in class

EBI

• Took more time of my own to understand work I don’t
• Take more time to do my work so it is of a good quality
• Try and give more contributions in class

Endemol - Programmes

2009-01-04T22:34:00.001Z

Some programmes it shows..

Endemol - History

2009-01-04T22:33:00.000Z

In 1994, the production companies of two major television producers in the Netherlands, Joop van den Ende and John de Mol, merged to become Endemol. This merger triggered the international development of the Endemol Group and since then Endemol has rapidly expanded to become a leading format creation and production company.

Endemol Entertainment Holding N.V. was listed on the Amsterdam stock exchange in 1996. Telefónica made a public offer for all of the outstanding shares of Endemol in 2000, pursuant to which it acquired 99.7% of the outstanding shares. From mid 2000 till mid 2007 Endemol has been part of Telefónica S.A.

On 3 July 2007, Endemol's major shareholder Telefonica sold its 75% stake in Endemol to Edam Acquisition. Pursuant to this transaction, an offer was made for the remaining shares, resulting in Edam Acquisition owning 99.5% of all Endemol shares by mid August 2007 followed by a delisting of the company in September 2007

First Paragraph Task

2008-12-18T10:21:00.008Z

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.

Essay Plan Task

2008-12-18T10:19:00.025Z

Essay plan What are the typical conventions of reality TV shows making particular reference to big brother?

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, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi.

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.

6)Creeber, Glen: Fifty Key Television Programmes. Edward Arnold (publishers) limited

7)Dyla, Eddie: BFI Film & Television handbook 2004. British Film Institute.

8)Mckee, Alan, (2003): Textual Analysis a beginner’s guide. SAGE publications Ltd London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi.

9)Maltby, Richard (2003): Hollywood Cinema.

: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

10)Neale, Steve (2002): Genre and Contemporary Hollywood. London: 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

2008-12-18T10:19:00.023Z

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.

Contemporary Adverts

2008-12-17T21:57:00.002Z

Diet Coke Break Advert

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

2008-12-17T21:54:00.004Z

Shake & Vac Advert
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.

Subvertisement

2008-12-16T10:29:00.007Z

2)

3)

Female Director's

2008-12-16T00:17:00.007Z

Why women directors are such a rare sight?

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

2008-12-16T00:13:00.002Z

Gender in advertising

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!

Bibliography: Books

2008-12-09T10:44:00.000Z

1) “Genre is a powerful tool for making sense of texts. Genres work by providing conventions which allow efficient communication between producers and audiences”

– 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.

1940's-1990's

2008-12-08T22:15:00.012Z

1940
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

Representation of Women Today

2008-12-01T22:27:00.019Z

-In the past 10-15 years things have changed. Men and women are seen working side by side, as equals, in the hospitals, school, and police stations of television-land.

-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

2008-12-01T22:24:00.010Z

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

Women and Men in Movies

-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 Ark (1981), Karen not simply a "love interest" but spunky, assertive and intelligent character.

-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 Hollywood films, and in 1960's and 1970's against female sexual emancipation.

Hegemony & Pluralism

2008-11-20T23:19:00.002Z

Hegemony is a concept by Gramsci, he show’s that everyday things that we do to create a complex system in society, can be feed to use through by a dominate group or class. It shows how we are feed by the media to believe what they tell us to do is correct. For example as Althusse explains in the “ideological state apparatus” that, religion, media, and family can feed us views that we believe in and these 3 things help us structure how we live. Another example is where school students are feed by teachers what they have to do in school, like coming to lessons and school in time. All these example I have given of how many things can brainwash peoples is given the term “indoctrinate and manipulate” by the theorist Marcuse. The hegemonic concept is for a passive audience.

The Pluralistic concept has an active audience, where they interpret media texts for themselves and creates more than one meaning for that text. This creates a negotiated and optional reading for its audience which also link to the reception theory, the media in these texts have to be pluralistic and reflect society. The pluralistic way of looking at the media gives the audience a sense of freedom to view society as how they want.

I feel there is no convening concept as if there was no hegemony in this world then society may not be structure properly, but if there was no pluralism people would have any freedom of speech in how they think the media can manipulate people. There is no concept that is convincing for me, as I think that we need both hegemony and pluralism as with hegemony society is structured and with pluralism it let people speak out.

2008-11-18T09:58:00.002Z

- "Titles such as Loaded, FHM and Maim distinguish themselves from pornographic publications today"

- "Full of women posing naked... similar to those in Playboy, a top shelf publication"

- "Modern magazine follow the conventions of Playboy, in which women are depicted as objects for men's contemplation and enjoyment"

- "hold an overriding emphasis on penetrative sex and repeatedly represent women as the weaker gender who were made only to make men's life more enjoyable and entertaining"

- "The scantily dressed females represent women as sex objects and exhibit an overpowering masculinity to the audience and therefore re-enforce negative stereotypes in the media"

- "Cynically, the lifestyle "labelled" magazines for men are simply a way for the publishing institutions to make a lot of money"

Close Textual Analysis

2008-11-18T00:11:00.005Z

I choose this scene to look at in detail for my textual analysis as it shows’ a lot of different representation of characters.

MEDIA LANGUAGE: The opening shot of this scene begins as the camera captures a few of the housemate’s interaction in the “party games”. Their clothes vary from fake wigs, angel like costume to casual clothing of some housemates. It’s hard to say if there is a protagonist or a leader in this scene as there are a lot of housemates gathered. Editing includes zoom outs to see the entire atmosphere and zoom in on individual faces to see the impact of questions asked. The first question that is asked it “what is your bank balance before you came in” after this question is asked the camera is zoomed out, to show the different facial expressions on different housemates. Brain seemed to be in shock after the question was answered and the camera was instantly zoomed into his face, this shows the fascination that people have of money, or the fact that they may feel is a person has this much money why are they on Big Brother to win the cash prize? The costume’s used such as angel like costumes may show what kind of an image that contestant is trying to portray of themselves. Some costumes are also 70’s like as they are wearing brightly coloured jumpers and wigs, the use of these costumes is to again create a atmosphere almost like primary school children playing a game of truth and dare, as the different costumes that some housemates choose to wear, shows there each individual character. For example Channele is wearing an angel like costume so therefore she might presume herself as an angel.

INSTITUTION: Big Brother is shown as powerful. They are the ones who control the shots and scene’s to be shown. But it may portray them in a negative way as they may show certain issues that are happening in the house, just to gain viewers.

GENRE: This scene has two genres. It has an overall genre of a reality TV show, as it follows the conventions of reality TV shows, as the camera pans to the highlights that happen, and the second genre being a party, as they also have the typical conventions of a party, like costumes hats, and “party games”.

REPRESENTION: The older people in the scene are represented as laid back and are observing what is happening in the game around them, Ziggy observes to see the response to the questions of “who do you like in the house”. Where as the younger contestants play a more interactive role and are represented as lively and maybe socially interactive. The scene also represents woman in a maybe “ladish” way from the way in which Charley is screaming in a violent way, or is may be seen as a way to get attention. Also there is a slight representation of women, there are two types of women being shown one of which are the “good girls” and the other being the “bad girls” this can be seen as, the “good girls” are wearing casual sports clothes and are showing little interaction in the game. The “bad girls” that are shown may be characters such as Charley as she is wearing provocative clothing for the male audience, by her wearing these type of clothes, may create fans for her and but also may show her in need of attention.

AUDIENCE: This scene indicates that the audience for this particular scene is for a young audience, of about 14-17 in age as they would better understand the game - “Truth and dare”.

VALUES & IDEOLOGY: In this scene the audience sees a tame version of expectations of the game “truth and dare”. In the relationship between the two male contestants first kissing deeply and then peeking. However this suggests that the media is now more open to show male relationship on TV and are more comfortable in showing it in an edited episode as the issue is becoming more acceptable in society and also in the media. Channelle is embarrassed by Ziggy kissing an older contestants bottom, which suggests that Chanelle is less unadventurous than the other younger contestants. Nikki comes across as typically feminine, as she is “properly” dressed and also talks and shouts to a minimum and does not let attention draw to her.
Other Values and Ideologies that are shown may be

NARRATIVE: Party games that are being played, - “truth and dare” there is also a narrative of Ziggy and the person next to him (forgot her name! opps), as they are waiting to see whether or not Billy gives the impression that he like Channelle, which in the end there conclusion was wrong.

del.ici.ous Links x10

2008-11-11T09:50:00.005Z

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_television - History of reality TV and diffrent reality TV shows

http://technorati.com/tag/reality-tv?language=en&authority=a4 - latest gossip on reality TV shows

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/List-of-reality-television-programs - other reality TV shows

http://www.realitytvworld.com/ - headlines

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/realitytv - headlines for reality TV shoe Xfactor

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/1459878.stm - how much more further will Big Brother go

10 key words

2008-11-04T09:16:00.001Z

Active audience theory: any of various theories of audience behaviour that see the audience as active participants in the process of decoding and making sense of media texts.

- I can show how the audience relates to different reality programmes

Althusser, Louis: French Marxist sociologist with a particular interest in the role of the media in supporting dominant ideology and the symbolic order separating us from reality.

-
Attitudes, beliefs and values: terms commonly used when discussing the audience for media products and the factors influencing the reception of media messages.

- How the media can be influential towards its audience.

Audience: the groups or individuals targeted by producers as the intended consumers of media texts. Owing to the wide availability of media texts, the actual viewers, readers or listeners may not be those originally targeted.

- How programmes aim to target for a particular audience.

Audience flow: in television scheduling, the extension of an audience by, for example, placing a new comedy after an established one, or by clustering similar programmes together.

- To gain ore viewing shows are shown at certain times.

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 programme.

- How programmes engage its audience – maybe for more audience viewings?

Audience theory: any various theories about the behaviour of audiences with regard to media texts.

- Use this theory in my question

Realism: a film and television style that attempts to represent the real world.
- I can argue how real is reality TV

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 behaviour 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.

- Use this theory and relate it to my question.

Who watches it?

2008-11-03T23:03:00.009Z

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.

Is it really REAL?

2008-11-03T23:02:00.000Z

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 sucuessful 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.

Why is there so much Reality TV around?

2008-11-03T22:52:00.002Z

The popularity of Reality TV is due to the broadcasting increasing in its competition and to move from a niche audience to a mass audience. It tries to attract the largest possible number of people a channel or programmes.

ITV dropped from 44% audience share in 1981 to 20% in 2006, but this is still more successful than some niche channels. But the decrease in viewers meant mainstream broadcasters needed to make programmes that attract a mass audience and find a way to hold onto this audience.

COST

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.

2^nd series of Big Brother had 4.5 million viewers – 70 % increase.

3^rd Big Brother – 10 million text messages 10 million viewers for its finale

Advert slot during Big Brother costs - £40,000

Bibliography

2008-11-02T21:22:00.003Z

http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=314&issue=114

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0008/23/cf.00.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_television

MORE WILL BE ADDED AS I GO ALONG..

Reality TV & Some Notes

2008-11-02T19:33:00.002Z

Reality television is a genre of television programming which presents unscripted dramatic/humorous situations it features ordinary people instead of professional actors.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.

Below some notes on Big Brother and other shows and a bit of history on them.

Some documentary-style programs place cast members, who may previously did not know each other, in artificial living environments; The Real World.

In almost every other such show, cast members are given a specific challenge or obstacle to overcome. Road Rules, this show started in 1995 as a spinoff of The Real World.

Big Brother is the best known program of this type in the world with different versions produced in many countries around the globe.

Another example of a show in this category is The 1990 house where cast members are forced to live and work as people of a specific time and place.

A show in 2001's Tempation Island has achieved a bad name by placing several couples on an island surrounded by single people in order to test the couples' commitment to each other.

Self Assesment on Presentation

2008-11-02T18:49:00.002Z

WWW
I think I had a good understanding of how reality TV began. Also I knoew a lot in Big brother as a whole, and related it to other texts. Also me asking my audience a lot of different questions made them interact and stay focused.

EBI
I didn’t have the right body language for my presentation which made my audience lose interest. I could have also included more SHEP. Also I should have gone over my presentation to make sure I understood it as I faced problems with my question and also my theorist.

Reality TV and Presidential Politics?

2008-10-31T17:43:00.004Z

40 million Americans watched the final episode of "Survivor." Survivor is where 16 ordinary Americans are dumped months ago with a million dollars awaiting the one who outlasts all the other the longest. This is a reality television show and more people are watching this than watching the political conventions. Also more people are gossiping about Richard and Rudy, Susan and Kelly than are talking about George W. and Al.

This may be because reality television is more real? more spontaneous? more unpredictable? more in tune with people's lives than America's stage managed focus groups?

Reality TV is - manipulative the people are manipulative, and selfish, and opportunistic, and shallow. It's sending the signal that this is a good character, you're rewarded for all of those terrible attributes.
It's getting a bigger audience because there's more news coming out of "Survivor"?
OR
This show, the CBS show is better produced.

Fake shows like this "I Want A Divorce," where real life divorcing couples compete against each other for their own property.
"Chains of Love," in which a woman is chained to four men and must let go of one man until the day she's left with her dream date.
"The Mole," a game where a group of people try to compete in a series of tasks, and it ends up one guy is a mole and he subverts the task.

Why arent there more shows such as "Touched By An Angel,"

People may find politics boring, but it has been ever thus. Nearly 20 million people a day listen to Rush Limbaugh, 2 million people who listen to my show, are passionately involved in the political process. There have always been a large number of people who have chosen to tune out on politics. I'm not sure that many of the people who are watching "Survivor" aren't just voting with their feet, saying that they don't care that much about the political process.

What I've learnt on Reality TV

2008-10-31T16:37:00.003Z

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 a reflection 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.

Reception Theory

2008-10-31T16:33:00.005Z

After my presentation Ajitpal advised me to use the Reception Theory. I've made notes on the reception theory in my own words so that I can understand it.

Reception theory is understanding a media text by understanding these texts are read by audiences. Theorists who analyze the media through reception studies are concerned with the experience of cinema and television viewing on its audience, and how meaning is created through this experience. An important concept of the reception theory is that the individual movie or television program—has no meaning itself. The meaning is created in the interaction between the audience and text. So meaning is created as the viewer watches and processes the film.

Reception theory argues that contextual factors, influence the way the spectator views the film or television program more than textual ones. Contextual factors include elements of the viewer's identity as well as circumstances of exhibition, the audience will guess things that may happen in the film or television program's genre and production, and even broad social, historical, and political issues.
OVERALL 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.

Title Issues

2008-10-31T13:31:00.004Z

I have to change my question from
What is the genre of reality TV shows making particular reference to Big Brother?

TO

What are the typical conventions of reality TV shows making particular reference to Big Brother?

SO this means my 10 point action plan won't go as I planned.

Self Evaluation

2008-10-24T13:14:00.001+01:00

Attainment – 3 – I have not attended all my lessons from the beginning of term so I have put myself half way as I have started to attend my lessons.

Effort – 2 – I do not put in as much effort as I think I should be putting in as sometimes i rush my work for it to be done on time.

Punctuality – 2 – I am always on time for Mr Bush lessons but for some reason he isn’t, where as for Ms Jones lessons I often come late as they are in the morning.
Submission and quality of homework – 3 – I do my homework but it is often given in late to Mr Bush as he gives us a lot of work.

Ability to work independently - 2 – I have been working independently on my independent study so i think I do have the ability to work independently.

Quality of writing – 3 – I have given myself this because I sometimes rush my work to make sure it is given in on time.

Organisation of Media folder – 1 – my media folder is well organised as I have all my sheets in my folder from both teacher from every lesson

Oral contributions in class – 3 – my oral contribution is a 3 as I do not always contribute in lessons.

Standard of Module 5 blog – 2- It does not have a lot of information I think I can research a lot more on my topic but this will be done over the half term.

Standard of Module 6 blog – 2 – My blog for Ms Jones hasn’t got a lot of information on it either but has all the homework on it which she has asked for us to do.

WWW
- I have been working very hard on my Independent study
- Been keeping all my notes
- Been making extra notes in lesson that I feel will help me
EBI
- More research on blogs
- More concentration in lessons

Action Plan Timetable

2008-10-20T21:15:00.006+01:00

1) Research on Reality TV 21/10/2008
A broad reasearch analysis on Reality TV show and how much and what I have learnt on it

2) SHEP 27/10/2008
Look at how big brother has changed from the first series, how much profit it makes, how society is affect by reality TV shows.

3) Political side of Big Brother 23/10/2008
Look at how people are more into reality TV shows than politics

4) View other texts 25/10/2008
The more reality TV clips I watch the more i will be able to contrast these texts to my own chosen text.

5) Theorists 28/10/2008
Look at relevant theorist - books and internet

6) How real is it 30/10/2008

7) Analyse research in own words 2/11/2008
All the research that I get from the internet and from books I will go back and look at and make sure it is in my own words.

8) Audience effect 31/11/2008

9) Bibliography 1/11/2008
When I get my research I will have to make a record of where I got my research from

Self-Assesment Of Blog Work

2008-10-05T14:47:00.016+01:00

A01

I have covered the key concepts of my texts quiet well. There are a lot more MIGRAIN analysis to been done as my topic is a reality TV show there are many clips I need to look at to say I have covered all the key concepts on my topic. The key concept that I have covered best on my topic is representation as I can talk about how different contestants are being portrayed and represented from they way they act. The that key concepts that I need to work more on is narrative and genre, I need to research more on these key concepts as the key concept genre relates back to my question and the narrative for each clip that I look at is different. I will achieve this by looking at genre of different types of reality shows and what genre is within it. For narrative I will look at more clips from the big brother show.

A02

I have not considered the current zeitgeist and how it has a impact on my text, neither have I included the SHEP concept. I will have to work on this assessment objective as for the current zeitgeist and SHEP I will have to go into depth and do a lot of explanation which I find harder then researching.

A05

As for research on my topic I have only looked at online articles and not any texts or books, but the books I will be looking at will relate to genre and reality TV shows and how they have changed during time. I have considered issues and debates in my proposal such as how big brother has changed and the issue's surrounding bullying and how politicians had a say in this issue.
I have analysed 4 scenes from my text and have done a MIGRAIN analysis for each one, I have not related any theorist on the scenes themselves but I have theorist to relate to on big brother as a whole.
I cannot view my text on a whole as it is a series so it is difficult to watch every single 1hour shows, so I have had to look at what I think the main scenes are and how they will relate to my text.

SYNOPTIC ABILITY

I have not related my independent study to Med 2 from last year, but I have my independent study to genre from Med 4 as my question state’s “What is the genre of reality TV shows”. I will include Med 6 issues and debates. I will include the issue and debates that I stated in my proposal and include them in my independent study. I have included 3 quotes from the Media Guardian website which I will include in my independent study; I will have to research and find more. These quotes are from stories which show the issue of bullying of Jade and Shilpa and another quote is from the story where Micky (a blind housemate) had been hit by a ball. I have not considered any values and ideologies of reality TV shows and big brother it’s self, but this is a question I can research on, as the values of a reality TV show will have an influence on what genre reality TV is.

CRITICAL AUTONOMY

I am thinking for myself as I have analysed clips myself and done MIGRAIN analysis on them and also coming up with my own interpretations. I have been working partly independent as I have been getting research from other websites but I have been putting them into my own words. I am not that self-motivated as I do not think I do enough research but in my holidays I will have more time and will do more research for my study and my blog.

QUALITY OF WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

I have presented my work carefully it is not that much in quantity but I have analysed my work very carefully so that I am able to understand it so it is easy for me in the future to in cooperate it in my study. I do use spell check and skim read through my work as well. I highlight key quotes that I feel relate to genre and reality TV and also big brother so then I can in cooperate this in my study.

Reviews

2008-09-29T21:41:00.005+01:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/sep/05/tvratings.television

3.3 million viewers
-I thought this quote was relevant, as it shows such how many people watch reality TV show and how the people may use reality TV shows as escapism.

Mock the Week - 2.9 million, 13% share in 30 minutes
-I took this quote out of this article as it shows just how many people watch big brother. This quote is relevant to my study as it shows how many viewer the show gets and low other TV shows viewers are.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/aug/08/tvratings.television

100,000 viewers ahead of Harley Street
- Shows hows interested Big Brothers audience is into other people lifes - Uses & Gratification
further 330,000 watched Big Brother on Channel 4 +1
-How people are again more interest into other lives then their own - escapism?
Vanessa-Mae show gained 2.9 million
-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/aug/19/jade.bigbrother

hugged Goody before she entered
- From their past conflict on the Big Brother show in England, this show how they have put their issues to one side. The hug being shown on a show where media can capture it, will show the media the making of their new relationship.

Mark Thomas former editor of the People newspaper, said: "It is pretty obvious that she was looking forward to her time in the house but her health is the first priority and she is flying back for treatment and more tests."

Migrain

2008-09-29T18:47:00.005+01:00

M - Birds eye view so audience can see the impact of the incident

- Close up of where he had been hit to show the audience as they are not there to witness it

- Dialogue - Mickey swearing to express anger

I - Channel 4/Virgin

G - Reality TV show

R - Older men are shown to just have a laugh all the time e.g. when Mickey had been hit Rex laughed it off and they all began to say "Sorry" as they may have felt guilty. Where as when Mickey is taken inside the woman e.g. Rachel had asked "Is he Ok" showing sympathy and not guilt to make Mickey feel better.

- But this may show the typical view of a woman and man - woman - caring/sensitive , man - guilt/never admits.

A - Feel sympathy for Mickey as he has been hit by a ball and secondly because he is blind, and other house mates such as Rex are laughing and not sympathising with him.

- Watched for surveillance purposes, as they may have strong view on the affects/circumstances of having a blind person in a house under no supervision can be like.

I -

N - Reality TV show

- Show edited into 1hour programme

Med 5 Targets

2008-09-22T22:47:00.003+01:00

A01
I know of all the key concepts, but when looking at a text and relating key concepts to a particular text I need to look at the key concepts in more depth and explain it more.

A02
I need to work on this assessment objective as I find it difficult to relate the SHEP concept to my text I know this is a key assessment objective and would like to relate it to my text and look at this in depth too.

A05
I need alot of research on my text. The more i research on it the more I will learn my self about it and also the more I can talk about my topic in my final independent study. The research i have done so far is very broad.

Exploiting housemates - 2006

2008-09-18T20:54:00.006+01:00

Big Brother's history of bother

Last year's Big Brother 7 was accused by fans and health groups of exploiting housemates and neglecting their welfare.

Concerns were raised over Pete, who has Tourette syndrome and went on to win, and Shahbaz, who threatened to kill himself after five days in the house.

The Mental Health Foundation said Channel 4 appeared to be "exploiting vulnerable individuals to make a TV show".

But Ofcom said the show stayed within the bounds of acceptability and did not breach the broadcasting code.

Misleas phone voters - 2006

2008-09-18T20:49:00.005+01:00

Big Brother's history of bother

When four evicted housemates were reintroduced to Big Brother 7, more than 2,600 people complained to premium rate phone line watchdog Icstis.

They claimed to have been misled after paying to evict Grace, Lea, Mikey and Nikki once - only to see them return.

Icstis upheld the complaints, saying there was an "unprecedented number" and "undoubted strength of feeling".

Channel 4 admitted the oversight. It escaped a fine but was ordered to pay almost £50,000 in administrative costs.

Complaints from viewers - 2005

2008-09-18T20:47:00.005+01:00

Big Brother's history of bother

In 2005, Ofcom said Big Brother 6 operated "at the limits of acceptability".

Some 887 complaints were received about the series - with 259 relating to Kinga simulating sex with a wine bottle.

Others objected to Makosi and Anthony getting intimate in a hot tub. Ofcom raised "serious" concerns - but said the scenes did not break its code.

And presenter Davina McCall was cleared of racial discrimination over what some viewers called a hostile interview with Zimbabwean Makosi.

Poor me, poor me, pour me a drink - 2006

2008-09-18T20:42:00.007+01:00

Big Brother's history of bother

The last series of Celebrity Big Brother was marked by bitter exchanges between entertainer Michael Barrymore and politician George Galloway.

During an argument, Mr Galloway taunted Barrymore, a recovering alcoholic, with the phrase: "Poor me, poor me, pour me a drink."

The MP was also heavily criticised by constituents who felt he abandoned them and should have been in Westminster.

But that was all overshadowed by his infamous impression of a cat.

Big Brother Is Bully - 2005

2008-09-18T20:37:00.006+01:00

Big Brother's history of bother

After walking out of the celebrity show in 2005, Germaine Greer accused Big Brother of acting like a playground bully.

She said producers' "superior" tactics like making housemates cold and hungry could encourage school bullying.

"It was demonstrating the role of taunting in the playground," she said, charging Big Brother with behaving "like a child rather than a parent".

Greer left the show after failing to persuade other contestants to stage a naked protest against Big Brother.

Nasty Nick - 2000

2008-09-18T20:27:00.003+01:00

Big Brother's history of bother

After Big Brother landed in the UK in 2000, it did not take long for controversy to rear its head.

"Nasty" Nick tried to influence the nominations by writing notes and showing them to fellow contestants.

But his housemates confronted him in a moment of high drama that gripped the nation. Eventual winner Craig told Nick: "I just thought you were genuine.

"I was misled and you made me look a fool." Channel 4 threw Nick out for "persistent infringement" of the rules.

Genre

2008-09-09T10:01:00.005+01:00

Big Brother belongs to the genre of reality TV shows.

The conventions
1- Contestants are voted off one at a time to leave a winner.
2- There are private interviews with contestants 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 programme 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 programmes. Most of them gain little in the way of prizes or prize money so it is the fame that attracts them to the genre.

Narrative

2008-09-07T19:44:00.004+01:00

Big Brother has a active audience view where by the audience re-creates the meaning of what is shown, therefore the institution Big Brother has become pasive as it has no control over how the audience re-creates the meaning of the text.

In reality TV shows heroins and villains are created such as people that may start arguments or talk in abrupt ways, such as Jade Goody and also from this series Alexandra. Hero's are created in the audience eyes hero's may be female or male but mostly male. Heros in reality TV shows may support other contestants when they feel down, and also stay by thier side in arguements. Also in the reality show "I am Celebrity Get Me Out of Here" heros are created from the contestant that may win food supplement sfrom takin gpart and completeing the task set.

The role of the sound and music in Big Brother and reality TV shows play a big part. As soon as contestants hear the voice of who they must listen to and follow (in Big Brother this would be Devina or Big Brother from the Diaryroom), they instantly become aware and alert. Therefore the sound and voice of BigBrother plays a role of the master who the consestants must listen to.

Jacques Derrida (Deconstruction)

Jacques Derrida explored the relationship between the institution and the audience.
He suggest - The audience deconstructs a text within the context of its logos. So there is not a single meaning to the texts, but diffrent meanings and interpretations based on the way the audience chooses to receive the text. E.g. the audience made have make previous knowledge of related texts. (So big brother's audience may have watch other reality TV shows and then seemed interested in Big Brother)

Media Languages and Forms

2008-09-07T19:15:00.005+01:00

Conventions of Reality TV show: Typical to the genre. Show the reality of people inside and outside of the diary room.

Subversion of the conventions: There are many things which subvert the Reality TV shows, particularly Big Brother as there are many different people .e.g white people, gay people.

Non-verbal structures of meaning: There are many zoom ins in reality TV shows. The zoom ins are particularly fast when something shocking has happened, and are often repetitive to show how it sinks in. Many close ups are used as well to put an emphasis on a contestats facial expression.

Settings: The setting is in a house made on one floor with a garden. The setting is of a normal house with a family of contestants living inside of it. Where as the setting of "Im a celebrity get me out of here" is in a jungle, makes it less appealing to a audience.

Soundtrack/Language: The Big Brother soundtrack is the only soundtrack used in the one hour catch up. Its catchy but does not have any lyrics, also they have a voice over to help the audience recognize what is going on inside the programme.

Media Representations

2008-09-07T17:41:00.013+01:00

Alexandra is a single mother who had her daughter when she was 16 years old. Alexandra is proud of what she's achieved, in raising her child on her own, while also having a good job and nice cars,which shows she is a dependent woman. She was raised as a Christian, but a few years ago converted to Islam and despite trying to go to her mosque as often as she can, she now describes herself as a non-practising Muslim.
Alexandra's philosophy in life is "go hard or go home", she believes that private schools should be scrapped and that everyone should be educated to the same standard for free this mean that everyone has an equal start in life.

Her own worst critic, Alexandra is not very pleasant to live with as Big Brother has to kick her out due to aggressive behaviour

Belinda is a 44-year-old mum. She is radical, intellectual and argumentative. She once appeared on stage naked.She is currently an artistic director for a theatre group - which she describes as a 'multimedia experimental arts jam'. She has only ever been the boss and has never worked beneath anyone before. Which shows another independent woman!

Dale is a super confident he is desperate to be rich and famous and have girls screaming his name. This shows the typical stereotype of men. He is also described as friendly, funny but mostly arrogant, bigheaded and over confident.
Dale is currently studying to be a PE teacher although deep down he dreams of being a pro-footballer.
Dale loves "fit" girls and His dream celebrity dates would be Mischa Barton and Abbie Clancey.
If Dale where to win Big Brother means everything "f*** taking part, no one remembers the losers". He says he should be on the show because of his good looks and that he gets on with everyone, especially the girls. This shows that Dale is the typical guy that is shown and shows himself as arrogant.

Darnell was deported to the UK after getting involved with gang culture in the States and now focuses much of his time in mentoring community youth groups in North London. This shows made new equlibruim and now helps others from his mistakes. Darnell was born albino.
Darnell also currently writes songs professionally and loves all music, especially R'n'B and Hip Hop but hates death metal. Shows he is a dependent male who does not gaze other other female such as Dale.

Dennis says that things that make him happy are having his ego massaged, dancing, singing and performing.
If he could make any law, it would be that everyone must wear fake tan, and his dream job is to be a dancer and then perhaps a personal shopper. On a typical day he stresses out in front of the mirror for hours, and gets changed about three times before going out. This shows that he is a feminine guy, which goes against the norms and values of men who are usually the "bread winner" and are shown as being strong!

Jennifer is as ambitious, ruthless and opinionated - and she wouldn't enter Big Brother if she didn't think she could win. She has a 22-month-old daughter who has made her the proudest person in the world. being a single mothershe is still proud which shows that she is goin againt she norms and values of society. Jennifer says she uses her beauty and brains to get what she wants, which shos she is a woman who takes advantage of what she has. Jennifer's her motivation for doing Big Brother is to make her daughter and loved ones proud.

Kathreya came to the UK from Thailand seven years ago to study, and has since become a British citizen. Her dream is to travel the world and taste cookies in every country. A Thai massage therapist, she would love to one day open her own Thai massage agency, or alternatively open her own restaurant as she's also passionate about cooking. She admires to become a independent woman. Kathreya is a Buddhist, believes strongly in Karma and will do anything to avoid an argument. On the subject of her physical attributes, Kathreya likens her shape to a potato - "If you like jacket potato you will love me". This shows she is not a streotypical woman who would like to be slim.

One half of the first ever summer Big Brother couple, Lisa who is dating fellow new housemate Mario. She is a former bodybuilder and is a fitness and health fanatic who teaches fitness classes alongside her regular job as a sales rep for tanning products, being a body builder goes against the typical jobs of a woman which now shows in society woman are takin male jobs. She is also a proud mother of an 18-year-old daughter Lisa says she's often likened to Xena Warrior Princess, and says she's "like a magnet exerting powerful attraction".

You Tube MIGRAIN -Jade & Shilpa

2008-09-07T17:27:00.009+01:00

M: 1- Jade walking towards Shilpa with such power shows anger towards situation and use of violence but she knows she cannot be violent
2- Shilpa laughing at Jade shows Shilpas calm sense towards the situation that has been blown out of proportion.
3- "Its pathetic, your pathetic my opinion of you is fake!" - Jade whilst holding her hand on her, by Jade repeating herself may show that she has no other way to defend herself out of this situation
4- While Jade and Shilpa fight Danille and other girl laugh, this may show the influence other people such as Jade has grown on them

I: 1- Channel 4; public-service television broadcaster

G: 1- Reality TV show; showing how strong Shilpa is and how she can defend herself against 3 people
2- The reality of Jade has come out, as the audience can now see how argument she can get over childish things.

R: 1- Women in particular are represented as strong in a way as they are shouting at each other and nobody out of the two had cried.

2-But Shilpa as a woman maybe shown as weak as she needed a male to ease her nerves down

3- Men are represented as the peace maker in this scene as they re not shouting but sitting and observing. This fits in with the stereotype of men being patriarchal in a household in this scene the Big Brother house.

A: 1- Likely to be aimed at the typical target audiences of nuclear families, or people in India as they may be able to relate to this as they feel they can relate to Shilpa.
2- People most likely to be consuming for diversion purposes, particularly as there is a lot of drama.

3-also be for personal identity uses and gratifications, as the audience can build a relationship with the character.

I: 1- Some people such as Jade feel they have to fight there side of the argument by shouting, this may reflect the way she is brought up and show what norms and values she has been taught.
2- Male calming the woman down. This as said before portrays a stereotype of men having the upper hand.

Jade Goody & Shilpa Shetty

2008-09-07T15:39:00.003+01:00

Proposal

2008-07-16T10:09:00.010+01:00

Hypothesis:
What is the genre of reality TV shows making particular reference to Big Brother?

Brief Summary of Ideas:
Big Brother is different from other reality TV shows such as “I'm a Celebrity...Get Me out of Here” “Wife Swap” and “Ship Wreck”. Big Brother see’s how people react when they are being forced into close confinement with people who they are different to them and, lie outside their comfort zone. All contestants hold different opinions and ideas from other contestants, or are from a different group of people. Therefore, viewers will see how contestants react on the outside through constant recording of their actions and also what they feel on the inside through the Diary Room. In Big Brother contestants can often be violent or angry confrontations, providing entertainment to the public such as in Big Brother5 with Jade Goody and Shilpa Shetty.

MIGRAIN
M: 1 - Non verbal codes – Big Brother male and never seen we can only hear his voice connotes Men as passive – Laura Mulvey’s theory.
2 - Shilpa and Jades fight – close up of Jades face shows her psychotic side, long shot of Shilpa shows she is strong. This challenges stereotypes of women who are known and suppose to act in a sensible manner and feminine.

I: Channel 4 – Public service. Appeal to tastes and interests of a diverse society. Contributes to the needs of the licensed public service channels and includes programmes of a educational nature and other programmes of educative value.

G: Reality TV shows

R: 1- Disabled/special needs/stereotypical women and men/different races.
2 - Contestants are going to be seen as victims when they are seen doing something wrong or are seen having a fight

A: 1 -Family audiences
2 - Secondary audience – see views and rows/writers/journalists.

I: Equality, with making sure different type of contestants are selected such as this year they have Micky who is blind.

N: Some housemates try to take on roles throughout the show – hero/villains/sex objects

Theories/Theorists:
I’ am going to make use of theorists and theories that I have already studies such as Propp Vladimir, and make reference to stereotypes such as his 32 character types. I will also research new theories such as Fiske J and use them in reference to TV shows.

Contexts:
I will look at issues and debates that have occurred in Big Brother such as Bullying, and the way the public’s views changed on these people. Also my del.ici.ous links can help me to find different articles surrounding “the genre of reality TV shows” or “Big Brother” and how these shows teach people values. I will look into detail into the history of Reality TV shows and how they amuse people. I will explore in depth how Reality TV shows have changed to become more appealing and interesting to its audience today.

Other Texts:
I’ am going to look at a range of other texts, mainly Reality TV shows and TV shows where people are being isolated from the outside world and recorded. I will draw comparisons and differences between different Reality TV show them for example a series of Big Brother in India compared to a series of Big Brother in England.