How does Hill define reality TV?
Hill describes early reality tv as programmes with non-professional
actors, hand held cameras, surveillance footage, seeing events unfold and a nonexistence
script. But recently all of this has changed as reality tv is part of anything
and everything from people to pets, from birth to deaths (Hill, 2005).
Sometimes this can be seen in game shows like “Big Brother” or realistic
survival shows like “Survivor” or a recent trend that has been evident can be
shows like “Cops” or something more informative like “Animal Hospital”; and “16
and pregnant”, a show divulging the ‘real’ life of a pregnant teenager. Through shows like these one cannot define a
genre like reality tv or factual television but instead give a series of
definitions. Reality tv seems to be made
up of a number of hybrid genres created by the merging of different television
genres, rather than just limited to any one genre.
Hill, A. (2005) The reality genre. In A. Hill, Reality
TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television.(pp. 14 – 40).
Oxon: Routledge.
Yeah, good point that it is hard to define as to just what reality tv is. It is quite difficult, as there could be so many sub categories for shows that fit under the umbrella of 'reality tv'. Some are scripted and made to look improvised, and some are more purist in the sense of the spontaneous responses of the people on the shows, and the lack of script. What a pickle. Good job though.
ReplyDeleteHi Farish,
ReplyDeleteTrue, I agree with all you guys. Although some elements such as ordinary people with intimacy of observation and so on may help define reality TV. How many people will truly show their ‘real’ personality, responses, expressions and actions before cameras.
A succinct summary of Hill (2005).
ReplyDelete