A Synopsis Of Reality Television
This synopsis will provide an overview of an essay I will later write. The purpose of my synopsis is to broadly discuss key areas in reality / factual television, and thus further illuminate in the essay.
The term reality' in reality television is misleading because there seems to be an absence of authenticity within its discourse. In fact, it may be argued that reality television is fabricated, contrived and heavily manipulated. Citing specific examples from reality television programs I shall extrapolate events / scenes to support this claim. In so doing, derive a conclusive definition of reality television. Established theorists like Kilburn (cited in Dovey, 2000: 79), Barnfield (2002) and Susan Holmes (Holmes and Jermyn, 2003: 3) will be integral to my definition of reality television.
Once defined, the pivotal question is not whether reality television is real, but rather an ontological examination of its function in our lives. While some may argue that reality television is frivolous, meretricious and trivial. It is my contention that reality television possesses merit in its exploration of contemporary culture, its examination of socio-politics and its presentation of human interaction as a reflection of segments of society.
Reality / factual television justifies itself as a genre of television programs on the grounds of its ability to replicate reality, primarily for the purposes of entertainment. This view is shared by Philip Bell (2000), who further postulates that reality television is a combination of various characteristics of television genres. This fusion of several elements of television genres, points towards my discussion of hybridity (Stafford, 2000; Holmes, 2004; Livingstone and Lunt, 1994). A paper of this length cannot address hybridity adequately. Except insofar as to crudely suggest that the notion of hybridity is an extremely pertinent one, given that my larger theoretical question lies in...
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