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Sunday, April 11, 2010
4 What is behind the boom in reality television is, in large part, money. These shows are cheap to produce. "Friends'' is often the highest-rated show on television, earning millions in advertising. But each of the six actors gets paid $1 million per episode. 'Survivor' gets ratings almost as high, and does not have those costs. 5 That is in part why reality shows are everywhere, all of them exposing something - your family life "The Osbournes", your anxieties "Fear Factor", your dreams "American Idol", your romantic aspirations "The Bachelor", "The Bachelorette", your body "Are You Hot?", your lusts "Temptation Island", and your calculations "Joe Millionaire". 6 Money explains why networks put on the shows;, that leaves the question of why people like to watch. "We're voyeurs," says Beth Montemurro, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Penn State Abington. "These shows erase the boundaries between the public and the private. This is television keeping up with society." 7 Professor Robert Thompson, Director of the Centre for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University, agrees that the voyeuristic appeal is high. "Anyone who's ever deliberately eavesdropped on a conversation in a train or been to a party and poked into the host's medicine cabinet is going to relate to these shows," he says. "We're a curious species." 8 But it is more than nosiness. Unlike the sitcoms and dramas that have grown so predictable in their ability to wrap up every dilemma in the allotted time slot, reality shows can still genuinely surprise. "It's real behaviour in real environments," says Thompson, "and that often adds up to great storytelling." 9 Thompson also credits the producers of the shows for latching onto ideas that grab us in some fundamental place. "The one thing that everybody above the age of 14 understands is dating and courtship," says Thompson. "The Bachelor', 'Joe Millionaire' and 'Temptation Island' tap into that nearly universal experience. Movies show a utopian version of courtship - clear and concise - whereas these programmes, by showing warts and all, seem much more familiar. Joe Millionaire is a liar, so are millions of other men. 10 On some shows, the embarrassment or disappointment is part of the process. But there are other shows where demeaning the participants is the wholepoint of the exercise. David Bianculli, author and New York Daily News TV Critic, says that whatever ratings networks earn from such shows will ultimately be dwarfed by the long-term damage. "ABC wants [people] to think of it as the family network, but if they keep showing programmes like this, they're going to be the network that humiliates people." 11 One of the great ironies about these programmes, of course, is that they are manifestly unreal. Story editors sit through hours of tape, tracing the threads of story lines and prospecting for usable nuggets. Editing gives structure and focus to the drama, and music shapes viewers' emotional responses. Key moments may not be scripted, but they are obviously staged. 12 "The people behind all these shows won't even call it reality television," points out Matthew Felling of Washington's Centre for Media and Public Affairs. "They call it unscripted drama.” 13 "This is more like sport," says Robert Thompson. "In sport, you design a field, you pick the players, you explain the rules and objectives, then you turn on the camera and see what happens. In reality television, you pick the place, you cast the players, you give them the rules, then you watch how they behave. This really may be a new way to tell a story, and I believe someday, somebody is going to create the masterpiece of the form." 14 The question is whether the viewers will still be around to watch it. The history of television is nothing if not a series of graveyards of popular forms of programming that eventually went bankrupt. There was a time when people could not get enough westerns. Then family sitcoms. And seven years ago, news-magazines were popular. Two years ago, "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" was on four nights a week in the United States, and everybody raced to develop new game shows. "Survivor" has been a useful series but none of the subsequent versions has had the cultural punch of the original. Will the sixteenth Bachelor be as interesting as the fifteenth? Not likely. As time goes on, the producers will be forced to add more bells and whistles and gimmicks, until they eventually go completely over the top, turning off both viewers and advertisers. 15 At that point, viewers are likely to realise the old forms of programming are not dead at all, they have just been snoozing. Reality shows may hold half of America's top ten rankings, but the three highest-rated programmes are "CSI", "Friends" and "ER" - a nine-year-old sitcom and two classic dramas. 16 If the networks could remember how to make programmes that resonate with the public the way those shows do, then longtime viewers will once again recognise a television menu that is hardly unfamiliar: a lot of different shows appealing to different tastes. A little drama, a little comedy, a little escapism, a little reality. In other words, television that looks a lot like life. Adapted from Reality Television by Jamie Malanowski, Reader's Digest, July 2003. Write an account of what is reality television, explain its popularity and its future prospects. (25m) USE ONLY MATERIALS FROM PARAGRAPHS 3 to 16. Your summary, which must be in continuous writing (not note form) must not be longer than 150 words, excluding the 10 words given below. Begin your summary as follows: Reality television, dominating the tube right now, is about the … Posted by ShAnNoN at |
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