The article "You Cannot Talk to the Guys in the Boat" brings up numerous issues related to the genre, and to Survivor in particular. Discuss two elements that you find to be problematic, troubling, interesting, surprising or otherwise worthy of further exploration.
Comments are due by noon on Tuesday, September 7th.
This was a really fun article to read I thought because it shows you how forced reality television actually is. The fact that the actors could not even go anywhere without waiting for the cameramen to follow them for fear they would say something pertinent to the game shows that what we watch or see on television is so completely different then what actually happens. I liked the part where Helen Glover, a contestant on the Thailand 2002 show tells us that when she and another contestant, Jan, get lost at sea, they had another boat close by with cameramen on it and you couldn't talk to them because they would absolutely not respond.I enjoyed reading this article because I think that it really shines some light on reality television and brings a whole new perspective. Like when Helen and Jan got "lost" they really weren't lost because there was a cameraman there the entire time filming the whole thing. This will change the way that I view reality television.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading the article it made me think a lot more about how i view reality television and how reality does not necessarily mean that we are seeing what is really happening. One part that I never really thought about was editing. for example on page 9 when they speak about Linda and say "a 44-year-old African-American who was portrayed as obsessed with African spirits and even mentally unstable." This way we view her is because of all of the editing that took place which erased most of her dialogs except those. In a way editing takes away from the reality because the people in these shows are then molded to fit what the creator wants them to be instead of being themselves. Editing paired up with time is a way that leads the producers to manipulate reality and making it what they want it to be which is why they follow the contestants of these shows 24/7 to see if they can catch interesting moments to mold together this person and portray them to the viewers as someone they created rather than who is actually there.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the article plays on the dramatics within reality television our understandings of reality are homogenized. In the previous article, " A Medium in the Making: Slicing Familiar Films Into Something New," Roberta Smith discusses the ideas of exploiting "our susceptibility" but in fact reality T.V. does the opposite. While Smith challenges the integrity of the artist and his or her work, the works of video exploit its participants and viewers. The directors of survivor have exploited and created a false understanding of the role of media. Media has assumed a role that molds and falsifies the identities of celebrities and the understandings of stardom.
ReplyDeleteI found it problematic that, on page eight, the author of the article claims that reality TV stars are, "...unfairly portrayed victims of biased editing."
ReplyDeleteTo an extent, yes, I understand what is being said. The 'actors' go into the show knowing that they are part of a reality TV, and may have a misconstrued expectation of what it will be like when it's actually aired.
But in REALITY, the actors must be stupid if they don't think the producers will edit the film, for a variety of reasons. They have a small time slot, they need to entertain, etc.
The stars are very fairly portrayed because they must know, going into Survivor, that there is no possible way to portray them in a realistic manner...being biased is inevitable.
The author even says that a photograph of someone eating an apple is "...perhaps a close approximation, but the angle, the lighting, and so on, all were subjective choices on [the artists] part."
Again, any editing, and photography, and film is subject to false portrayal of the pieces content, intentional or not.
Reality TV stars are NOT, "...unfairly portrayed victims."