Reality Television: Where does Big Brother fit in??

Reality television is an opportunity to show a new way in which people can learn to look at life, by seeing the real life of others interpreted by cameras. While reality television has taken over the commercial networks, the internet, especially the webcam, is reality’s sibling. The thing about reality television is that it isn’t reality at all. In the book, Big brother : reality TV in the twenty-first century, Bignell quoted Gary Carter, producer of the Big Brother franchise arguing “That to qualify as reality television, a program needs to have audience interaction (audience elimination). The unpredictable nature of the viewers makes reality television ‘real’”. Call it unscripted drama or a documentary, reality television is centred on capturing reactions of ‘real’ people in a set situation. The host of the Australian program, Gretel Killeen constantly reminded viewers to vote for the housemates that you love to watch not the house that you wanted to live in. As a post-modern approach to television these styles of programs extend the continuum between fantasy and reality. Programs along these lines always have positive ratings. Big Brother’s perceived authenticity plays an important role in the structure of the show. I know that I always look for moments of truth within the improvised ‘performance’ of Big Brother contestants. Within the compound of Big Brother the social codes of the real are blurred. By blurring the codes of the real Big Brother producers push the concept of two realities. What constitutes the real? Can it be ordinary society entering the mediscape?? I think that it is difficult to differentiate between the blurred concepts of the real due to the sheer magnitude of influence that the media has within society. While reality television is a genre within the television market it is also branded into subcategories within the genre. In reality formats the narrative is hijacked to present situations that would otherwise go by unnoticed. Reality television may influence social changes, or at least public cultural awareness, reality television formats may be produced to subvert and disrupt commercial television. This question is raised through the multimedia corporate production of Big Brother.