A Crude Hypothesis on Reality Tee Vee
I haven't watched much reality Tee Vee in my time (or much Tee Vee in general for that matter), but I believe I have seen just enough in passing, and read enough commentary about it, to find it a remarkably brilliant concept in terms of achieving its unstated aim. They all seem to have the same purpose. But to give credibility to my theory on this purpose, general groundwork needs to be laid.
(disclaimer: this is in no way a final statement, or completetly accurate, comprehensive, blah blah blah. These are initial thoughts open to other insights and corrections. I haven't studied much in communications theory, marketing, psychology, etc. so my assumptions may very well be naive or outdated).
We live in a peculiar age in terms of how members of society understand themselves. Not just an age of self-expression, but one characterized by introspective self-construction. In large part, people believe that they are responsible to define themselves at very basic levels. Many think or assume that our identities, our respective personhoods, are in some part an empty holding space until each of us fill them in on our own and complete a definition of self. To some degree or another all mediums of art and entertainment, but most especially and blatantly the Tee Vee medium, keeping in step (or one step ahead) with the social climate, have sought to facilitate this personal task for us. Every package delivered through television, regardless of its content, has bent to this ultimate goal for the viewer, even though the proximate motives and goals of Tee Vee programming will vary.
TV commercials, sitcoms, news programs, religious programming, televised political events, the mini drama, and so on ... all of them by simple virtue of being television-based, labor under overarching assumptions regarding the ability of a human being to redefine oneself (in this case the viewer) through the right conditioning (in this case the meta-message of the television medium). For more on this, check out a little book "Amusing Ourselves to Death" by Neil Postman which is in no way outdated but now even more relevant than when it was published in the 1980's.
Through competent marketing campaigns, the reality TV phenomenon has convinced us that this trend is 'alternative' television. In other words, even though we are still processing images and information through the Tee Vee box just like the sitcom and the drama and the commercial, this is fundamentally different from all other Tee Vee because the content is raw and unfiltered data reported from reliable sources coming from the very same world we exist in, not engineered characters from some script writers' theatrically fabricated world.
Well I would argue that this is an illusory effect, it is still a theatrically constructed world with the same aim as every other show and program on Tee Vee. More than that, the reality Tee Vee show exists to promote the reality-relevant nature of all other Tee Vee prorgamming.
The twist with reality shows is, if we are the compliant audients which the ratings pollsters need us to be, we become convinced of a constructed reality's relevant realism, because of some variables involved that are emphasized. The characters that populate the reality show's constructed world are non-performers (or performers taking on non-performance roles, like Tommy Lee), and have been given a certain space of improvisation to fill with speech and actions and (somewhat) autonomous free will decisions. The situation and/or environment which the characters must navigate through are portrayed as being taken from either very ordinary layers of society, or extremely contrived scenarios which are supervised by very ordinary professionals.
But from here, it becomes obvious that there's very little 'reality' actually occuring. A half hour program divided up by commercial breaks are edited down and framed in ways very similar to any other show. Speech, behavior, and scenarios must be edited and filtered in such a way as to convey the familiar progress, developments, and flow of drama which characterizes staged plays. Miniature scenarios and challenges are highlighted. Personal accomplishments or failures are arranged and structured to fit into their given spaces, so that the viewer can enter the commercial break in the exact same frame of mind they are in during other Tee Vee show commercial breaks. And they will return to the next episode of the reality show for the exact same reasons they will for any other drama or theatrically constructed show. The viewer is being conditioned to learn the pace of life according to television: everything is broken down into intermittent lessons between commercial breaks and between episodes. Nothing is left unresolved ultimately, unless for further dramatic effect.
And like the characters in any other dramatized Tee Vee program, some ultimate goals are accomplished. This ultimate goal, I believe, is the entire justification for the existence of the reality show from the perspective of those in positions with the most control and supervision over the direction and success of their television business.
And that ideal goal is this: At the end of it all, a character is given the opportunity, or I should say responsibilty, to be interviewed directly by the camera, outside the 'matrix' of their constructed reality/fantasy world, to provide us directly with meta-commentary about their own show. Specifically, this character is describing mostly what sorts of feelings they have about particulars. But here is the ideal climax of these kinds of shows, we are told by this character how he or she has learned something new about himself/herself that he/she will carry well afterwards (for the rest of their lives perhaps). In that sense, for any reality show whose participants have to achieve some external concrete goals yet fail, that is immaterial to their purpose. The participants' personal lessons and express feelings are most important. They need to prove to us that a television show changes us. And this is the inductive proof: it has changed at least one of us.
This is brilliant!!! This is marketing as performance art, soaked in a very pure form of irony. Look at what's going on: the television producers have given back to the faithful television viewers a volunteer from among the very same television audience - ordinary people or people in non-actor roles - so that they can explain to the rest of audience how we are supposed to redefine ourselves through the structured format of television programs. This must appear very uncontrived -- and it does! because the non-actor participants are oblivious to most anything being communicated outside of their own performance -- in order for us to accept the idea that we are simply getting raw and unfiltered, emotionally pure communication of information without an agenda. And so we are especially vulnerable and malleable at this point.
Thus, the hypothetically receptive viewer has either gained tools or have their existing tools re-enforced, by tools I mean something like a low-level mode of submissive cognition necessary for passive conditioning of self through an aggressive medium. I would call television an aggressive medium because its programming is designed to relay disconnected series' of information faster than we can thoughtfully absorb on a real-time conscious level. But often times, the seeming disconnectedness exists in order to obscure the big picture coherency of television: a medium assigning itself the responsbility of providing for the audience a redefinition of self. True this is exploitive, because the express purposes of television shows are not stated in so many large letters. But on a psychological level it is key to relate to viewers at lower levels of cognition so that the impact is lasting.
This redefintion of self is not an end in itself, from the perspective of television producers. It serves the purpose of maintaining an attentive audience week after week, where we discover our world fresh and validate (or challenge) ourselves. And I know this is cliche but still no less true; the maintainence of an attentive audience of course serves the twin purpose of the many business alliances involved: to fuel a vibrant consumerism.
Reality Tee Vee, therefore, is the national treasure of the TV syndicates. Because they (purportedly) understand us better than we understand ourselves - we the general public will invent reality where we don't already see it. We will invent identity where we don't already have it.
I haven't watched much reality Tee Vee in my time (or much Tee Vee in general for that matter), but I believe I have seen just enough in passing, and read enough commentary about it, to find it a remarkably brilliant concept in terms of achieving its unstated aim. They all seem to have the same purpose. But to give credibility to my theory on this purpose, general groundwork needs to be laid.
(disclaimer: this is in no way a final statement, or completetly accurate, comprehensive, blah blah blah. These are initial thoughts open to other insights and corrections. I haven't studied much in communications theory, marketing, psychology, etc. so my assumptions may very well be naive or outdated).
We live in a peculiar age in terms of how members of society understand themselves. Not just an age of self-expression, but one characterized by introspective self-construction. In large part, people believe that they are responsible to define themselves at very basic levels. Many think or assume that our identities, our respective personhoods, are in some part an empty holding space until each of us fill them in on our own and complete a definition of self. To some degree or another all mediums of art and entertainment, but most especially and blatantly the Tee Vee medium, keeping in step (or one step ahead) with the social climate, have sought to facilitate this personal task for us. Every package delivered through television, regardless of its content, has bent to this ultimate goal for the viewer, even though the proximate motives and goals of Tee Vee programming will vary.
TV commercials, sitcoms, news programs, religious programming, televised political events, the mini drama, and so on ... all of them by simple virtue of being television-based, labor under overarching assumptions regarding the ability of a human being to redefine oneself (in this case the viewer) through the right conditioning (in this case the meta-message of the television medium). For more on this, check out a little book "Amusing Ourselves to Death" by Neil Postman which is in no way outdated but now even more relevant than when it was published in the 1980's.
Through competent marketing campaigns, the reality TV phenomenon has convinced us that this trend is 'alternative' television. In other words, even though we are still processing images and information through the Tee Vee box just like the sitcom and the drama and the commercial, this is fundamentally different from all other Tee Vee because the content is raw and unfiltered data reported from reliable sources coming from the very same world we exist in, not engineered characters from some script writers' theatrically fabricated world.
Well I would argue that this is an illusory effect, it is still a theatrically constructed world with the same aim as every other show and program on Tee Vee. More than that, the reality Tee Vee show exists to promote the reality-relevant nature of all other Tee Vee prorgamming.
The twist with reality shows is, if we are the compliant audients which the ratings pollsters need us to be, we become convinced of a constructed reality's relevant realism, because of some variables involved that are emphasized. The characters that populate the reality show's constructed world are non-performers (or performers taking on non-performance roles, like Tommy Lee), and have been given a certain space of improvisation to fill with speech and actions and (somewhat) autonomous free will decisions. The situation and/or environment which the characters must navigate through are portrayed as being taken from either very ordinary layers of society, or extremely contrived scenarios which are supervised by very ordinary professionals.
But from here, it becomes obvious that there's very little 'reality' actually occuring. A half hour program divided up by commercial breaks are edited down and framed in ways very similar to any other show. Speech, behavior, and scenarios must be edited and filtered in such a way as to convey the familiar progress, developments, and flow of drama which characterizes staged plays. Miniature scenarios and challenges are highlighted. Personal accomplishments or failures are arranged and structured to fit into their given spaces, so that the viewer can enter the commercial break in the exact same frame of mind they are in during other Tee Vee show commercial breaks. And they will return to the next episode of the reality show for the exact same reasons they will for any other drama or theatrically constructed show. The viewer is being conditioned to learn the pace of life according to television: everything is broken down into intermittent lessons between commercial breaks and between episodes. Nothing is left unresolved ultimately, unless for further dramatic effect.
And like the characters in any other dramatized Tee Vee program, some ultimate goals are accomplished. This ultimate goal, I believe, is the entire justification for the existence of the reality show from the perspective of those in positions with the most control and supervision over the direction and success of their television business.
And that ideal goal is this: At the end of it all, a character is given the opportunity, or I should say responsibilty, to be interviewed directly by the camera, outside the 'matrix' of their constructed reality/fantasy world, to provide us directly with meta-commentary about their own show. Specifically, this character is describing mostly what sorts of feelings they have about particulars. But here is the ideal climax of these kinds of shows, we are told by this character how he or she has learned something new about himself/herself that he/she will carry well afterwards (for the rest of their lives perhaps). In that sense, for any reality show whose participants have to achieve some external concrete goals yet fail, that is immaterial to their purpose. The participants' personal lessons and express feelings are most important. They need to prove to us that a television show changes us. And this is the inductive proof: it has changed at least one of us.
This is brilliant!!! This is marketing as performance art, soaked in a very pure form of irony. Look at what's going on: the television producers have given back to the faithful television viewers a volunteer from among the very same television audience - ordinary people or people in non-actor roles - so that they can explain to the rest of audience how we are supposed to redefine ourselves through the structured format of television programs. This must appear very uncontrived -- and it does! because the non-actor participants are oblivious to most anything being communicated outside of their own performance -- in order for us to accept the idea that we are simply getting raw and unfiltered, emotionally pure communication of information without an agenda. And so we are especially vulnerable and malleable at this point.
Thus, the hypothetically receptive viewer has either gained tools or have their existing tools re-enforced, by tools I mean something like a low-level mode of submissive cognition necessary for passive conditioning of self through an aggressive medium. I would call television an aggressive medium because its programming is designed to relay disconnected series' of information faster than we can thoughtfully absorb on a real-time conscious level. But often times, the seeming disconnectedness exists in order to obscure the big picture coherency of television: a medium assigning itself the responsbility of providing for the audience a redefinition of self. True this is exploitive, because the express purposes of television shows are not stated in so many large letters. But on a psychological level it is key to relate to viewers at lower levels of cognition so that the impact is lasting.
This redefintion of self is not an end in itself, from the perspective of television producers. It serves the purpose of maintaining an attentive audience week after week, where we discover our world fresh and validate (or challenge) ourselves. And I know this is cliche but still no less true; the maintainence of an attentive audience of course serves the twin purpose of the many business alliances involved: to fuel a vibrant consumerism.
Reality Tee Vee, therefore, is the national treasure of the TV syndicates. Because they (purportedly) understand us better than we understand ourselves - we the general public will invent reality where we don't already see it. We will invent identity where we don't already have it.
posted by Joe Branca | 1:31 AM
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