Message to John Entwhistle. Thank you so much for your CD which
I received today. However it doesn't work! I've tried it in a
few computers - anything I'm doing wrong? Please email
me. Thanks!
Reality
bites. Back
in 1992 the BBC in Britain teamed up with Australian National Broadcaster
The ABC to produce a television show about people who lived in Sydney,
Australia. They were typical Nouveau Riche Australians inhabiting
a modern house which was situated right on the water in a place called
Sylvania Waters, in the southern suburbs of Sydney.
The shows was called Sylvania Waters and its very purpose
was to chronicle the day-to-day lives of a typical family. Week after
week we would be treated to all the dramas that went on in that household.
Although no one knew the term at the time, this was in fact a reality
TV show - probably the first one ever.
Noelene
Donaher and her dysfunctional "nuclear" family in Sylvania
Waters, BBC/ABC 1992.
It
does strike me as strange that, despite the incredible success
of this "realty TV show" the concept didn't take off
for another 10 years. Then came Big Brother, Survivor and so on.
These days you can hardly avoid reality TV shows unless you switch
your TV off. I'm inclined to do exactly that.
You see,
what a lot of people don't realise is that reality TV, generally speaking,
exploits people for the sake of entertainment, and ultimately, the
persuit of hard cash which goes into the hands of media moguls.
I can't
help comparing it to the nasty "games" of times gone by
- such as throwing Christians to the lions and forcing people to fight
to the death in front of thousands of people, for the sake of entertainment.
Big
Brother is an international Phenonimen
Shows
like Survivor pit young people up against each other. It's a trible
game, where someone is "thrown off the island" or, as
with Big Brother, out of the house. These shows are an exercise
in back-biting, fear, anger and all the negitive sides of ones
character. These negitive activities come right into your home,
and you find youself opting someone "out of the house".
Now you're part of that negitivity.
I
have nothing against the concept of reality TV per se.
The British did a fabulous reality show about a family who were
placed into the 1940's during the war in urban England. It was
called "The 1940's house". They lived in exactly the
way people did in the 40's, dealing with food rationing, living
in a bunker and so on. The show was outstanding. Of course it
had it's tough moments, where it would all get too much for the
family. But this kind of reality show is starkly different to
the likes of Big Brother in that there is no antagonism between
the people involved.
Britain's
Channel 4 TV broadcast 'The 1940's House" in 2003
Just
like television itself, reality TV is a great concept. But just as
television is pumping out ever-increasingly bad programming, reality
TV is doing the same. It's not the concept that's bad. It's how it's
executed. Back in 2000 I figured reality TV was going to be just a
phase. 4 years later I'm still waiting for the craze to end. When
I went to London in 2001, I was somewhat disturbed that the tabloid
print media were more interested in Big Brother than real news. But
then again it was probably better than what they usually print.
As for
reality TV shows, I think there is one I'd like to see. Stick all
the wealthy TV producers from competing reality shows in a house,
give them a budget of 50 pounds a week to live on, watch them squabble
amongst themselves as they learn to live on a tiny budget. Oh, and
then give the profits from the show to the Salvation army. Now that
would be fun!
Related
resources:
"The media knows it can sell hurt
and humiliation, showing programmes like Big Brother, Jerry Springer
and Jenny Jones, but we must not humiliate people - it's not right.
It's quite remarkable that adults are creating these programmes for
fun." Mike
Presdee, University of SunderlandClick
here for more.
