How has the documentary genre influenced reality TV and how it presents the ‘real’?
The documentary genre influenced reality television (TV) on a good note, as it revolutionised television. Themes of documentary (doco) genre have been attributed to reality TV by creating drama spontaneously with static camera having its major role in capturing the unscripted drama that unfolds. Reality TV has adapted the doco’s presentation of objective facts that shows political, social and historical issues. Moreover, reality TV has adapted the hand held cameras, with voice over narration and close ups that zooms and captures raw emotions. Every documentary has to have a story that is based on the good guys, the bad guys and the struggle and reality TV implies that indirectly.
Furthermore, unprofessional actors are recruited to demonstrate the ‘real’. These differentiate from the fictional characters as being untrue and it shows the audiences that it is ‘real’. Moreover, the influence of the documentary to a reality TV is the theme of awareness and it is as real as it appears, or it happens as you watch it.
The audiences were then left to believe that some scripted reality TV is real, and now the viewers are bewildered as to what to believe. Such likes are ‘Big Brother”.
I think that it documentaries are accidents as it happens, and reality TV want to capture that accident similarly frame by frame. It is often achieved and it is often not, the presentation of the ‘real’ to me does not exist as long as it is on TV or a Documentary, as it shows the bias view of the producer and it is never, ‘you see it as it is”, although for entertainment purposes we believe it anyway.
Reference:
Hill, A. (2005) The reality genre: Reality TV; Audiences and Popular Factual Television. (pp.14-40). Oxon: Routledge.
It would have been useful to develop your response further with more explicit and considered reference to the Hill(2005) text.
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