George Orwell And 'Reality' TV

[Santino]

It's not that blatant tho is it, it's what they normalise. Obviously it's only freaks who sit at home and go 'oooh i wish i was like craig from big brother' etc

but if you watch 'reality shows' and so on day in day out and talk about it at work it becomes part of how 'people go on' in your view. that's the whole point, they are just 'normal people' like you and your friends, so the way that you see them and their behaviour edited becomes a representation of normal behaviour. people don't copy behaviour directly from TV but things we see on TV do affect our behaviour, it's like how most people don't see adverts and go out and buy stuff straight away but they plant the seed in your brain...

They also learn that when you win a round on a tv show you must quickly bring your hands up to your face in shock, as if winning was the very last thing you ever expected to happen, even though five minutes ago you said straight to camera 'I know I'm going to win this, I just know,' as if the whole history of epistemology and science was just something that happened to other people.

 

[kyser_soze]

But soaps have been creating this blur between actors and characters for decades - I've seen loads of interviews where folks playing bad characters in soaps get sworn at in the street by their character names, get sent hate mail. You ever read the Holy Moly! mail out? They do a section called 'Duty Log Mental' which are lifed from the call and correspondence diaries all the TV stations have to keep, and there are LOADS of people getting the line confused.

I mean come on, what could be sadder than wanting to be Gail Tilsley!>!?>!

 

[kyser_soze]

They also learn that when you win a round on a tv show you must quickly bring your hands up to your face in shock, as if winning was the very last thing you ever expected to happen, even though five minutes ago you said straight to camera 'I know I'm going to win this, I just know,' as if the whole history of epistemology and science was just something that happened to other people.

If you're on a TV game show, it probably was.

 

[DotCommunist]

But soaps have been creating this blur between actors and characters for decades - I've seen loads of interviews where folks playing bad characters in soaps get sworn at in the street by their character names, get sent hate mail. You ever read the Holy Moly! mail out? They do a section called 'Duty Log Mental' which are lifed from the call and correspondence diaries all the TV stations have to keep, and there are LOADS of people getting the line confused.

I mean come on, what could be sadder than wanting to be Gail Tilsley!>!?>!

I have a particular bugbear about the sort of social programming that goes on via the vehicle of soaps 'Here is the issue of the moment and here is how characters you identify with deal with it'

do fuck off. Don't even get me started on the bizarre 1950's class divide going on in Emmerdale

 

[isitme]

i agree it's the same thing

tv is more about control than entertainment

 

[kyser_soze]

Why single out TV? Why not just say all media is about control and reproduction of r/c ideas and be done with it, because in most cases it's true. Yes there are novellists, playwrites, songwriters etc who are subversive but the vast bulk of our cultural output is

a. shite
b. reflective of the broad r/c ideological consensus.

If you think TV today is conformist you should watch some from the 1960s, or listen to old recordings of early BBC drama radio programming...

 

[DotCommunist]

Why single out TV? Why not just say all media is about control and reproduction of r/c ideas and be done with it, because in most cases it's true. Yes there are novellists, playwrites, songwriters etc who are subversive but the vast bulk of our cultural output is

a. shite
b. reflective of the broad r/c ideological consensus.

If you think TV today is conformist you should watch some from the 1960s, or listen to old recordings of early BBC drama radio programming...

it is the dominant media in a way the novel was amongst the Victorian society, hence it is worthy of being singled out.

 

[fogbat]

Herbert GEORGE WELLs.

You never see them in the same place at the same time...

 

[Chairman Meow]

I wonder, just out of curiosity, how many 'reality' TV fans, and I'm thinking of Big Brother fans in particular, actually know who Orwell was or where the show's concept came from?

Last week I re-read 'Keep the Aspidistra Flying'. Gordon Comstock can't half whinge.

This week I is watching Celeb BB.

*head explodes*

 

[isitme]

I was singling out TV because we were talking about TV and a specific statement regarding a specific type of TV program

I agree that the majority of all cultural output is just a reflection of very conservative ideas, wether intentionally or not. I do think TV more so tho because of the cost of making programs and how the power structure in what is made appears to me, and, novels, music etc aren't as in the pocket of advertisers as TV simply cos of the cost of making an album or writing a book compared to making something to put on TV

 

[DotCommunist]

Last week I re-read 'Keep the Aspidistra Flying'. Gordon Comstock can't half whinge.

This week I is watching Celeb BB.

*head explodes*

If I never read that fuckers lowbrow/highbrow angst again it will be a good life.

Clearly Orwell working out a personal issue in the form of a book imo.

 

[kyser_soze]

I was singling out TV because we were talking about TV and a specific statement regarding a specific type of TV program

I agree that the majority of all cultural output is just a reflection of very conservative ideas, wether intentionally or not. I do think TV more so tho because of the cost of making programs and how the power structure in what is made appears to me, and, novels, music etc aren't as in the pocket of advertisers as TV simply cos of the cost of making an album or writing a book compared to making something to put on TV

Generally agree, and it's too late on a Friday to pick up on what I don't

 

[Fledgling]

it is the dominant media in a way the novel was amongst the Victorian society, hence it is worthy of being singled out.

True.




I wonder if a century from now the great great grandspawn of Andrew Davies will be adapting Holloyoaks into well written novels.