How does Hill define reality TV?
Hill (2005)-“There are a variety of styles and techniques associated with reality TV, such as non-professional actors, unscripted dialogus, surveillence footage, hand-held cameras, seeing events unfold as they are happening in front of the camera.”
From what I could extract from Hill (2005), there doesn’t seem to be a definitive label for the genre of reality TV. Traditional Reality TV covers anything from investigative documentaries, to onsite reporting of the news. Modern notions of reality tv can range from reality game shows (survivor, big brother), to more documentary-like formal programs, sometimes referred to as factual soap operas (Airline, Middlemore). Hill (2005)“The television industry is flexible in its categorisation of reality TV. Popular factual programming can fit under a range of traditional categories,”
Although the definition of “reality” can very easily be applied to the more traditional forms of factual entertainment; some of the modern variants have the title applied very dubiously, for in the case of reality game shows, what the audience see as reality can be a highly edited reality; production companies often take liberties in crafting people into characters, no doubt making their shows more dramatic and interesting.
How has the documentary genre influenced reality TV and how it presents the ‘real’?
This is a hard question. In my mind its not necessarily a matter of what parts of the documentary genre, Reality TV is influenced by; for me it seems more a question of what parts of the documentary style, does modern reality TV use to give the portrayal that something being witnessed is indeed real. Modern reality TV uses imperfect camera movements and other techniques usually associated with documentaries, to give the actors or events involved a feeling of being real, even if the scene is totally constructed,; the perception of reality is crafted. Hill (2005) has a very novel way of interpreting the difference between documentaries and modern reality TV- “The continuum between fact and fiction is a useful way to think of the relationship between contemporary factual programming and the various types of popular factual television that make up the reality genre.”
References
Hill, A. (2005) The reality genre. In A. Hill, Reality TV:Audiences and Popular Factual Television.
(pp. 14 – 40). Oxon: Routledge.
Some good points and bringing these together I wonder whether reality TV isn't more defined by it's aesthetic rather than it's specific content or format. A game show that includes black and white revelation cams -or shakey hand-held fly on the wall camera angles esentially becomes Reality TV.
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