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‘some scenes have been created for dramatic effect’
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With Daily Express owner Richard Desmond obtaining Channel 5 last summer, presumably broadcasting would change somewhat. The first major decision put into discussion was the potential purchase of Big Brother from Channel 4. After much negotiation this consequent year brings the final decision and confirmation of a two-year deal for Channel 5 regarding the exclusive rights for Big Brother. It is said to be a deal worth £200m, which I find puts me in a state of disbelief. How can so much be charged for such a simple and repetitive concept? I feel there has been a sufficient aggregate of this show already and considering there have been 10 series prior, surely society has endured enough?
As you are probably able to tell, I dislike this programme. I understand the compulsion of watching as with its broadcasting regularity it was hard to avoid and it can easily become habitual viewing, but I resent how successful such a basic programme of essentially watching CCTV of people in a house can be. However, the reason I don’t like it is probably the reason the audience do. It shows what producers can easily create when they tactically chose members of the public and contain them in a monitored environment watching their every move. Thanks to Channel 5 this constant flow of reality television will remain but I feel Graeme Turner’s coined term ‘the demotic turn’ will continue to apply. This refers to the increasing production of ‘ordinary’ celebrities through reality television; generating the term ‘DIY celebrity’.
Watching The Truman Show prompted this trail of thought, a film that intended to reflect what is happening in our 21st (and 20th) century media-influenced society. It illustrates a character being imprisoned against his knowledge in a false r
eality for the audience to enjoy and of course to ultimately benefit the business who created the programme. It shows the protagonist challenge and eventually escape the reality television programme (The Truman Show) he has found himself coerced into without his realisation. Its narrative offers us metaphors portraying the message about having to protect our mentality from the conceptualised reality of culture that has been created by the media and society.
Many other films have underlying meanings to do with consumerism, such as The Village and Over the Hedge. These both depict societies that desire isolation from the ‘new’ and technologically advanced civilization we have become in order to maintain their own world. Both have characters that stop others who become curious of their surroundings, in the former this is what is beyond the forest and the latter it is what’s beyond the hedge. Over the Hedge is a metaphor for consumerism and its consequent effect of wanting what we don’t have. It shows how happiness can be a façade of seamless illusions until an individual (in this case a racoon) begins being subjected to unknown elements such as consumerism and is thus becoming aspirational for a different, materialistic and invariably more idyllic lifestyle. It is styled as a sly satire of American culture in particular, focussing on consumerism and the mind-set of ‘enough is never enough’. However I do feel that these films are not just mocking America now but the entire English-speaking world as we all seem to be becoming part of this ever increasing consumerism epidemic titled ‘Affluenza’ (by Oliver James and Australian author Clive Hamilton).
In this future launch of Big Brother, they plan to indulge the audience further by having an “all-star celebrity version” to commence. But it will require a lot more to generate interest in the programme as with each series prior there has been a new theme/layout every time. Parallels can be drawn between this and The Truman Show (despite its release date being 1998) such as actors being placed in the Big Brother house undercover (Paris Hilton) as well as countless situations being provoked and encouraged. I can already imagine each series becoming more and more like The Truman Show, instigating numerous advertising techniques like product placement. This constant desire for God-like entertainment is obvious, with so many reality programmes continuing to be popular and thereafter warranting further series. Admittedly when I was younger I had been known to watch the first episode of the earlier Big Brother series but, sadly and ashamedly, this was just to be remotely involved in the constant conversation about it going on in my school and invariably to fit in with peers. Ah yes good old peer pressure exists no matter what, but Big Brother… really? I know I felt peer pressure at the time, but until now I had no idea to what extent it had developed. This is worrying to say the least, especially as the younger generations now are exposed and subjected to a lot more media than I ever was. Even though this should be expected as year-on-year media technology is developing new and more innovative ways of reaching their audiences, media products such as Big Brother are getting to the point of being pretty much unavoidable.
More recently, there has been the ‘new’ style of reality television that encompasses such programmes like The Hills, Geordie Shore, Made in Chelsea and The Only Way is Essex. Now the fascination with these programmes I do not understand, nor can I comprehend the reality element. I say this because they are labeled as reality programmes but at the beginning there is text explaining how ‘some scenes have been created for dramatic effect’ – contradicting the genre completely. So there aren’t actors or actresses, the cast are more ‘structured reality’ stars so essentially they are even more false than the people in Big Brother. It seems this hybrid of reality television is becoming more popular than the original, so maybe Big Brother’s comeback won’t be as welcome as Channel 5 think? Maybe ratings will flop and it will finally be off our screens for good to make way for this new hybrid? However, I’m hoping this hybrid will not last for 10 years too though as I hope never to be coaxed and aid the ratings for The Only Way is Essex anytime soon…
Bibliography
http://www.transparencynow.com/truman.htm
http://ics.sagepub.com/content/9/2/153.abstract
http://ecosocialismcanada.blogspot.com/2011/01/socialists-debate-consumerism.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/apr/06/big-brother-celebrity-special-channel-5
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