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JuliaS-SecondPaper 8 - 06 Apr 2008 - Main.JuliaS
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> | Title [Work in Progress] | | | "For the actual 'real world', see Reality." - Wikipedia's entry on The Real World reality program. | | |
What is reality tv? | |
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< | The term Reality TV describes a genre television programs that are diverse in content and format. From dating games and talent competitions, to hidden camera shows and simple documentaries, the spectrum of Reality Television is quite broad. Generally speaking, however, these programs share two major characteristics: (1) they are (ostensibly) unscripted and (2) they feature regular people, as opposed to actors. | >
> | The term Reality TV describes a genre of television programs that are diverse in content and format. From dating games and talent competitions, to hidden camera shows and simple documentaries, the spectrum of Reality Television is quite broad. Generally speaking, however, these programs share two major characteristics: (1) they are (ostensibly) unscripted and (2) they feature regular people, as opposed to actors. | | | Why does it matter?
I'm not sure yet. | | | (D)evolution of Entertainment
Comedy and Tragedy
Celebrity Culture | |
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< | Though not strictly speaking reality television, the culture – or perhaps more fittingly, cult – of celebrity obsession shares many of the same themes. Journalists It seems as though there is nothing we won’t consume – photos of actors doing mundane things, pictures of celebrity babies, mug shots. The tabloids themselves recognize and mock the absurdity of their own project – “Celebrities are just like us!” – yet somehow it endures. | >
> | Though not strictly speaking reality television, the culture – or perhaps more fittingly, cult – of celebrity obsession shares many of the same themes. Journalists stalk celebrities day and night, hoping to splash the tabloid pages with an unflattering photo or an embarrassing anecdote. It seems as though there is nothing we won’t consume – photos of actors doing mundane things, pictures of celebrity babies, mug shots. The tabloids themselves recognize and mock the absurdity of their own project – “Celebrities are just like us!” – yet somehow it endures. | | | Celebrity as a Causa Sui
A curious sub-set of the celebrity culture are seemingly _ celebrities. | | | Reality as a Product
In the classical economic model, wealth was generated almost exclusively by the production and sale of goods (explained very well by puppets here). Human activity was not widely consumed as entertainment, because there were very few ways to transmit performances. Performance-entertainment was generally limited only to live performances of music, theater or sporting events. The boundaries between consumption and production were clearly defined.
As our technological capabilities expanded, enabling us record and transmit our activities with ease, the classical model of production and wealth-generation gives way to a new model - a model of nearly limitless consumption, where all things have economic value. Suddenly, the mundane activities of daily life become a value-generating, consumable product, by virtue of the simple fact that they are watchable; reality itself becomes an economic good. | |
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> | -MTV's "True Life"; Web Cam shows | | | Division Between Labor and Leisure
On MTV's My Super Sweet 16 viewers are invited to watch wealthy teen girls as they plan extravagant parties. The girls don't hesitate to admit that they need to out-do their friends and impress their guests, the more ostentatious the better. It is tempting deem this behavior as conspicuous and unproductive consumption - and generally it would be - but in the new, post-industrial media economy, it becomes something different. These young girls aren't simply buying expensive goods, they are being filmed buying expensive goods, and by doing so, they are actually, in a way, producing. Activity that was once purely consumptive is here transformed into a product, to be sold to advertisers and consumed by the MTV audience. | | |
What's it mean? | |
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> | The reality tv phenomenon is a token of a broad, fundamental shift in the structure of our economy. Imagine the possibilities of a society in which all forms of human behavior are commodities.
The Synthetic A Priori: A New Understanding of Consumption | | | Shantih, shantih, shantih |
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| Revision 8 | r8 - 06 Apr 2008 - 07:20:10 - JuliaS |
| Revision 7 | r7 - 06 Apr 2008 - 05:09:20 - JuliaS |
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