Personally, I don’t like reality shows, at all. Yes, it is with some shame in my voice that I admit that I did follow Playing it Straight, and have seen and enjoyed episodes of America's Next Top Model or Project Runway. What I don't like is that they’re associated with the documentary genre.
It has become too spectacular, a product where the goal is to exploit and hang out people with little respect for integrity. In The Joe Schmo Show, Matt is the only real participant, everyone else are actors. The audience knows this and it’s all a very funny prank to pull on someone, but when it gets out of hand one starts to think how far can you push someone just for the sake of entertainment?
I just realized that the interrogation that takes place by the evaluation of the audience, being forced to take a stand on their relationship to the way the content is presented, is a typical reflexive tendency when it comes to Nichols mode. The form engages the viewer and draws attention to the constructedness that is represented. What is relevant is to question the authentity. All of a sudden reality TV has become a valid documentary style. I'm not really sure whether I like this discovery or not. For me documentary film is an art. Reality TV is not.
It has become too spectacular, a product where the goal is to exploit and hang out people with little respect for integrity. In The Joe Schmo Show, Matt is the only real participant, everyone else are actors. The audience knows this and it’s all a very funny prank to pull on someone, but when it gets out of hand one starts to think how far can you push someone just for the sake of entertainment?I just realized that the interrogation that takes place by the evaluation of the audience, being forced to take a stand on their relationship to the way the content is presented, is a typical reflexive tendency when it comes to Nichols mode. The form engages the viewer and draws attention to the constructedness that is represented. What is relevant is to question the authentity. All of a sudden reality TV has become a valid documentary style. I'm not really sure whether I like this discovery or not. For me documentary film is an art. Reality TV is not.
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