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WEEK 12 REALITY TV

Can reality tv still be thought of as a genre given the high level of hybridity that exists?

According to the online Merriam-Webster dictionary the definition of “Genre” is:

1: a category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or contenta classic of the gothic novel genre

2: KIND, SORT

3: painting that depicts scenes or events from everyday life usually realistically

Source: Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/genre

Reality TV is a genre however with the rise of Reality TV genre in the 90’s as an entertainment phenomenon it has become inclusive of many hybrid reality programmes that have come in and out of fashion as viewer tastes have moved on. Because priority programming undergoes constant changes as a quick fix to keep ratings and viewership high, answering this question is not easy.

Woods (2004) states to appreciate the complexity of hybridization, analysis needs to consider both a broad historical frame and a wide range of television content. Analyzing the new forms of Reality TV calls on the one hand for a historical perspective on the aesthetics and rhetoric of Reality TV, its forms and genres and their relationship to the fundamental documentary genres. On the other hand, it calls for a closer look at the context of these genres and their function in a new global and increasingly digitized media culture, where fundamental changes in the mediation of everyday life and the transformation of the public sphere are obvious.

Hybridity is not all of one piece and the blurring of once-demarcated content modes is an outstanding feature of contemporary New Zealand television (Woods, 2004). According to Woods, television can be divided into four modes – fact, fiction, entertainment and advertising. Each of these four modes produces reality in a distinctive way. Factual programming represents the state of affairs in the natural world such as the news, current affairs, documentaries, practical advice shows and religious broadcasts. Fictional programming conveys the sense of a world that is imaginatively constructed such as drama, feature film and some forms of comedy. Entertainment conveys a theatrical sense of reality as performance in game shows, musical acts, talk shows, variety programmes, broadcast sport and some forms of comedy. Advertisements refers to a commodity that exists and aims to increase the circulation of that commodity. These commercials, however, ‘are not “about” products, but are images of desire and pleasure that overwhelm the product they are attached to.

Reality TV and their hybrids can fit into all 4 modes or combination of modes which is where the blurring occurs. Woods explains that hybridity is often treated not just as a complex of conventional modes but also as simple in its complexity. Therefore, I believe at present Reality TV is still a genre however this will change in the future.

REFERENCES

Wood, B. (2004) A World in Retreat: The Reconfiguration of Hybridity in 20^th-Century New Zealand Television. Media Culture Society. http://doi.org/10.1177/0163443704039709

WEEK 11 REALITY TV

How real is Reality TV?

Reality Television has become more popular within mainstream media over the past two decades and are inexpensive to produce and carry the potential for huge profits (Hill, 2005).

Reality Television is packaged in many formats and has become something of a “catch-all” phrase commonly used to describe a range of popular factual programming (Hill, 2005). Producing a definition of ‘What is Reality Television?’ is complex due to the range of programming, as well as the extent to which this has shifted over time with the emergence of further permutations in reality-based texts. There is no one definition however a couple of examples are:

“(Reality TV places) and emphasis on the representation of ordinary people and allegedly unscripted or spontaneous moments that supposedly reveal unmediated reality”

(Biressi and Nunn, 2005)

“an unabashedly commercial genre united less by aesthetic rules or certainties than by the fusion of popular entertainment with a self-conscious claim to the discourse of the real”

“What ties together all the various formats of the reality TV genre are their professed abilities to more fully provide viewers an unmediated, voyeuristic, yet often playful look into what might be called the ‘entertaining real’.”

(Murray and Ouelette, 2004)

These examples are evidently more cynical perspective on “ordinary” people as being vulnerable and exploited, at the mercy of ruthless commercial television producers and voyeuristic, uncaring audiences (Murray and Ouelette, 2004). Attached to this is the cliché about “Everyone enjoying their 15 minutes of fame,” which is played out again and again in Reality Television in the desire to become famous.

The range of Reality Television includes documentaries, game shows, cooking shows, talent shows, scene footage of law and order, emergency services, and more recently anything and everything from people to pets, from birth to death (Hill, 2005).

How real or not a show is central to reality television as most are a representation of the truth, unscripted real activities of real people, created for entertainment purposes as the line becomes blurred between what is real and what is fake.

British television documentary such as fly-on-the-wall and docusoaps are characterized by discrete observational filming without trying to analyze the situation, whereby audiences assess the facts presented and come up with their own conclusions (Biressi & Nunn, 2005). The capacity to let viewers see for themselves is the defining characteristic that unites the many definitions from a television industry, scholar and audience perspective to classify Reality Television. Audiences judge the ‘reality’ of reality programmes according to a fact/fiction continuum, with infotainment or docu-soaps at one end and formatted reality gameshows at the other end (Hill, 2005) and are less concerned about the absolute truth instead more interested in the experience (Murray and Ouelette, 2004).

How real is Reality Television is ultimately up to the viewer on the point of where it sits in the spaces between fact and fiction as this genre continues to develop.

REFERENCES

Biressi, A. & Nunn, N. (2005). Real Lives, documentary approaches. In Reality TV: realism and

revelation. (pp. 35-58) London: Wallflower.

Hill, A. (2005) The reality genre. In A. Hill, Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television. (pp. 14 – 40). Oxon: Routledge.

Murray, S., Ouellette, L. (2004) Reality TV: remaking television culture. New York University Press.

Smith, P. (2020). Reality Television Part One. Popular Genres (ENGL602) Week 11. Powerpoint. Retrieved from https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz

WEEK 10 SCIFI/ALT HISTORY

Week 10 SCIFI/ALT HISTORY

What distinctions are there between alternate history, postmodern alternate history and uchronie genres?

This is an over-simplification of the science behind parallel worlds. Fortunately, you don’t have to be a physicist studying the quantum level to understand that particles at the sub-atomic level can act as particles and waves (Clark, 2020). The two major schools of Interpretation of quantum physics is “The Copenhagen Interpretation” and “The Many Worlds Interpretation.”

According to The Copenhagen Interpretation by Niels Bohr, all quantum particles exist in all its possible states at once and is called its wave function. The state of an object existing in all its possible states at once is called its superposition. Observation breaks an object’s superposition and essentially forces the object to choose one state from its wave function and give away its probable position. (Clark, 2020).

The Many Worlds Interpretation by Hugh Everett agreed with Niels Bohr except when we measure a quantum object it does not force it into one comprehensible state or another instead it causes an actual split in the universe. The universe is literally duplicated, splitting into one universe for each possible outcome from the measurement and are totally separate from each other (Clark, 2020).

Stories in an alternate history revolve around the basic premise that some event in the past did not occur as we know it did, and thus the present has changed. The alternate history as a genre speculates about such topics as the nature of time and linearity, the past link to the present, the present link to the future, and the role of individuals in the construction of history making. Alternate histories question the nature of history and causality; they question accepted notions of time and space; they rupture linear movement; and they make readers rethink their world and how it has become what it is.

We experience time to run in one direction and history follows in terms of human affairs (Mountford, 2020). The alternate history, postmodern alternate history and uchronie is a subgenre of sci-fi, history or literary fiction that concerns itself with history’s turning out differently than what we know to be true – the what if? – scenario or Many World Interpretation. Synchronic is concerned with change at a specific point in time in contrast to Diachronic which is change across time.

Phillip K. Dicks The Man in the High Castle (1962) is a landmark example of the uchronie or alternate history genre (Mountford, 2020). Here Dick creates a world in which Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan have won World War II and these two superpowers carve up the world between themselves. The story is set in 1962, 15 years after Germany and Japan have won WWII, Dick explores what the Pacific West Coast of the United States would be like if occupied by the Japanese, the Atlantic East Coast by the Germans and the Rocky Mountain States in-between as a quasi-free neutral buffer zone.

Dick uses the “I Ching” or “Book of Changes” extensively as an oracle to develop and divine outcomes for his book as well as helping characters within the story to determine their next course of action (Mountfort, 2016). The work is, therefore, clearly based on a cyclical rather than linear notion of time, in that archetypes of key, formative events or situations are seen to repeat themselves through recurrent patterns of change. Thus, the view of history and time implicit in the I Ching is not only cyclical but synchronistic (Mountford, 2020).

Amy Ransom argues that critics discussing alternate history (AH) have often neglected to distinguish among the more conventional forms, which are underpinned by a linear, causal, or “diachronic” view of time, and the more “synchronic” view implicit in the French term for the genre, uchronie. She posits the alternative phrase “postmodern alternate history” (Mountford, 2020). The distinctions between each term requires some understanding of how things change over time.

REFERENCES

Clark, J. (2020). Do Parallel Universes Really Exist? Retrieved from https://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/everyday-myths/parallel-universe.htm

Mountfort, P. (2016). The I Ching and Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle. SF-TH Inc.

Mountfort, P. (2020). Week 10: The Man in the High Castle, uchronie and the I Ching. PowerPoint Part 1 and 2.

WEEK 10 SCIFI/ALT HISTORY

Week 10 SCIFI/ALT HISTORY

What distinctions are there between alternate history, postmodern alternate history and uchronie genres?

REFERENCES

Clark, J. (2020). Do Parallel Universes Really Exist? Retrieved from https://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/everyday-myths/parallel-universe.htm

Mountfort, P. (2016). The I Ching and Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle. SF-TH Inc.

Mountfort, P. (2020). Week 10: The Man in the High Castle, uchronie and the I Ching. PowerPoint Part 1 and 2.

WEEK 9 COSPLAY

In what ways can cosphotography be understood as a form of “fan capital”?

Many cosplayers create their own costumes, but some prefer to buy them. Cosplay requires tremendous skill, dedication and ingenuity, and the finished costumes can be genuine works of art. Making or buying costumes may prove difficult, but there is also the time and effort spent on make-up preparation including hair and wig styling, the task of travelling to venues and of course the courage required to wear the costumes in public.

Cosplay is an art-form, alive and temporary and photography plays a significant part (Mountfort, 2018). As photographers it is their job to let the costumes shine and capture the true essence of those creations and to know that another work of art has been documented for posterity.

Cosphotograhy is a two-way exchange whereby the cosplayer provides the photographer with a subject and the cosplayers efforts and dedication are rewarded with acknowledgement and something tangible to take away, in what is a reciprocal relationship (Mountfort, 2018). Just as there are thousands of people who like to dress up as their favourite characters there are legions who love to photograph them. By being photographed and filmed the cosplayer can achieve visual tokens of private value and fan capital that circulates online and reaches a wider audience. While online galleries are still the dominant visual discourse of cosphotography, books, prints, coscards and emerging genres of moving image media are increasingly important, from fan-directed cosplay music videos (CMVs) and indie documentaries to network-based reality television shows (Mountford, 2018).

This fan capital or hipness allows us to understand the tension between fan-directed cosplay and commercial cosplay, heterotopian versus hegemonic control of cosplaying spaces, and supportive audience responses versus the exploitative (Mountford, 2018).

One of the tag lines is cosplay is for everyone so TV series “Heroes of Cosplay”, which followed cast members competing in cosplay events across the United States is widely panned by cosers and critics alike for its Idol-style format, misrepresented cosplay as being all about winning (Mountfort, 2018).

Because the cosphere is a community where visual tokens are in the centre of attention and exchanged between people, it is likely that these tensions will continue to circulate within the community.

REFERENCES

Mountfort, P., Peirson-Smith, A., & Geczy, A. (2018). Planet cosplay: Costume play, identity and global fandom. Intellect.

WEEK 8 COSPLAY

In what ways can cosplay be understood in terms of notions such as affect, transportation, transubstantiation and mediated fantasy?

The word “cosplay” was coined in the eighties to describe the activity of “costume role-play” (Mountfort et al, 2018). On its most basic level, this involves dressing up as a character then pretending to be them.

Although cosplaying began in America at sci-fi conventions, it was in Japan where it really took off and developed into a major subculture. It is no surprise many costumes worn by cosplayers are from Japanese characters, most notably from anime, manga and video games (Mountfort et al, 2018).

Once a cosplayer dons their costume, they adopt the personalities of the characters they are portraying. In this way they are actors, they are performers, and when a camera is pointed at them, they are models. Those who make their own costumes could be regarded as fashion designers, tailors, painters or even sculptors.

Cosplayers commonly reference their chosen source texts, regarded as a form of citation which can be either ‘direct imitation’ and ‘textual transformations.’ The former a faithful representation of the parent text and the latter is a contrast, fidelity (Mountfort et al, 2018).

Beyond the social dimension of meeting new people and making friends, cosplayers who don a costume can forget about their regular lives and become someone else, if only for a day. They can transform into someone powerful and exciting, sexy and alluring or just cute and quirky. No matter what the attributes of the character they are playing, the process of adopting an alter-ego is described as mediated fantasy.

The translation of such archetypal figures onto actual bodies becomes a kind of transubstantiation, in that Domsch suggests that ‘the “thing” that can be transported from one medium to another’ is the ‘mental construct that we call a narrative storyworld and its existents (Mountfort et al, 2018).

This transportation of a particular sense of attaching intensities of feeling to fictional characters, leading to a desire to transcend mere reading and watching, can be described as an affect, the term referring here not just to the feelings provoked by cosplay but an intense corporeal response (Mountfort et al, 2018).

Those who are shy can tap into the strength of their character and completely come out of their shell. The simple act of wearing a costume can infuse the cosplayer with a level of energy and confidence which is greatly empowering.

Plenty of cosplayers are not shy, extraverted and cosplay gives them the perfect excuse to let their true selves come to the surface. Although they may be confident and charismatic before they don their costume, cosplaying allows them the freedom to take their passions to a greater level of self-expression.

Cosplaying can also make a person feel special. Dressing up in a stunning costume and having crowds of admirers showering them with compliments has obvious appeal. The encircling photographers and eager fans can make cosplayers feel like celebrities.

REFERENCES

Mountfort, P., Peirson-Smith, A., & Geczy, A. (2018). Planet cosplay: Costume play, identity and global fandom. Intellect Bristol,UK/Chicago, USA

WEEK 8 COSPLAY

In what ways can cosplay be understood in terms of notions such as affect, transportation, transubstantiation and mediated fantasy?

The translation of such archetypal figures onto actual bodies becomes a kind of

transubstantiation, in that Domsch suggests that ‘the “thing” that can be transported from one medium to another’ is the ‘mental construct that we call a narrative storyworld and its existents (Mountfort et al, 2018).

REFERENCES

Mountfort, P., Peirson-Smith, A., & Geczy, A. (2018). Planet cosplay: Costume play, identity and global fandom. Intellect Bristol,UK/Chicago, USA

WEEK 7 HORROR

1. King (2010) describes Horror as being defined through three basic elements. Explain, using references, what these three elements are. Think of a horror story you’ve read/watched/heard that makes use of all three of these elements and show how King’s definition is at play in that narrative.

Stephen King wrote a book in 1981 called “Danse Macbre” which covers the horror genre, in TV, film, radio, and text, from 1950-1980. He casually moves from boyhood to manhood describing and dissecting each horror story explaining what the appeal is, how they impacted him and states “The good horror tale will dance its way to the center of your life and find the secret door to the room you believed no one but you knew of ”(King, 2020).

Stephen describes the horror genre as being able to find national phobic pressure points, and those books and films which have been the most successful seem to play upon expressed fears which exist across a wide spectrum of people. The popularity of horror stories is a product of its times (Hendrix, 2018) and swings around every ten to twenty-year cycles coinciding with periods of serious economic and/or political strain (King, 2010).

Stephen recalls as a ten-year-old in October,1957 sitting in a picture theatre watching a sci-fi movie Earth vs. the Flying Saucers and just as the saucers were mounting their attack (the good part), everything just stopped. The screen went black, the lights came on, the manager walked to the middle of the screen and announced the Russians had put a space satellite into orbit around the earth called Sputnik. As a war baby he had been raised in an atmosphere of paranoia, patriotism, and national self-importance. They were told they were the greatest nation on earth, America was on top and had replaced England as the colossus that stood astride the world, a future filled with “AMERICAN PIONEER SPIRIT.” The horror on screen was no match for the horror in real life he was grappling with in the secret recesses of his heart that Russia had beaten America into space (King, 2020).

The above is an example of one of the three levels of horror that Stephen explains in what captivates us and makes us so scared: The Gross-Out, Horror, and Terror.

The Gross-Out is the lowest tier and is where there is revulsion. The “ew” factor when witnessing gruesome, bloody, grotesque scenes in movies.

The Horror is the second tier and “graphic portrayal of the unbelievable.” (King, 2010) When audiences are faced with something implausible and unnatural, their minds struggle to comprehend it and often react in fear.

Terror the highest tier “induces fear through imagination,” (King, 2010) where the creepy specifics exist in the readers mind.

The Sixth Sense in 1999 blew my mind. Yes “I see dead people” movie is about a child psychologist Malcolm Crowe played by Bruce Willis tries to help a young boy Cole Sear played by Haley Joel Osment who sees dead people everywhere and is tortured by this.

The Gross-Out part starts when Cole reveals to Malcolm of his affliction and the audience start to see what Cole has been seeing, gory dead people everywhere.

Malcolm suggests to Cole that he try to find a purpose for his gift by communicating with the ghosts and helping them finish their business. Cole is unwilling at first, then finally agrees to try to help.

The Horror part is when Cole awakens one night to discover a ghost girl vomiting. After finding out who she is, Cole goes with Malcolm to the funeral reception at her home. Cole is directed to a box holding a videotape, which he gives to the ghost girl’s father. The tape shows the girl’s mother poisoning her daughter’s food. By doing this, Cole has saved the girl’s younger sister from the same fate.

The Terror part is when the movie moves under the surface to things that can really haunt a person, not just ghosts, but things in your past. Experiences like regret, sorrow, pain, loss that bring up sadness and deep emotion of being afraid that late in life you might realize there are things you never got around to do.

REFERENCES

Hendrix, G. (2018) Paperbacks from Hell.

King, S. (2010) Danse Macabre.

King, S (2020). Danse Macabre. Cumberland Public Libraries. Retrieved from https://cpl.catalogue.library.ns.ca/Record/5394/Excerpt

WEEK 6 HORROR

1. Reyes (2014), describes Body Horror as being a “fictional representation of the body exceeding itself or falling apart, either opening up or being altered past the point where it would be recognised by normative understandings of human corporeality.” How do The Colour out of Space and Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth make use of this definition to explore themes of the unknown?

Reyes description above of “Body Horror” offers a sound foundation of this sub-genre of horror when the human body is attacked and mutates out of control, usually in a painful and hideous way.

We consider our body ours alone, so how do we defend against something inside of us taking over. Lovecraft saw the body as a fragile shell that could be harmed or influenced by outside forces with our spirit still alive trapped inside but aware of the changes going on. The fear factor for Lovecraft is when the body we consider ours is seized, taken over, changed, as is the case with mutation, which comes from the genetic code and carries the curse of our ancestors which cannot be escaped because it is embedded in our tissue (Lovecraft, 2013).

We can understand this better when we consider the Mutation Theory (1901), Hugo de Vries (1848—1935), a Dutch botanist (Samiksha, 2020) who believed the following:

1. Mutations or discontinuous variations are the raw material of evolution.

2. Mutations appear suddenly. They become operational immediately.

3. Unlike Darwin’s continuous variations or fluctuations, mutations do not revolve around the mean or normal character of the species.

4. The same type of mutations can appear in several individuals of a species.

5. All mutations are inheritable.

6. Mutations appear in all conceivable directions.

7. Useful mutations are selected by nature. Lethal mutations are eliminated. However, useless and less harmful ones can persist in the progeny.

8. Accumulation of variations produce new species. Sometimes a new species is produced from a single mutation.

9. Evolution is a jerky and discontinuous process.

In The Shadow over Innsmouth, the narrator (Robert Olmstead) goes to Innsmouth and finds the citizens are physically mutating into horrible grotesque foul-smelling fish-frog-human hybrids and near the end discovers he has Innsmouth blood in his veins too and mutates into the creatures he was repulsed by. Interestingly, he accepts his own fate, which contrasts with his initial fear and repulsion of transforming into something hideously unrecognizable.

In The Colour out of Space (2019) directed by Richard Stanley, a strange alien lifeform is transported to Earth when a meteorite crashes in the front yard of the Gardner family (5 members) who live on a farm in rural New England. Nothing happens at first, but then this alien entity, that emanates strange colors, starts to mutate with organisms it finds contaminating the water, plants vegetables, alpaca’s and the family, like morphing together the mother and youngest son into a hideous blob thing.

The Shadow over Innsmouth and The Colour out of Space are both good examples of Reyes (2014) description of Body Horror highlighting Lovecrafts trademark of grotesque, horrifying mutations and helplessness when faced with overpowering forces, casting an atmosphere of dread and fear of the unknown for the viewer/reader (Lovecraft, 2013).

REFERENCES

Lovecraft, H. (2013). Supernatural horror in literature. The Palingenesis Project. (Wermod and Wermod Publishing Group). Retrieved from https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/

Lovecraft, H. (2020). The Colour out of Space. Gothic Digital Series @ UFSC. Retrieved from https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/

Reyes, X. (2014). Body Gothic: Corporeal Transgression in Contemporary Literature and Horror Film. University of Wales Press. Retrieved from https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/

Samiksha, S (2020). Mutation Theory: Mutation Theory of Evolution by Hugo De vries’

Retrieved from https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/mutation/mutation-theory-mutation-theory-of-evolution-by-hugo-de-vries/12255

Week 5 Anime

WEEK 5 ANIME

What is the ‘shōjo’ and how does it often function in anime?

The Japanese word shōjo (also spelt shoujo) means “little female” in English and generally refers to an age range from 12 to 13, subsequently adolescent girls between the transitional stage of childhood and adulthood (Cavallaro, 2006). Motherhood is regarded as adulthood and considered the defining characteristic in the traditional sense of identity for many Japanese woman.

Manga (Japanese comic) and Anime (Japanese animation) are conventionally categorized in terms of their target audience age and gender. Shoujo refers to a specific type of genre targeted at adolescent young girls aged from 10 – 18 told through the viewpoint of a young girl on themes that would appeal to this demographic. Some of these themes are romance or first love, growing up, finding oneself, friendships, fantasy and magic. Many narratives are “dark”, dealing with violence, psychological disturbance and philosophical themes and many shoujo tend to battle some internal and/or external conflict.

Notable traits of shoujo heroines are innocent, naive, shy, have an inferiority complex, a purity that brings out the goodness of others, stand up for friends and others, cope with loss, lighthearted, romantic and magical.

A good example of shoujo is the timeless classic Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, 1984, by Hayao Miyazaki one of Japan’s most revered anime directors and co-founder of Studio Ghibli (Japanese Disney), (Mountfort 2020). The story is set after a world war 1,000 years ago that destroyed much of the Earth and the fast-spreading Toxic Jungle threatens the lives of the last humans. Nausicaa is a 16-year-old princess of the Valley of the Wind who works always for the good of all including animal welfare, the environment and human rights. She discovers that the jungle is detoxing itself and that people should not interfere with what nature is doing on its own. Some people don’t listen, so she sacrifices herself to help everyone else even the Ohmu, giant insects that guard the Toxic Jungle It is prescient in foretelling the collapse of industrial civilization, the environment and scarcity of resources filled with strong anti-war, anti-pollution and eco messages. Nausicaa is depicted as very independent, strong-willed action heroine and acts as a kind of mediator between Man and Nature. (Mountfort, 2020).

REFERENCES

Cavallaro, D. (2006). Introduction.In The Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki (pp.11-13). London:

McFarland & Company. Retrieved from https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/ 

Mountfort, P. (2020). Popular Genres_2020_Week5_Anime 2 [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/

Napier, S. (2005). Anime and Local/Global Identity. In Anime: from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle (pp.15-34). Hampshire: Palgrave/Macmillan. Retrieved from https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/ 