Abstract:
There are over 20 million individuals worldwide who have appeared on Reality TV programmes yet their reflections of the process have rarely been recorded and used to advance analysis of the genre’s claim to depict ‘reality’. My project addresses this research gap by analysing the experiences of past-participants of Reality TV programmes to uncover how production processes impact on the genre’s purported depictions of the ‘real’ emotions of ‘real’ people. I interviewed a group of past-participants of Reality TV programmes to uncover what transpired for them during all the stages of production, and to explore how the techniques employed by programme-makers had affected their thoughts and behaviour before and during filming, and after the final programme had gone to air. In analysing these interviews I discovered that ‘ordinary’ people who appear on Reality TV programmes contend with a vast power differential tipped in favour of programme-makers. Furthermore my research participants revealed how programmemakers use their powerful position to elicit emotional material during filming, in a way that at times constitutes an abuse of power and results in unethical behaviour. My thesis outlines how a participants’ level of knowledge about the Reality TV process affects their emotional management during filming and the manner in which they deal with the manipulations exercised on them by programme makers. By extension, I determine that a participants’ level of knowledge also has a direct bearing on their subsequent validation of their portrayal as genuine and ‘real’. My findings and the discussions contained within this thesis have serious consequences for the Reality TV industry, as they reveal rarely considered (yet vital) perspectives, that of the ‘ordinary’ people on display. This thesis offers a privileged window through which Reality TV’s claim to depict real emotions of real people in real situations can truly be analysed.