Lesson Three - Reality TV

Introduction

Lesson Four - Reality TV
Duration - 2 blocks (2 x 80 min + homework)
"Reality TV is based on the theory that people will always look at an accident on the freeway. It's so base, so animalistic now. They're building up an audience block by dumbing down the culture. It's depressing." - Tom De Lisle, television producer and writer

Taste questions aside, there are several business reasons that the television networks are developing reality shows. Union contracts covering Hollywood's actors and writers expire this spring and summer. If either or both groups hit the picket line, television production will stop. Virtually everybody involved says they hope a strike won't happen, but many are pessimistic. The networks candidly admit that the new reality shows are being developed as insurance against a strike.

The other business reason is "synergy" -- a biz-school phrase that has been increasingly heard as the country's major communications companies merge into ever-larger conglomerates. On Popstars, for example, the girl group that is finally assembled will release its music on a Warner Bros.-affiliated record label. And the group will be promoted on America Online, which is in the process of merging with Time-Warner, which owns both the network and the record label.

"Long range, some are wondering what all of this means for the future." - January 9, 2001, The Detroit News

Resources

Related Readings

Reality TV and Product Placement
Hollywood Unions Object to Product Placement on TV 
Gossip sells the goods
"The Power of No" 
How Reality TV Fakes It

Reality Television Programs (Wikipedia)

VIDEO

Lesson

As a precursor to our study of The Truman Show, we are going to delve into the world of product placements and reality television.

Read through the Related Readings documents, linked on the resources page, which contains discussions and definitions regarding these two ideas.

Browse the Reality Television Programs website in Wikipedia.

Assignment

ASSIGNMENT  (100 marks)  Please COMPLETE this assignment.
Open a new Word document. Label it E101U2L4surname 
In this document, write the good copy of your personal response to text as outlined below.
Submit this assignment using the Dropbox Folder for U2L4 reality TV

SELECT ONLY ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:

OPTION ONE 1. Advertising - Look around you and see what kind of labels or branding are present in your home and on your person. Make a list of all of the labels / brands you can plainly see.  Identify the major companies and the quantity you encounter. Write a short paragraph on the power of advertising based on product placement. (10 marks)

OPTION TWO 2. Twenty-Four Hour Advertising Survey  Count how many advertisements you are exposed to in this period of time. This includes obvious ads in newspapers and magazines, on the TV and radio, on the sides of busses and buildings, and on the bodies of your fellow human beings. If you watch TV, you will also be exposed to "product placement" adverting that has nothing to do with commercials in between episodes of your favourite program, but commercials that occur DURING your favourite show. Consider the main character on the television - is he drinking a soda or eating junk food? Are the labels obvious? What kinds of designer clothing might she be wearing? What sorts of appliances are in her home? (Blame Jerry Seinfeld.) Make a list of all of the advertising to which you are subjected. Write a short paragraph detailing whether or not you were even aware that you are targeted by advertisers in this manner. (10 marks)

OPTION THREE 3. Analyze "Reality Television"  Watch a reality television episode of your choice, and answer the following questions:
     a. What is the name of the reality TV show that you reviewed?
     b. Where is the camera? 
     c. What does the viewer see? 
     d. How does the perspective change when there are close, long and angled shots through the camera? For example, is the camera cutting between two groups or two individuals to suggest conflict? 
     e. How much is edited out of the final version that is eventually televised? Why is so much cutting done?
             - For example, does one TV episode cover a day, three days, a week, etc.? 
             - How many actual minutes make it to air, once the program's introduction, commercials, and foreshadowing of the next episode are cut out?
     f. How much do you, as the viewer, feel that you have been manipulated? (10 marks)

Conclusion

You have considered the effect that product placement and reality TV may have on you - something of which you may not have been aware. These ideas are expanded upon in director Peter Weir's film, The Truman Show.