How does Hill define reality TV? Describe his definitions in the context
of a contemporary Reality TV show.
Reality TV has developed immensely in the last few years, creating
shows like The Amazing Race to Big Brother to Survivor that have over 20
seasons each. The audience always coming back for more each and every episode,
committing themselves into participants of the show and rooting for them to
win, they emotional connect with them which is what the producers of the shows
want. The reason that reality TV has became popular is due to high demand to
real life drama and producers are not complaining because reality TV only costs
one sixth of the amount of money it cost to make a drama production.
Hill acknowledges the demand of reality TV in society today and even
states that “there is something for everyone in the reality genre”(Hill, 2005,
pp.14) he continues on to say that “the genealogy of popular factual television
is convoluted, as the type of hybrid programming we have come to associate with
reality TV is difficult to categorise, and has developed within historically
and culturally specific media environments. There are three main [areas of
reality TV] tabloid journalism, documentary television, and popular
entertainment”(Hill, 2005, pp.15). These three main divisions were the basis of
what reality TV has become today. Tabloid journalism involves all those shows
that are factual and informative, e.g. 20/20, 60 Minutes, Talk shows. These
shows make us feel smart watching them as we are learning new information about
thing we did not know. The second form of reality TV is documentary television;
this type of reality TV discusses feature length documentary films that focus
on a problem in the community or something bigger. With the large spread of
documentaries in the recent years television providers have dedicated channels
specifically for the broadcasting of documentaries. The final division in
reality TV is popular entertainment; these are the reality shows that an
audience watches for entertainment. These are shows like Wipeout, The X Factor,
The Amazing Race, The Kardashians, Geordie Shore and Jersey Shore. All of these
shows have been created in the recent years since the reality TV genre has
grown.
Hill continues to add two more aspects of reality TV with its
development, docu-soaps and reality game shows. Reality game shows have ruled
the prime time slot on television for years, shows like Who wants to be a
Millionaire and Wheel of Fortune, hook viewers in by thinking that they could
do that, that it doesn’t look that hard to win. On the other hand docu-soaps
had become rare, most popular in the 1960’s. ‘Cathy Come Home’, the first
docu-soap created in 1966 written by Jeremy Sandford and played on the BBC
television network, was the type of docu-soap that cried out to the audience. ‘Cathy
Come Home’ was the first docu-soap to capture the viewer’s attention and hold
it. It was a dramatized documentary about the life of the homeless in Britain
at that time and it displayed how it can happen to anyone. This relates back to
Hill’s statement “there is something for everyone in the reality genre” because
anyone can relate to something if they can see themselves in that position.
Reference:
Hill, A. (2005) The reality genre. In A.
Hill, Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television. (pp.
14 – 40).Oxon: Routledge.
Good response thanks Sophie (actually, your last two posts have been great - as well as your fantasy one). Yes, the cost factor is a huge driver of reality TV - and thankyou for using the article I quoted in tutorial (although note the article stated "reality programmes, on a dollars per minute basis, can cost as little as one-sixth of the production costs of a prime-time drama") . Great.
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