Mark Andrejevic, doctoral student at the University of Colorado at Boulder's School of Journalism and Mass Communication, is gathering information from television viewers nationwide on the popular trend of reality-based television formats and is making some interesting observations about its social implications.
The research on Andrejevic's dissertation project, tentatively titled "Little Brother is Watching: An Examination of Surveillance-based Entertainment," is based on a variety of methods, including several personal interviews with cast members and producers of MTV's "Road Rules" and CBS's "Big Brother."
"Reality TV drastically repositions the traditional Cold-War portrayal of surveillance as oppressive and totalitarian," Andrejevic said. "Reality TV presents surveillance as a form of self-expression for the cast members, a way to assert their individuality and to intensify their experiences.
"This message has an interesting role to play in an era when we are all subjected to much more intensive forms of electronic surveillance -- both government and, particularly, corporate -- than ever before. In this sense, I'm tempted to describe the booming trend of reality TV, with apologies to Stanley Kubrick, as 'how we learned to stop worrying and love surveillance,'" he said.
Andrejevic predicts the reality trend will continue to develop as producers explore the limits of the format and as long as they continue to benefit from an inexpensive cast of "real" people seeking fame.
"At some point I suspect the whole thing will turn out to be a kind of pyramid scheme of celebrity. The folks who get in early will cash in, but soon we'll realize that celebrity just isn't the same when everyone's famous. And people will suddenly discover that they've been working free to help some very wealthy production companies turn a profit," he said.
Andrejevic also sent out a short questionnaire to newspapers across the country, acquiring responses from more than 150 viewers in 30 states. He collected information from official and unofficial Web sites for reality TV shows, in addition to interviewing fans on the Web sites and collecting more than 1,000 pages of chat-room transcripts and bulletin-board postings.
Following are other key findings from Andrejevic's research:
脽 The popularity of reality TV is not unrelated to a critique of mainstream fictional programming: the number one reason viewers cite for the popularity of the genre is that it is not yet as formulaic and predictable as typical TV dramas and sit-coms.
脽 Reality TV caters to a particular form of "savviness" with respect to television programming: viewers have become so aware of the contrived nature of television production that it is harder for them to "suspend disbelief" in order to identify with fictional characters. Reality TV -- despite the fact that it, too, is contrived -- makes it easier to suspend disbelief, because no matter how contrived the situations are, the people involved are not "acting"-- their responses and emotions are "real."
脽 For decades, viewers have been identifying not just with the "characters" in fictional TV, but with the stars (the "real people") behind the characters--hence the popularity of celebrity tabloids and supermarket glossies. Reality TV makes that identification direct: you don't have to see behind the fictional character (Rachel on "Friends," for example) to the "real" celebrity (the details of Jennifer Aniston's personal life). Reality TV gets directly to the personal life of the celebrity without mediating it through a fictional character, or at least that's the promise. Many reality TV cast members will say the way in which they are portrayed is contrived to the point of being almost fictional. But they are talking about events in their real lives - not about a character that is scripted for them.
脽 Reality TV caters to the emerging culture of interactivity. Interactive TV, interactive Web sites, and so on, all promise that the viewers are not just passive consumers, but active ones. Reality TV allows them to imagine that they could be the stars of their favorite TV show, rather than just watching. This trend started with shows like "Funniest Home Videos." It continues with the thousands of people who sent in audition tapes for "Survivor II" and with the hundreds of thousands of callers to "Who Wants to be a Millionaire."