Reality Television shows : Forms , Genres and Modes

1. REALITY
TELEVISION:
FORMS, GENRES
AND MODES
Name: Vidhya Pandya
Paper No: 15 Mass-media and Communication
Email-id : vidhupandya10497@gmail.com
S B Gardi Department of English [MKBU]

2. ● INTRODUCTION OF TELEVISION ●
▪ Television, sometimes shortened to
“tele” or “ “telly” is a telecommunication
medium used for transmitting moving
images in monochrome, or in colour,
and in two or three dimensions sound.
▪ Television is of our world’s most
important means of communication.
▪ Television has been influencing our
lives since it was developed over 80
years ago.
▪ Experiments in Television broadcasting
were initiated during the 1920s in the
United States & Europe.

3. ● MEANING OF TV GENRE ●
▪ Genre is the term for any category of literature
or other forms of art or culture.
▪ e.g. Music and in general, any type of
discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or
visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria.
▪ Genre are formed by conventions that changed
over time as new genre are invented and the
use of old once are discontinued.
▪ Often, works fit into multiple genre by way of
borrowing and recombining this conventions.

4. ● TV GENRES ●
▪ TV News
▪ TV Documentaries or Features/ Factual Television
▪ Talk shows
▪ Children’s Programme
▪ ‘Talent Hunt’ Show
▪ Reality Show
▪ Religious Programmes
▪ Other Genres
▪ Soap Operas
▪ Telenovela

5. ● WHAT IS REALITY
TELEVISION ?
▪ The concept of reality television presents a
sort of definitional difficulty in media
discourse due to the wide range and
sometimes conflicting scholarly and
professional perspectives on the topic.
▪ Reality television explores almost an infinite
range of subject matters–sports,
music,dance, education, adventure,
romance, etc.
▪ Reality television shows are those shows
that contain producer related ‘producer
created environments that control
contestants’ behaviour’.
▪ Reality TV’s claim to ‘reality’ has often been
questioned.

6. ● EXAMPLES OF REALITY SHOWS ●
Indian Television game
show based on based
on the British
Programme Who wants
to be Millionaire.
Who wants to be Millionaire
known simply is an
international television gam
show franchise of British
origin.

7. Nigerian Idol is the local version
of the Idol series franchise. It is
the second Idol franchise for the
country as it was already part
of ”Idols west Africa” which was
also shot and produced in
Stockholm, Sweden.
Project Fame, also known
as Project Fame West
Africa or MTN Project Fame
West Africa is a music talent
TV reality show filmed
in Lagos and aired in the West
African subcontinent.

8. ●HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF REALITY TELE
▪ It is a truism that reality television
gained global popularity as a dominant
television programme genre at the
dawn of the 21st century.
▪ Precedents of television programmes
that portrayed people in unscripted
situations began in the 1940s and
became popular in the United States in
the 1950s.

9. ● DOCUMENTARY ●
▪Reality TV documentary is different
from normal television documentary
in that in reality YV, emphasis is not
primarily on information and
education, but rather on drama,
conflict and entertainment. Under
this genre, viewers are given a
private look into the lives of
subjects.

10. ● IT’S SUBCATEGORIES INCLUDES
:-
▪Special Living Environment; which
places cast members in artificial
environment.
▪ “Big Brother Africa” is the African
version of the International reality
Television Franchise Big Brother
created by producer John De MoL in
1997. The show was first aired in 2003
for one season on M-Net and broadcast
to audiences in 42 African Countries.

11. SOAP OPERA
STYLE▪ Soap opera style; in which focus is on a
close-knit group of people and their
shifting friendships and romantic
relationships.
▪ Laguna Beach: The Real Orange
County is an American reality Television
series that originally aired on MTV from
September 28, 2004 until November 15,
2006. The series aired for three seasons
and was primarily focused on the personal
lives of several students attending Laguna
Beach High school.

12. ● CONCLUSION ●
▪Reality television as a direct television programming genre
is an evolving phenomenon which cannot be given any
conclusive analysis.
▪The continuous inroads it continues to make into
territories wither to uncharted in TV programming are
pointers that its final form and nature cannot be
deductively and analytical captured in any exercise today.
▪The key to understanding it’s true dynamics and extent
lies the continuous appraisal of its evolution and
development.

13. Works Cited:
Ikoro E.A, Omessah C.C and Ekevere F.O. "Reality Television or
Television Reality Shows: Forms, Genres and Modes." Global Educational
Research Journal 3.11 (2015): 6.