A three-day conference on globalization and television hosted by the School of Journalism and Communication ended on Saturday with a panel discussing reality television.
The conference, entitled “Cross-Border Cultural Production: Economic Runaway or Globalization?,” began Thursday and included distinguished speakers from several countries.
The panel addressed the international popularity of reality
television and how global templates had been adopted to local settings. Although the speakers called reality television “Eurocentric,” programming has expanded throughout the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Doris Baltruschat, a Ph.D. candidate at Simon Fraser University, began the discussion with an exploration of reality television’s popularity,
pointing out that Great Britain’s “Pop Idol” has spawned franchise spin-offs in 30 countries. In Canada, more than 17 million viewers tuned in to last season’s Canadian Idol.
“Only hockey night attracts more viewers,” Baltruschat said, drawing laughter from the audience.
Baltruschat said reality television is popular among producers because of its recognizability, its minimal cost and its low production time. Many shows, such as Survivor, require only about one month’s actual filming for an entire season’s run. The popularity of previous seasons also ensures a show’s longevity. The Australian Big Brother spin-off is currently on its sixth season, and CBS’s Amazing Race is broadcasting its eighth series. Baltruschat quoted one Fox executive as saying that creating reality television was so easy and profitable it was “like broadcasting with a safety net.”
Producers have also capitalized on the interactivity of the genre, using the Internet to reinforce brand power and create what Baltruschat calls “e-loyalty.” Web sites featuring blogs, outtakes, contests, polls, chats and ring tones are all aimed at the 48 percent of Internet users who watch television while using their computers. A Google search for the term “Pop Idol” returned more than 30 million hits. A search for American Idol turned up more than 81 million.
Though producers have touted interactivity as a source of viewer empowerment, Baltruschat focused on the downside of audience participation.
“Creativity is being mined instead of being given free reign,” she said. She criticized exploitative contracts signed by American Idol participants, sometimes vulnerable high school students, that allow the show to reveal information of a “defamatory, disparaging, embarrassing or unfavorable nature” regardless of whether the information is factual or fictional. In the end, the majority of American Idol participants get no monetary compensation in return for becoming what Baltruschat calls “a walking logo.”
Producers of Pop Idol spin-offs in other nations often work closely with repressive governmental authorities. China kept Supergirl creators from using the word “vote” because it was provocative. The Vietnamese government removed a judge from a reality show after he made comments contrary to ruling Communist Party policy. The vice-minister of culture replaced him with “members who have sufficient political and professional merits.”
Dr. Albert Moran of Griffith University, the second speaker on the panel, was reluctant to call reality television a “great beast on the horizon.” Even though the format is widely successful, he said it is “only one part of the future and current ecology of television.”
Conference coordinator Janet Wasko plans to gather papers written by the panel participants into a book for publication.
UO conference examines global reality TV market
Daily Emerald
April 24, 2006
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