How does Hill define reality TV?
Hill defines reality TV in different ways.
Firstly, he said “The category of reality TV is commonly used to describe a range of popular factual programming. There are a variety of styles and techniques associated with reality TV, such as non-professional actors, unscripted dialogue, surveillance footage, hand held cameras, seeing events unfold as they are happening in front of camera"
Secondly, on page 42 of Hill it says“the most traditional industry term for reality TV is factual entertainment”. I think this is sensible as people usually attracted by things that make them happy which made it the goal for reality TV in the past.
Lastly, Hill summarised that “there is no one definition of reality programming, but many, competing definitions of what has come to be called the reality genre. This is because the reality genre is made of a number of distinctive and historically based television genres, such as lifestyle, or documentary.” It is not possible to define what reality TV is in just one sentence. Reality TV includes too many types of genres which combine several TV genres and they include everything from everywhere.
Reference:
Hill, A. (2005) The rise of reality TV. In A. Hill, Reality TV: Audiences and
Popular Factual Television. (pp. 15 – 40). Oxon: Routledge.
Hi Vicky,
ReplyDeleteI think it is interesting to see that reality tv has been defined as factual entertainment - people attracted by things that make them happy. In my personal opinion, there is very little about reality tv that makes me happy! It seems that the only thing you read about in the media is the scandal that has occurred, what so and so said about her, and along that track. Usually the people on these shows are characters that i do not like, and the 'nice' one is usually either the first to go, or kept on so that they can be bullied some more. There has been some real awful people on these shows! I tend to dislike these shows as i dont believe they are a fair representation of a corner of society. I also find that the influence of the producers on reality shows are very obvious, so therefore, not very real. Many of the premises have been really vulgar as well. For example, Temptation Island? Why would anyone want to watch a show trying to force couples to cheat? Beauty and the Geek? This just plays to stereotypes. The Bachelor? as if anyone would fall in love after two dates!
So no, i do not agree with the defintion of 'entertainment'. But that is just me.
It's ture of what Helen said of people love to watch TV by making them laugh. In somehow, I don't think reality TV is real, the producer do make uo something to attract people otherwise it wont be that attractive if reality TV is made from what happen in dairly life.
ReplyDeleteInteresting comment from Helen.
ReplyDelete