How does Hill define reality TV? Describe his definitions in the context of a contemporary Reality TV show.
Television in its own right has come a tremendously long way. Hill's vivid interpretation of the reality genre is a fantastic starting point in gaining a fair understanding of the topic.
The 1960's docudrama titled 'Cathy Come Home' showcased the deplorable struggles of UK citizens during the years of hardship and unemployment. It also marked the dawn of soap opera's in which Hill's brings up in his discussion. He also brings to the table how the television network is all about bring expansive and taking necessary risks. "..television often cannibalises itself, feeding off successful genres and formats in order to create new hybrid programmes." (Hill, 2005, p.42)
I suppose this gives way to the possibility of introducing more intellectual and captivating genres. In this case, the reality genre features a category consisting of game shows and programmes orientating around the subject of lifestyle, for instance. "Other British terrestrial, satellite, cable and digital channels categorise reality TV under a variety of headings." (Hill, 2005, p.43)
Reality shows such as game and talent are intended to evoke entertainment and are therefore labelled as factual entertainment. The other half of this sophisticated genre is Popular factual television which is more tied in with soap opera, discarding any real entertainment value. "The industry terms of factual entertainment and popular factual television are umbrella categories for a range of formatted as well as non-formatted programmes and series." (Hill, 2005, p.42)
Hill, A. (2005). The reality genre. In A. Hill, Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television. Oxon: Routledge.
Friday, October 31, 2014
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Sye Johnson Week 11 - 12: Reality TV.
How does Hill define reality TV? Describe his definitions in the context of a contemporary Reality TV show.
The evolution of the reality TV genre over time makes it difficult to give an exact definition as noted by Hill "the treatment of 'reality' in reality programming has changed as the genre developed over the past decade" (2005). however several elements have remained consistent. The use of non-professional actors as the major 'talent', surveillance footage styled as 'fly on the wall' and the notion that the audience are seeing events as they unfold on the camera are frequently used conventions within the genre of reality TV.
According to Hill the television industry "often cannibalises itself, feeding off successful genres and formats in order to create new hybrid programmes" (2005). Through the combination of the Soap Opera genre (e.g. Days of Our Lives) with the Observational Documentary genre (e.g. Cops) came the creation of the Doco-Soap genre which created shows like Bondi Beach and Rescue 1. This implies that the genre of 'Reality TV' there are multiple sub-genres another being the Game Show genre.
The United States of America is one of the largest producers of game show television. Shows like Survivor, American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance have run for multiple seasons, each of those examples having run into the double digits in season quantity. These shows are further examples of a new genre created by cannibalising others. "Taking the 'raw' ingredients of on-scene emergency services reality TV and processing them into more 'cooked' reality formats" (Hill. 2005).
Survivor is an excellent example of this, as one of the longest running reality TV series it has grown and changed with the industry. Initially it started as a game show in which two teams or 'tribes' compete to win immunity and the losers vote out a member until they were left with the 'sole survivor' who would win one million dollars. This version focused heavily on the human psychology of surviving in a stressful environment with strangers over the sensationalised drama that arose. However over time the show began to include twists like tribe swaps and immunity idols for an individual to increase the tension and drama. This has taken the show from a more realistic look at a survival game show into a over-dramatized soap opera game show.
"There is no one definition of reality programming, but many, competing definitions of what has come to be called the reality genre". (Hill. 2005). Through the growth of the television industry and audiences the definition of any genre, not just reality TV, has become difficult to accurately describe. Reality TV does have a few element that are consistently utilised, the use of 'real' people in lieu of actors and the use of surveillance footage are mainstays of the genre and are found in most shows ranging from the game shows to the doco-soaps.
References:
Hill, A. (2005) The reality genre. In A. Hill, Reality TV: Audiences and popular factual television. (pp. 14-40). Oxon: Routledge.
The evolution of the reality TV genre over time makes it difficult to give an exact definition as noted by Hill "the treatment of 'reality' in reality programming has changed as the genre developed over the past decade" (2005). however several elements have remained consistent. The use of non-professional actors as the major 'talent', surveillance footage styled as 'fly on the wall' and the notion that the audience are seeing events as they unfold on the camera are frequently used conventions within the genre of reality TV.
According to Hill the television industry "often cannibalises itself, feeding off successful genres and formats in order to create new hybrid programmes" (2005). Through the combination of the Soap Opera genre (e.g. Days of Our Lives) with the Observational Documentary genre (e.g. Cops) came the creation of the Doco-Soap genre which created shows like Bondi Beach and Rescue 1. This implies that the genre of 'Reality TV' there are multiple sub-genres another being the Game Show genre.
The United States of America is one of the largest producers of game show television. Shows like Survivor, American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance have run for multiple seasons, each of those examples having run into the double digits in season quantity. These shows are further examples of a new genre created by cannibalising others. "Taking the 'raw' ingredients of on-scene emergency services reality TV and processing them into more 'cooked' reality formats" (Hill. 2005).
Survivor is an excellent example of this, as one of the longest running reality TV series it has grown and changed with the industry. Initially it started as a game show in which two teams or 'tribes' compete to win immunity and the losers vote out a member until they were left with the 'sole survivor' who would win one million dollars. This version focused heavily on the human psychology of surviving in a stressful environment with strangers over the sensationalised drama that arose. However over time the show began to include twists like tribe swaps and immunity idols for an individual to increase the tension and drama. This has taken the show from a more realistic look at a survival game show into a over-dramatized soap opera game show.
"There is no one definition of reality programming, but many, competing definitions of what has come to be called the reality genre". (Hill. 2005). Through the growth of the television industry and audiences the definition of any genre, not just reality TV, has become difficult to accurately describe. Reality TV does have a few element that are consistently utilised, the use of 'real' people in lieu of actors and the use of surveillance footage are mainstays of the genre and are found in most shows ranging from the game shows to the doco-soaps.
References:
Hill, A. (2005) The reality genre. In A. Hill, Reality TV: Audiences and popular factual television. (pp. 14-40). Oxon: Routledge.
Week 11 & 12 Reality TV
How does Hill define
reality TV? Describe his definitions in the context of a contemporary Reality
TV show.?
Reality
TV is a genre of television programming that documents unscripted situations
and actual issues, and often features a previously unknown cast. Annette Hill
(2005) points out that there are lots of definitions of reality TV show,
because it has relevance to many genres. He mentions that the traditional
definition of Reality TV is “factual entertainment” (Hill, p. 42). In addition,
Hill describes ‘Reality TV’ as a range of popular programming with factual
events. He also points out the difference between the Reality TV shows in UK
and USA. The UK audiences tend to have the factual programming that are similar
to documentaries, current affairs and investigate journalism (2005) and the
audiences in USA, are more likely to lean towards reality entertainment shows,
such as survival, game or audition. Therefore, reality TV is commonly used to
describe a range of popular factual programming in UK, and the reality TV is
described as reality entertainment in USA.
According to Goodari (2014), 'reality
programming is so popular it has changes the dynamics of the television
industry (Hill, 2005).' It actually shows that TV has a super power in this
media age like television as well. In the article, Hill also defines most of
the reality TV shows combine unscripted dialogue, hand-held cameras as the
factors (2005). And nowadays, the Reality TV shows always have different themes
with variations of styles, for example, audition, survival, game, or talent. In
addition, Reality TV shows have been changing over periods of time. It has
focused on the footage of law and order or emergency services at the beginning.
It has become a variety of Reality TV shows, which are more likely relating to
households’ lives these days. It is now diversified with talk shows, game
shows, lifestyle shows or different other competition shows, which has led to
the formation of many sub-genres within the Reality TV genre. In fact, from a
different perspective, Reality TV shows brought a wide range of audience
regardless of gender and age. Therefore, the audiences helped Reality TV as
something familiar. Likewise, the media can manipulate what people think,
People also can affect media, especially Reality TV shows. The diverse numbers
of people can also affect it make more drama within the shows which in turn
increases the rating of the shows. Moreover, he concedes that reality TV is a
genre that gas transformed into different sub genres, which became a
multi-industry corporation (2005).
In
the beginning of Reality TV, majority topics was mostly crimes and law,
because, they were more interested subjects to people. Over the years, Reality
TV as of today is not just about the crimes. It is dealing with a wide variety
of reality TV genres such as unscripted dramas, lifestyle-change shows, prize
winning shows and even talk shows. The ordinary people can also participate in
the Reality TV shows. Due to the changes in the reality TV genre during few
years, it is difficult to define Reality TV, but there is a common thing. As
Hill stated all those sub-genres are differentiated between the rapidly
expanding and somewhat bewildering range of programming that comes under the
category of reality TV, and it is the capacity to let viewers see for
themselves. It is because the audiences find the reality TV shows are about the
real-life people and it is literally a reality which might be closely connected
to the audiences.
References list
Hill, A. (2005) The reality genre. In A. Hill,
Reality TV: Audiences and popular factual television. (pp. 14-40). Oxon:
Routledge.
Goodari, A. (2014). Reality TV. [online]
Academia.edu. Retrieved 22 Oct, 2014, from http://www.academia.edu/4417268/Reality_TV.
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Week 11 and 12 - reality TV
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.
week 9 & 10 - Cult TV
What role does Hills (2004) suggest the fans play in the construction of cult TV?
How is new media central to this?
It is basic knowledge that a TV series cannot be successful without a wide fan based. A fan base is what leads to higher ratings, more successful seasons and more money. The TV genre that is most likely associated with the devotion of fans is “Cult TV”. Hills (2004) states “the three major definitions of cult TV that I will discuss correspond broadly to different levels in a three-part model of text/inter-text/audience”, Hills is explaining that cult TV has three main elements that makes it work. The main element being the fan base as Hills continues to say “cult status arises, ultimately, through an audience’s passion for a TV show”, he carries on to say that this positions cult TV as a “‘grassroots’ phenomenon, assuming that it is created by fans rather than by media producers.” (pp. 510) The way that fans influence a TV series, especially cult TV, is that they are the buyers, they are wanting to watch what happens because they are devoted to the characters. Their devotion, ultimately, is what continues the series. This type of attention is what started the idea of “fan-fiction”, writing alternate endings to current fan bases.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) is an example of cult TV, the show had a massive following and since ending still continues to obtain new fans. There are hundreds of fan fiction pieces based around Buffy the Vampire Slayer which relates to the new media aspect of our generation. There are websites such as Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram which allows fans to post images and communicate with one another to create an online fan group about certain cult television shows. The media industry demand that kind of attention from an audience to make a successful series.
Therefore, agreeing with Hills (2004) fans play a vital factor in the success of a television show. This is especially important with the new media aspect of this generation e.g the Internet.
References:
Hills, M. (2004). Defining Cult TV; Texts, Inter-texts and Fan Audiences, The Television Studies Reader, in R. C. Allen & A. Hill. London and New York: Routledge.
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Monique Porteous week 12 - Reality TV
How does Hill define reality TV? Describe his definitions in the context of a contemporary Reality TV show.
Hill defines reality TV as a hybrid genre. "feeding off successful genres and formats in order to to create new hybrid programmes." (Hill, 2005, p.42). While Hill does mention that there is not just one definition but many open ended definitions in the genre, to me he seems to take a shining to defining reality TV as a hybrid genre. Under Hill's definition of the hybrid genre he mentions five different sub-definitions: Docu-soaps, reality gameshows, popular factual television, documentaries & contemporary factual and docu-dramas. The docu-soap, which Hill describes as a soap opera and an observational documentary combined, is very common in the USA. 'Keeping up with the Kardashians' is an extremely popular show which emerged in 2007, coming from the the E! channel. The show follows the real lives of a family which gives it the observational documentary element while the soap opera element is made from how scripted the show is (Ryland, 2014). Hill's next sub-definition of the genre and it's hybrids is the reality gameshows. The formula for this is: gameshow + the observational documentary = reality gameshow. 'The Amazing Race' spans 25 seasons and also has many international variations (as the show is originally from the USA). Hill describes these 'gameshows' as a part of the reality TV genre which dominates prime time television. "Popular factual television commissions formats, celebrity profiles and entertaining documentaries" (Hill, 2005, p42). To say the least, popular factual television is very 'people' orientated. 'Katy Perry: Part of Me' truly fits into this sub-definition due to having the formula of celebrity profile + entertaining documentary. The film follows her California Dreams Tour as well as speaking of her 'whirlwind' life and the lead up to fame (Duff, 2013). Documentaries & contemporary factual is a smaller sub-definition but includes shows which involve crime and consumer affair programming - all with some sort of 'fly on the wall' filming technique. 'Police Ten 7' is a New Zealand show which follows police all around the country and shows what these law enforcers have to 'deal' with on a daily basis. The camera man uses the fly on the wall filming style to show how 'raw' and 'real' the show is. Lastly there is the docu-drama, while Hill does not exactly define this style of reality TV, it is important to mention. The docu-drama is less common in contemporary times but it was very important to the reality TV genre pre-millennium. 'Cathy Come Home' was the first docu-drama produced by the BBC and it caused a public outcry within Britain in the 1960's when it was aired. 'Cathy Come Home' did exactly what the reality TV genre is meant to do: Make the audience feel attached to what they are watching (Brooks, 2011). All in all reality TV is a hybrid genre, it takes elements from other shows on television to create something completely new.
References:
Brooks, L. (2011, September 4). Cathy Come Home still rings true today. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/sep/04/cathy-come-home-rings-true
Duff, S. (2013, June 25). Top 10 Celebrity Documentaries from One Direction This Is Us to In Bed With Madonna. Retrieved from http://metro.co.uk/2013/06/25/top-10-celebrity-documentaries-from-one-direction-this-is-us-to-justin-bieber-never-say-never-and-katy-perry-part-of-me-3856048/
Hill, A. (2005) The reality genre. In A. Hill, Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television. (pp. 14 – 40).Oxon: Routledge.
Ryland, A. (2014, February 21). More Kardashian Fakery Exposed: ‘KUWTK’ Episode Featured Kim’s Engagement Ring BEFORE Kanye West Proposed! Retrieved from http://radaronline.com/exclusives/2014/02/kardashian-show-fake-scenes-kim-engagement-ring-keeping-up-kardashians/
Hill defines reality TV as a hybrid genre. "feeding off successful genres and formats in order to to create new hybrid programmes." (Hill, 2005, p.42). While Hill does mention that there is not just one definition but many open ended definitions in the genre, to me he seems to take a shining to defining reality TV as a hybrid genre. Under Hill's definition of the hybrid genre he mentions five different sub-definitions: Docu-soaps, reality gameshows, popular factual television, documentaries & contemporary factual and docu-dramas. The docu-soap, which Hill describes as a soap opera and an observational documentary combined, is very common in the USA. 'Keeping up with the Kardashians' is an extremely popular show which emerged in 2007, coming from the the E! channel. The show follows the real lives of a family which gives it the observational documentary element while the soap opera element is made from how scripted the show is (Ryland, 2014). Hill's next sub-definition of the genre and it's hybrids is the reality gameshows. The formula for this is: gameshow + the observational documentary = reality gameshow. 'The Amazing Race' spans 25 seasons and also has many international variations (as the show is originally from the USA). Hill describes these 'gameshows' as a part of the reality TV genre which dominates prime time television. "Popular factual television commissions formats, celebrity profiles and entertaining documentaries" (Hill, 2005, p42). To say the least, popular factual television is very 'people' orientated. 'Katy Perry: Part of Me' truly fits into this sub-definition due to having the formula of celebrity profile + entertaining documentary. The film follows her California Dreams Tour as well as speaking of her 'whirlwind' life and the lead up to fame (Duff, 2013). Documentaries & contemporary factual is a smaller sub-definition but includes shows which involve crime and consumer affair programming - all with some sort of 'fly on the wall' filming technique. 'Police Ten 7' is a New Zealand show which follows police all around the country and shows what these law enforcers have to 'deal' with on a daily basis. The camera man uses the fly on the wall filming style to show how 'raw' and 'real' the show is. Lastly there is the docu-drama, while Hill does not exactly define this style of reality TV, it is important to mention. The docu-drama is less common in contemporary times but it was very important to the reality TV genre pre-millennium. 'Cathy Come Home' was the first docu-drama produced by the BBC and it caused a public outcry within Britain in the 1960's when it was aired. 'Cathy Come Home' did exactly what the reality TV genre is meant to do: Make the audience feel attached to what they are watching (Brooks, 2011). All in all reality TV is a hybrid genre, it takes elements from other shows on television to create something completely new.
References:
Brooks, L. (2011, September 4). Cathy Come Home still rings true today. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/sep/04/cathy-come-home-rings-true
Duff, S. (2013, June 25). Top 10 Celebrity Documentaries from One Direction This Is Us to In Bed With Madonna. Retrieved from http://metro.co.uk/2013/06/25/top-10-celebrity-documentaries-from-one-direction-this-is-us-to-justin-bieber-never-say-never-and-katy-perry-part-of-me-3856048/
Hill, A. (2005) The reality genre. In A. Hill, Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television. (pp. 14 – 40).Oxon: Routledge.
Ryland, A. (2014, February 21). More Kardashian Fakery Exposed: ‘KUWTK’ Episode Featured Kim’s Engagement Ring BEFORE Kanye West Proposed! Retrieved from http://radaronline.com/exclusives/2014/02/kardashian-show-fake-scenes-kim-engagement-ring-keeping-up-kardashians/
Saturday, October 25, 2014
Week 9 & 10 - Cult TV
2. What role does Hills (2004) suggest the fans play in
the construction of cult TV? How is new media central to this?
Cult TV
can be thought of as a group of texts, often hailing from the genres of science
fiction, fantasy and horror. According to Hill (2004), “The three major
definitions of cult TV that I will discuss correspond broadly to different
levels in a three-part model of text/inter-text/audience.” The existence of
fans is an essential part in improving, developing and making successful
material rather than by just media producers. In terms of fan activities on TV
shows, in my opinion, it affects not only for the cult TV genre. Hill also describes
that the “cult TV” forms an ‘intertextual network’ which almost expresses a
communication network that preserves fans on the loop for every
kind of popular materials, for example movies, books and comics. Therefore,
there is similarity between pop genres’ characteristics and cult TV’s
characteristics.
The fans
can help promoting the TV shows, because they would find their own appreciation
society for the TV shows. “Cult TV” is set apart from the mainstream, and is
often distinguished by its high style, innovative subject matter, sexual
outrageousness or uncompromising political stance. Anything is set apart from
the mainstream, which is always difficult to increase its awareness, especially
by the producers of it. Therefore, the fans should play an important role for
it. According to Hills (2004), cult TV can be neither made nor promoted as such
by the media industry, but instead is entirely reliant on audience devotion.
When the appreciation societies are developed to honour a programme, the fans
can discuss it with the like-minded people.
The fans
of cult television also create toys, costumes or other merchandise items for
the programmes. All these side-products always have a huge impact and influence
to the public, and they can help building a greater appreciation society for
the cult TV. While they are creating such a thing like that, it can make more
people recognize the programmes. Hill has mentioned the fans use the
inter-texts to link to a wider network of popular materials, which includes
comics or novels or other platforms for the fans. He cited Jenkins (1992) “Fans
often find it difficult to discuss single programs except through references
and comparisons to this broader network. This can be the description of the
fans dependence on this inter-textual network.
Hill also
points out how the fans can provide the details and create the comments and
reviews on the shows or the episodes that they have missed. All those
information can help a lot to the new people who may be interested to join in.
The fans can now use the social media or communicate with others online.
Therefore, if they use the internet wisely it allows
them to have a platform to form their appreciation societies.
Personally,
I am a big fan of Vampire stories shows. I have watched diverse Vampire series
shows. But the origin of those shows is Buffy, showed literary intertextuality
and narratives good and evil. In the relationship to Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
the internet plays a big part in its cult TV fan base. Buffy is one of the
biggest Cult TV shows of all time, and has an enormous follower's group worldwide. Fans have created many websites dedicated to Buffy,
character analysis, further plot development, alternate endings, but this is
only the beginning. Regarding to the research, I did on the internet to find out what
kind of online activities Buffy fans participate in and the lists are so huge!.
It ranges from quizzes, gaming and role-playing, poetry, visual art and crafts,
debate and discussion, and sharing files.
References
Hills, (2004). Defining Cult TV; texts, inter-texts and Fan Audiences, The Television Studies Reader, in R. C. Allen & A. Hill. London and New York: Routledge.
UK Terrestrial TV; What is cult TV?. (n.d.). Retreieved Oct 20, 2014, from http://www.culttv.plus.com/whatis.html
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