Page 450 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

Real ty Telev s on |

In essence, this pre-selling puts more responsibility on shows’ producers and
leads to a blurring of programming and marketing (e.g., The Apprentice, which
designs entire episode challenges around a marketing stunt for a sponsor).

auDiEnCEs/inTEraCTiviTy

One of the key defining features of reality TV is its integration of audiences
into its programming. Audiences have been called “co-programmers” and “co-
producers” by industry producers. We can think of this in terms of a broader
media culture process of interactivity. First, a number of programs use audi-
ence voting to determine their outcomes (including the most popular reality TV
franchise of all time, American Idol). Second, a number of virtual and material
interactions with reality TV stars are encouraged. Viewers can chat online with
contestants after an episode, and MTV hosts club events where fans can mingle
with select Real World cast members. Finally, the fact that most of the programs
are composed of “ordinary people” means that the audience (not just of any par-
ticular program, but of the genre) functions as a potential pool of contestants
and participants.
Obviously this does not mean ordinary people get to design the scenarios,
cast the program, edit the text, or reap the profits that producers do. But it does
mean that the audience is incorporated as a variable into the design itself, and
that ordinary people are transformed into players and participants whose ac-
tions can alter future arrangements.

issuEs anD ThEmEs
A variety of motifs and cultural issues can be found in reality TV, and they are
worth mentioning briefly. Reality TV is both symptom and cause of an intensi-
fied celebrity culture. It holds out the promise that anyone can become a star,
even if briefly. Be it in music (American Idol), business (The Apprentice), mod-
eling (America’s Next Top Model), theater (Grease: You’re the One that I Want),
or back on reality TV (see the careers of Survivor’s Johnny Fairplay and The
Real World’s Trishelle Connatella and Tonya Cooley), celebrities can be made
in the genre. At the same time, celebrities themselves are brought closer to ordi-
nary people. They are made into contestants (as in Celebrity Mole, Celebrity Fit
Camp, I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!, The Surreal Life, Celebrity Boxing,
and Celebrity Fear Factor) or their lives are treated as ordinary people (as in The
Osbournes, Newlyweds, The Anna Nicole Show, The Simple Life, Breaking Bona-
duce, Run’s House, Being Bobby Brown, Hogan Knows Best, Shooting Sizemore,
and My Fair Brady). VH1 even calls their cluster of these shows “Celebreality.”
Makeovers are another key theme in reality TV. We could even say that re-
ality TV is a medium whose central operational imperative is transformation.
As just mentioned, transformations occur by turning ordinary people into ce-
lebrities and celebrities into ordinary people. Home improvement and rede-
signing shows (such as Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Design on a Dime,
Trading Spaces, While You Were Out, Garden Police, and much of the lineup on