1. Maria Younes
POST-MODERNISM
BIG BROTHER AND DEADSET

2. • Big Brother follows the actual lives of a group of strangers/celebrities
stuck in a house where all their actions, dramas, conflicts, struggles and
conversations are all caught and monitored by microphones and cameras,
24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• In the last ten years 165 housemates have entered those famous doors.
• It was dropped from channel 4 due to low ratings and was late on bought
by channel 5
• This makes big brother a fly on the wall documentary/reality show.
BIG BROTHER FACTS

3. • It can also be considered as a game show as they have to complete certain
games in order to win a reward
CONVENTIONS OF A GAME SHOW

4. JEREMY BENTHAM'S PRISON
PANOPTICON PRISON
• Big brother replicates the idea of Jeremy Bentham's
prison
• The prison was designed by English philosopher Jeremy
Bentham
• The concept of the design is to allow a watchman to
observe which in big brother the cameras follow the
people to allow the audience to observe them
• In the prison not all cameras are placed in an area where
they are seen this is the same concept as big brother as
the cameras are placed in different areas for the house
mates to act as “natural” as possible
• In the panoptic prison, „the inmate must never know
whether he is being looked at any moment; but he must
be sure that he may always be so‟ in big brother the
contestants never know which camera is being shown to
the public but they must be always aware they are being
watched

5. • As the inmate of the panoptic prison, the public in urban space is often
unaware of who is responsible for surveillance in big brother the
housemates do not know who big brother is. Therefore they also do not
know who Is responsible for the surveillance.
BIG BROTHER

6. • Takes an edited footage over a 24 hour period and condenses it into an
hour episode.
• Editors can manipulate the confusion over space and time
• E.G If one housemate talks about another housemate and states
something which they are doing, the editors will purposely capture the
footage of this housemate. As an audience we view the program in a
chronological order and see things as if they are happening straight after
each other however time can be confused as footage is edited throughout
each day.
CONFUSION OVER SPACE AND
TIME

7. • Through the editing the directors allow the audience to see what they want
them to see, whereas the audience believe they are watching “reality” in
progress.
• For example:
• Jade Goody was not the only one making racist comments however she
was the one who made the LEAST comments. But through the use of
editing the producers cut all the other racist comments made by other
housemates and made Jade Goody seem like she was the “leader” of them
all.
USE OF EDITING

8. • We are subjects of domination by the image and the politics that are
encoded within it.
• The politics encoded in Big Brother is that of the popularity contest and
the survival of the contestant who endures the show‟s tricky political
intrigues to win the cash prize.
HYPPEREALITY

9. • Jade goody entered the Big Brother house in 2002.
• Before the programme Jade was a working class nurse who was in a great
amount of debt.
• Whilst in the house she didn‟t prove to be popular with the public. 82%of
the public voted to evict her rather than Shilpa Shetty.
• After her time in Big Brother Jade made a living out of newspaper and
magazine deals and became a successful celebrity without actually being
talented in anything.
• This proved that in todays society it is possible for anyone to become
famous.
STYLE OVER SUBSTANCE

10. • In Orwell‟s dystopia “Big Brother” was a figure to be feared, a vision of
what society could become.
• The concept of the show was taken from George Orwell‟s famous novel
“Nineteen Eighty-Four”.
INTERTEXTUALITY

11. • Big brother does no allow housemates to have any contact with the outside
world
• They are not allowed ANY technologic devices. This could link back into
history because they did not have any devices in which they were able to
communicate with each other.
• They had hot water which was rationed and they also had rationed food
• It goes back to the era of handicraft-based community.
• The housemates have to find ways of entertaining themselves rather than
relying on the products of the entertainment industry
HISTORY

12. • The house is a unnatural set, so it is artificial which links to Baudrillard‟s
hyper-reality theory.
• The difference between a normal house and the “Big Brother” house are
confused, people believe it to be a real house, when in actual fact it is more
like a set.
• The rest of Big Brother, which documents wild flirting, exhibitionism and
sexual suggestions, even characters stripping their clothes off in front of
the camera, demonstrates Baudrillard‟s theory that vulgarity and
pornography is our fascination.
BAUDRILLARD

13. • Hydermic theory: The audience is allowed a vote, which almost gives them
a role as director. This idea of interactive television which contrasts with
the hypodermic needle theory.
• Public opinion sways. They represent the characters in a way they think
that the public view them. So therefore we “think” that we have the
freedom to vote whoever we want however they have manipulated us.
• They do this by editing skills and the way they manipulate the audience
into hating a contestant.
AUDIENCE

14. • Big Brother has a totally different audience involvement compared to Other
TV Dramas i.e. Friends.
• Us as an audience determine the actual characters who enter the house as it is
members of the general public who also decide who stays and who leaves the
programme by voting for the characters
• Other programmes such as Big Brothers Big Mouth and Big Brothers Little
brother are centred around the programme. Both rely on audience involvement
who make up the studio audience to give the programme meaning. The public‟s
opinion is essential.
• Public opinion sways the way the tabloids represent characters. They represent
characters in a way they think that the public view them in order to sell copies.
• Big Brother is a programme that thrives off making money from its audience.
AUDIENCE INVOLVEMENT

15. • The fact that it is real life people being filmed shows the decline because
there has not been a set storyline. Nobody knows beforehand what will
happen in the show, even the characters themselves are unaware.
• This allows the audience to form their own view on the characters as their
opinions have not been manipulated by the „author‟ of a script.
• Also, there is a wide range of cultures and beliefs within the house, that
means there is no single meta-narrative which joins the housemates.
• The argument between Jade Goody and Shilpa Shetty shows how the
different religions and cultures in the house can cause problems.
DECLINE OF THE META-
NARRATIVE

16. • Big brother is a simulacrum of society. The example I have found is that
the housemates are watching the screen in the house about another
housemate who is watching a screen which is a message from her family.
• This is simulacrum as the diagram below shows.
SIMULACRUM
Viewer
at home
TV Crowd
outside
Big
screen
House
mates
Screen
House
mates
Screen

17. • In my opinion I do not think that the text is a good thing because the
whole show is fake
• For example: they cut down footage from 24 hours into an hour therefore
they had to remove a lot of scenes and they are able to pick and choose
what scenes they are able to show. They can make a character look like a
bad person or a good person and manipulate the audiences minds.
• In every single episode of big brother there has been either a racist
comment, accusations of homophobia, racist language and bullying of
other housemates. However this is good because it brings awareness to
people and shows that there are still people out there who are ignorant and
there is something that needs to be done.
• This gives a really bad example for our society as people often look up to
celebrities as “role models”.
IS THE TEXT A GOOD THING?

18. • Big brother just has a load of cameras around the house
• They film for 24 hours and then have a team of producers working and
picking out what they want to show in that one hour of the episode
• This can be misleading as they are in control of what they want to show
you
• They are able to put voice overs and change a whole scene.
HOW IS IT MADE?

19. Similar:
• The Bachelorette
• The Biggest Loser
• Bachelor Pad
• The Bachelor
• Hell‟s Kitchen
Different:
• Hollyoaks
• The million pound drop
• Deal or no deal
COMPARISON TO PRODUCTS

20. • Dead set is a horror drama created by Charlie Brook
• Dead set is primarily set in the same location as Big Brother
• They are the same group of production and distribution companies that
produces the actual Big Brother
• It is aired over 5 nights
• It is about a zombie outbreak that strands the housemates and production
team inside the big brother house which then turns out to be a shelter for
the undead
• Davina mccall who was actually the presenter in big brother was used as
one of the actors in Dead Set
DEAD SET

21. • As it is a reality plus tv horror it counts as hybridisation
• Dead Set is hyper reality as they use the real big brother set, they use real
news presenters and also they use real housemate contestants. Also they
use some CCTV footage just like big brother and then it goes back to a
typical drama series.
• Charlie brook who is the producer of this criticises the post-modern era.
He points out the fact that nothing is new anymore. He constantly also
criticises the media.
• Intertextuality: they use past big brother contestants they also use the
channel 4 news and newspaper articles
• Dead Set is the same as like having a copy of a copy of a copy and it loses
its original meaning.
POSTMODERN

22. • The purpose of dead set was to create awareness of media influences
• It sends out the message that people in this generation have become to
consumed in media and just like zombies we have set out o look for one
thing and to follow a certain thing
• For example people like watching big brother because it is entertaining and
we enjoy watching celebrities in a different light.
• Charlie brooker wanted to make a social comment as well as entertain
WHY WAS IT CREATED

23. As it is a mixture of reality T.V and horror, Deadset is considered as
hybridisation.
• Generic hybridity: In deadset they have mixed together big brother with a
zombie horror.
• This is showed by showing the backstage and technology of big brother
along with having the zombies accompanying them with lighting and
sound.
HYBRIDITY

24. • It shows the collapse of society
• Deadset shows that the world has turned negative and that the world has
turned bad.
• It doesn't give a positive view of the world.
• Deadset shows a imaginary place where the condition of life is very bad
(zombies)
DYSTOPIAN

25. • Filming for the series took place over the summer of 2008
• Pippa's eviction was filmed outside the real big brother house during
Belindas eviction in front of a real Friday night eviction audience
• As she was restricted to only one day's filming, a dummy of Davina was
used in some scenes for which she was unavailable
PRODUCTION DETAILS

26. • Dead set was intertextuality in terms of it mentioning big brother rather
than it actually being big brother
• One of the big brother characters in Deadset gets out a book which is
known to be used my celebs. This is another example of intertextuality as
they advertise other media texts through the use of another media text
• Baudillard: Establish horror genre through TV screen. You couldn‟t tell
that it was horror. Then you realise that its horror when the camera zooms
out of the diary room.
INTERTEXTUALITY

27. • Charlie Brooker: How TV ruined your life
• Black mirror
• Charlie Brooker‟s weekly wipe
SIMILAR PRODUCTS

28. • For example: Davina mccall is a TV presenter and the presenter of big
brother and ironically she features in deadset. Therefore she is a presenter
and not a actress and so it confuses the audience.
SELF REFLEXIBILITY