Category: Week 12 Questions – Reality TV

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

Reality TV has been considered to cover a range of popular factual programming, sometimes with comedic, theatrical and fictional elements. The various styles and approaches to reality TV has made it difficult to pin down as a singular genre that encompasses the spectrum of programmes it features (Hill, 2005). In fact, the last several decades has seen an increase in ‘hybridization’ of varying styles in reality tv.

In Wood’s (2004) analysis of the hybridization of reality tv, it is recounted that television used to be largely concerned with the realm of normal, however, the last century has proved that reality tv can be anything but the mundane. The emergence of this was encouraged by the advent of hybridization across stylistic categories in which tv programming was divided. The cultural forms of reality tv has more or less lost their formal rigidity and have become increasingly shaken. A common way of approaching media was through the distinct types and genres, however, reality tv’s hybridization has showed that it can be more flexible and cut across different styles at once. If reality tv has become extremely intertextual, it would be difficult to describe in one unique definition.

Given that, reality tv still is a unique field of its own, and can be counted as a distinct genre, but only with credit and critical analysis to its hybridization. Wood (2004) further explains that if hybridized content goes beyond the confines of one category, then one can analyze the distinctive qualities of these categories. All media aims to produce a worldliness that can be distinguished according to the different ways it accomplishes the sense of the real, and tv can be divided into four main modes. This includes factual programming, which consists of daily news, current affairs, documentaries, practical advice shows, religious broadcasts, and attempts to portray the state of affairs in a historical or natural world itself – over an imaginative one. Fictional programming tries to convey the sense of a world that is imaginatively constructed, including dramas, feature films, comedy, with contents trying to internalize reality, where the people and events depicted are not in the external world. Furthermore, entertainment programming presents people who exist farther than the confines of the content that is being shown, this consists of game shows, musical acts, talk shows, variety programmes, sports, and provide a more theatrical way of performance. Lastly, advertisements are also considered part of the reality tv hybridization, as they market products in 30-60 second segments, however these commercials are less about the product and instead images of desire and pleasure that it associated with the product. The four categories are significant when trying to divide the hybridized networks of reality tv.

Overall, reality tv does mesh many different elements of tv production into one, and the hybridization of it has made many analysts confused on how to define this genre. But regardless of this, reality tv still stands as its own genre as it combines the ultimate sense of portraying some kind of the ‘real’ using different stylistic methods.

References

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

Wood, B. (2004). A world in retreat: the reconfiguration of hybridity in 20^th-century New Zealand television. Media, Culture & Society, 26(1), 45-62.  

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

Reality TV is a unique genre due to the open-ended and wide reach of its definition. Kavka (2012) says reality TV has a “generic haziness” due to its format hybridity and the changing nature and quantity of its programs (p. 2). In other words, reality TV is difficult to define because it crosses genres and styles and so an exact definition is hard to pinpoint. Despite this, reality TV is widely understood as a genre, but should be considered a discourse in that it goes beyond a genre’s limited definition. 

Despite its multiple definitions, the nature of reality TV is still understood by consumers of media, who can use the term and be fully confident that people will understand them (Kavka, 2012). However, there is also confusion as to what constitutes reality TV as a genre because of its hybridity (Kavka, 2012). Hybridization is when styles that usually separate fact and fiction are mixed (Wood, 2004), or when parts of other television genres are combined to make reality TV (Kavka, 2012). There are four modes that categorize television – fact, fiction, entertainment and advertising – each of which construct reality in their own way (Wood, 2004). Reality TV can mix all these modes to form a show. For example, the reality TV show competition Ru Paul’s Drag Race mixes fact, fiction, entertainment and advertising into one show. It features real competitors within a constructed and edited storyline, each episode provides entertainment in the form of singing, dancing or acting challenges, and there is an abundance of advertising for products the competitors use during their challenges (Collins, 2017). 

Within these four modes of television there are also what Wood (2004) describes as “characteristic hinges” which are the four modes crossing over each other (p. 49). The characteristic hinges are reenactment, diversion, absorption and infomercial (Wood, 2004). Reenactments are “dramas and films ‘based upon’ people and events” where fictional techniques are used to construct its content and reflects an historical world (Wood, 2004, p. 49). Diversion is when people are performing as themselves, such as ‘making of’ programs about film or television, or home video compilations where unusual events are depicted in everyday situations (Wood, 2004). Absorption is when extreme situations are depicted through reconstructions and verité footage and combine factual reference with fictional techniques to heighten the drama (Wood, 2004). Examples of absorption include reality TV shows on law enforcement and/or medical and emergency services (Wood, 2004). Lastly, infomercials are advertising commercials that last the same length as programs and use demonstrations and testimonials to sell a product or service (Wood, 2004). These characteristic hinges all involve the blending and intersecting of fact, fiction, entertainment and advertising and are all used in reality TV (Wood, 2004). This cross-pollination of modes and hinges shows how difficult it is to limit reality TV to a genre. 

According to Kavka (2012), ‘genre’ is when texts are grouped together based on their shared characteristics. Reality TV is too differential to fit within this limited definition, as many programs which fall underneath the umbrella term ‘reality TV’ have completely different characteristics (Kavka, 2012). Because reality TV mixes generic forms, it fails to fit the basic criteria of a genre while simultaneously is the definitive genre of an essentially adaptive medium (Kavka, 2012). In other words, reality TV is so multifaceted it doesn’t fit the definition of a genre, while at the same time is the perfect example of what a genre looks like within an ever-changing media landscape. In fact, television genres are ultimately cultural constructions in that they are defined by society and emerge through interpretation and evaluation (Kavka, 2012). We should therefore look beyond reality TV simply being a genre with a shared set of attributes, as it is constantly adapting its format, borrowing material, and moving on to something else (Kavka, 2012). 

Blitvich and Lorenzo-Dus (2013) argue that reality TV should be looked at as a discourse rather than a genre in order to be properly understood. A discourse is a system of communication that is shared by specific communities, and features characteristics such as shared language or jargon, the knowledge of how to become a member of that discourse, a specific ideology, and interpersonal relationships among members (Scollon & Scollon, 2001, as cited in Blitvich & Lorenzo-Duz, 2013). Reality TV fits within this definition. For example, if looking at the participants of a reality TV show, they become members and are socialized into the discourse through exposure to reality TV shows, and the selection/audition process before they are filmed (Blitvich & Lorenzo-Duz, 2013). Reality TV also has a broad ideology that is egalitarian and democratic as audiences can often participate in decisions made in the show, e.g. voting for their favorite competitor in Idol (Blitvich & Lorenzo-Duz, 2013). Interpersonal relationships are also apparent as audiences get an ‘intimate’ look into the lives of participants and so form a relationship with them (Blitvich & Lorenzo-Duz, 2013). 

In conclusion, due to its multifaceted definitions and the high level of hybridity that exists within it, reality TV should not be considered a genre, but rather a discourse. This helps to define its broad characteristics and style that are ever-changing in its media landscape. 

References 

Blitvich, P. G. C., & Lorenzo-Dus, N. (2013). Reality television: a discourse-analytical perspective. In N. Lorenzo-Dus & P.G.C. Blitvich (Eds.), Real talk: Reality television and discourse analysis in action (pp. 9-24). Palgrave Macmillan UK. 

Collins, C. G. (2017). Drag race to the bottom?: Updated notes on the aesthetic and political economy of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Transgender Studies Quarterly, 4(1), 128–134. https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-3711589 

Kavka, M. (2012). Reality TV. Edinburgh University Press. 

Wood, B. (2004). A world in retreat: The reconfiguration of hybridity in 20th-Century New Zealand television. Media Culture Society, 26(45), 45-62. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443704039709 

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

“Television’s cultural forms have lost their former rigidity and are increasingly confounded. What was once kept apart is now mixed together”(Wood,2004). Among them, reality TV continues to change and evolve, converging different genres, and this hybridity creates questions about whether reality TV can be considered as a genre itself.

“In fact, reality is not the preserve of one sort of programming. Rather, all media content produces worldliness and so can be typed according to the variety of ways in which it accomplishes this sense of the real”(Wood,2004). So the main elements of television — fact, fiction, entertainment, and advertising — create reality in a variety of ways. Hill (2005), emphasizes that documentary television has led to commercial success by combining certain types of reality formats, and that the cultural specificity of reality programming and the development of certain formats within different broadcasting environments. This appears as a hybrid of reality TV.

Currently, reality TV is evolving into a variety of styles and blurring the boundaries between fact and fiction by including various genres such as entertainment, documentary and drama through steady hybridization. Wood(2004), explains that “Hybridity is typically equated with a radical undermining of the distinction between fact and fiction.” This may drop the details of reality programs. “The loss of detail at programme level is made up for by a more general purview which highlights the complexity of hybridizing trends. Although a widely acknowledged characteristic of hybridity, this complexity has often frustrated attempts at analysis”(Wood, 2004). This can cause confusion about the genre for viewers who are exposed to reality TV.

Reality TV is changing endlessly and is also linked to other genres such as game shows and soap operas beyond documentaries, drama and entertainment. It is true that reality TV is linked to hybridity, resulting in a variety of sub-genres. But Wood(2004), explains that “Given the increased frequency of hybridized expression such attempts at generic identification are understandable, but they have not proved successful.” So It is difficult to separate reality TV itself into one genre and it can be fruitless to try to organize it into one concept. 

References

Hill, A. (2005). Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television. London; Routledge.

Wood, B. (2004). A world in retreat: the reconfiguration of hybridity in 20th-century New Zealand television. Media, Culture & Society, 26(1), 45-62.

W12

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

The original of the TV show is a complicated history of hybrid programming they associate with reality TV (Hill, 2005). It is not accessible to categories and developing within an account and culturally specific environment (Hill, 2005). Reality TV are overlapping each other through a different kind of genre, and production shows such as documentary television, an entertainment show, journalism increased during the 1980s (Hill, 2005). The hybrid format focuses on telling real stories from people and events that happen to them that they are willing to say in front of the audience that can be entertaining style, foregrounding visuals, characterisation and narrative about all else (Hill, 2005). 

The hybridity has organised in one particular program rather than exploring it in quantitative variations (Wood, 2004). Hybridity analysis needs to possess the difference between categories to defining overstep content (Wood, 2004). Hybridised television is more focus on the mixing together of styles of fiction and non-fiction to change the status of reality (Wood, 2004). 

In NZ reality TV shows such as Rescue 1, a famous New Zealand program (Lorenzo-Dus & Blitvich, 2013). In the first decade of the 21st century, “Reality TV” programme is mainly in Western network’s television schedule and developed into a global media phenomenon. 

Reality gameshows have become an international sell since the day it arrives in 2000 (Hill, 2005). The cost of reality TV has increased in the production such as drama, sitcom and it becomes an optional number of economic during 199s when the networks were looking for a quick fix to financial problem (Hill, 2005). “They were successful in the 1990s and early 2000s because they drew on existing popular genres, such as soap opera or gameshows, to create hybrid programmes” (Hill, 2005, p. 39). The mixed-gender of different genre of reality that creates a hybrid program which helps the economic problem of that period. “Reality TV has its roots in tabloid journalism and popular entertainment, but it owns its greatest debt to documentary television, which has mostly disappeared from the television screen in the wake of has popular factual programming” (Hill, 2005, p.39). I think the documentary had nearly disappeared before the reality TV show actually arrived in the audience. The documentary is a mixed genre reality together with the different genre such as gameshows to make it more fun to the way they tell factual stories rather a traditional documentary. 

“Given that the hybrid mixes what is customarily distinguished, this charge no doubt seems misplaced. However, hybridity is often treated not just as a complex of conventional modes but also as simple in its complexity” (Wood, 2004). Reality shows may be the hybrid mixes, but it is also simplification and it creates its genre. It also shows its colour.  

References:

Hill, A. (2005) The rise of reality TV. In A. Hill, Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television. (pp. 15 – 40). Oxon: Routledge.

Lorenzo-Dus, N., & Blitvich, P. G. C. (Eds.). (2013). Real talk: Reality television and discourse analysis in action. Basingstoke: Palgrave macmillan.

Wood, B. (2004). A world in retreat: the reconfiguration of hybridity in 20th-century New Zealand television. Media, Culture & Society, 26(1), 45-62.

Lou, W. (2006). Te Kura Kete Aronui Graduate and postgraduate E-journal – Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. ‘Reality’ in new documentary hybrids. A case of PBS’s frontier house(volume 2). https://www.waikato.ac.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/149252/WeiLuo.pdf

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

Reality Television is a genre that has evolved to include many different genres and concepts through continued hybridisation. Because there are so many different reality television programmes that all take on different styles and formats that shift continuously it has become difficult to trace the chronological history of reality television to a singular point of origin. This extreme hybridity that exists within reality television has led to the question of whether reality television can even be considered its own genre due to its blending of other genres.

It is difficult to pinpoint what exactly reality television has evolved into but according to Lorenzo-Dus and Blitvich (2013, p. 11) “it started out as a genre, but it has certainly evolved into a discourse.” Reality television has taken on many different formats over the years showing the frequency at which it changes, some examples of reality television formats include talent shows, dating shows, and cooking shows. Hill (2005, pp. 23-24) states that reality television changing so frequently is “an example of how television cannibalises itself in order to survive, drawing upon existing genres to create successful hybrid programmes, which in turn generate a ‘new’ television genre.” The abundance of formats in reality television can be viewed as a genre chain with the common thread between different reality television programmes being to entertain the audience. However, attempting to create a strict notion of what reality television is or what genre it could be considered is a fruitless effort because “the increased frequency of hybridized expression such attempts at generic identification are understandable, but they have not proved successful” (Wood, 2004, p. 48).

I feel that reality television is indeed its own genre, however, it is one that is constantly changing and evolving, merging different genres and blurring the line between reality and fiction. It has certainly changed significantly from the genre it originally was and although the individual quality of reality television programmes may fluctuate greatly, that does not invalidate the entirety of reality television as its own genre.

References

Hill, A. (2005). Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television. London; Routledge.

Lorenzo-Dus, N., & Blitvich, P. (2013). Real Talk – Reality television and Discourse Analysis in Action. Basingstoke, UK; Palgrave Macmillan.

Wood, B. (2004) A World in Retreat: The Reconfiguration of Hybridity in 20th-Century New Zealand Television. Media, Culture & Society, 26(1), 45-62. doi:10.1177/0163443704039709

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

Several different reality TV shows have been produced over the past decade, genres and sub-genres are still appearing and will play a big role in how television will be created, financed and produced in the future (Roberts, 2011). Back in the 1990s the RTV genre was a mix of factual, fictional and light entertainment, but it was still a genre you could pinpoint and recognize before the genre went viral (Hill, 2014).
Reality TV is a pop-culture phenomenon, it’s a porous genre because the characteristics of reality TV blurs the boundaries between fact and entertainment. It is also a guilty genre because people often try to hide that they are watching it (Hill, 2014).
Reality TV can be seen as a good example of a hybrid or mega-genre fuses together other genres, for example the game show, talk show, soap opera and documentary (Deer, 2015).
Deery (2015) writes that: reality TV can be regarded as a recognizable category for purposes of discussion, marketing, and scheduling without it being a definite or universally agreed upon genre.
Drama documentary is one of those porous genres who bleeds into drama, claiming that a fictional story is based on real events (Hill, 2014).  
Kavka (2012) says that there is a bit of confusion when it comes to reality TV as a genre, partly because of the format’s hybridity and partly because of mass production and constant changes.
RTV has transitioned from a genre who challenged the structural relationship for “liberatory” and “utopian” reasons to a genre that helps to uphold the leading spatial relationship in our modern-day society (Kraszewski, 2017). Kavka (2012) points out that genres continue to develop as it is being used, being circulated and in the discourse of pop-culture.
Bignell (2005) argues that RTV is not a genre but “an attitude to the functions of television, its audiences and its subjects.” Though he also points out that RTV still has links to other genres such as documentary, game shows and soap opera.
I think RTV is morphing into a genre of its own, springing out from the factual, fictional, light entertainment of the 1990s and a phenomenon that is still and possibly forever growing. It might not be the genre it once was, but I don’t think we can dismiss it entirely as a genre.

Sources:

Bignell, J. (2005). Big brother : Reality tv in the twenty-first century. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Deery, J. (2015). Reality tv. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Hill, A. (2014). Reality tv. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Kavka, M. (2012). Reality tv. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Kraszewski, J. (2017). Reality tv. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Roberts, J. (2011). Keeping It Real: A Historical Look at Reality TV. West Virginia University. https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4442&context=etd