Reality Television shows

Reality Television shows and Sympathetic Exploitation of Participants

       Dr.Nivedhitha Devdas

This paper is about the study on Reality shows and how private Television Channels exploit real emotions of the average common public in the name of talent hunts and divulging their talent to the world. These reality shows survive like parasites by sensitizing the emotion of the public. These shows are special of its kind that participants become the viewer and viewers become the participant. The television channel obtains the talents, relatives and friends as their permanent viewers in order to run the show successfully and thus increasing their TRP ratings.

            This study focuses on how private Television channels exceed the limit of entertaining the audience at the cost of small children’s mental vilification and physical labor with specific reference to Vijay TV’s Airtel super singer for juniors. Textual analysis will be done to study the following parameters such as family story, personal problem, parent’s expectation, audience expectation at time, temporal duration, and temporal frequency and program structure to ascertain the idea. These parameters are used as tools for sympathetic exploitation.

Key terms:  Sympathetic exploitation, at time: temporal duration, temporal frequency, program structure.

The oxford dictionary defines the word ‘reality’ as a quality of being real; that which is something real and not imaginary.  Reality television came into India when Gajendra Singh created antakshri, a reality show, in the year 1993; another popular reality show sa re ga ma pa in 1995. Next astonishing popular reality show- kaun banega crorepati (kbc), with  Amitabh Bachchan as host. This attracted most of the Indian viewers of different States.  That even made an impact in Hollywood and Slum dog millionaire is the result. Now reality shows on small children who first started as talent exhibiting show and rose to the level of musical show competition which has made lots of stress on the children.

Down south, STAR Vijay first introduced Reality shows to the audiences.  STAR Vijay is a popular Indian entertainment channel broadcasting in Tamil. The channel is available in India, Sri Lanka as well as the US, catering for the Tamil Diaspora. It is best known for serving its viewers with a mix of content, not limited to mega serials/daily soaps like other Tamil channels. The main reason for the success of STAR Vijay is its share of reality shows. Some of its popular reality shows which brought a huge chunk of revenue for the channel includes Super Singer, Jodi No.1, Kalakka Povadhu Yaaru, EQ etc. It also introduced an intellectual show Grandmaster which is the first of its kind in Tamil television.

Almost all the private Television channels have introduced concepts of all areas like dance, music, game, debates, adventures etc.  Reality shows are sold very effortlessly in the marketplace of private Television channels. The simple reason is, once the concept is designed and formed the producer need not put in lots of effort in creating the new ideas for further production. And on the production side of these shows, unlike for producing fictional play or drama, creativity is not required. It is just the management of the programs and organizing the shoot. The popularity of the show is not due to high standards of production or of creativity but it is about common people to the common people. The increase of viewership and business is very much built in. That is, again the common people are used as the participant and they become the viewer. Indirectly, through word of mouth and because of the participant’s strength, the viewership is built.

           From the beginning till today almost all private channels exploit and survive with the help of commercial feature films. Right from showing feature films and dubbed versions of feature films to other cine-based programs like comedy times, interview of the film personalities, programs anchored by film personalities, star nights, film award shows, film reviews, film personalities as judges for all kind of programs etc. Now the Television channels have changed the direction of exploitation towards the real life experiences of people through reality shows and especially with small children.

Kids' reality shows are one of the most successful formats. In middle-class India, kids are the ones driving most family decisions, and they are the ones ensuring that the whole family comes together and watches these shows. This provides a break from the regular diet of family melodrama and warring in-laws that is the staple of Indian daily television. For the kids who participate, this is a ticket out of their small-town existence and a shot at fame and fortune. This stereotypical thinking misguides the children to think that this is a short route to a better life and the private channels play no role in changing this instead they only fuel the process by promising contracts and deals and national popularity. Almost every one of the parents who bring their kids to a show thinks their kid is the next star, which, is a dream created by the channels.

The Producers are the sole beneficiaries of this entire mess, the children are used for monetary benefits from TRP’s because they are strong subjects to affect the audience and especially the prime time audience. There are so many downsides to using children as the main attraction in today’s reality TV shows. Although children have been acting in feature films since times immemorial, performing in the fictional films, the children are aware of the fact that they are performing an imaginary role. The child feels very proud to say that it is in the commercial film industry. But in reality shows they have high hope on them and they compete in front of scores and scores of crowd, exhibiting their talent. If the child is selected, he/she is appreciated by everyone and pampered, if not selected the child feels ashamed of itself in front of a huge mass. At the cost of child’s disgrace, physical effort, education, the parents’ hope, time and money, the private channels gross profit and yet the child receives none of it, they are merely pacified with chocolates, goodies and various gift hampers and “fame”.

Those days have gone where the child’s mark was ranked in annual report cards. The education system has adapted a very modern way of assessing the students without offending the basic prestige of the same and there is no more exhibiting of the marks or grades and sowing happiness in some while sorrow in others. The reality shows on the other hand only bring back this practice and that too in the presence of an audience watching the children’s every move, the children are made to stand in a line, being judged and then the marks are provided, to hype the fun some more, the reactions of the child are shown in close-up’s, the parents’ reactions and the crowd’s reaction are all played around with using excellent editing techniques, all so that there is a sense of suspense and the thrill of watching real emotions.

Also to be considered in detail is the concept of the audience that the child is facing, whether winning or losing, and thankfully for the kid it wins, but there is this group of people consisting of the family, friends and relatives that are present at the studio to watch their loved one go on television, become a big TV star and then be crowned the queen of some dreamland, these people are the ones the child has to immediately face, the ones that he/she will be looking at, identifying each and every one of their faces and thus called the identified audience. The larger part is yet to come, this is the millions of television viewers that are watching all over the world, in this case, Vijay TV’s viewers are spread all over India, Sri Lanka and also the United States and this is the unidentified audience. The child not only has to face humiliation in front of the audience that he/she identifies but has to also fear humiliation from a larger number sitting out there in front of televisions.

Many social activists have voiced against reality shows especially those that use children. In Andhra Pradesh, social activists appealed to State Human rights commission and got a ban on Zee Telugu's 'Aata', a children's dance reality show, but the organizers got a stay by appealing in court. Justice Subhashan Reddy, chairman of the Human Rights Commission, has threatened to stall the show, arguing that “…no reality show had the right to violate children's rights.” The participants' provocative dances and dresses in the TV show were quite demeaning in nature  he said and also added  that a committee would be set up, if necessary, to probe into the matter further. Reddy further stated that these shows have a bad impact on the society in general, and on those children watching the shows in particular. He admonished parents for channeling their children's focus on reality shows, which caused a lot of unhealthy mental stress and agony, along with untold physical stress.

For a week, various child rights protection organizations and its members in the city had campaigned against 'Aata' across the media. Brewing concerns over children’s' rights made them file a petition demanding for a halt of the show. Devi, a social worker, said that the reality shows involving children rake in a lot of money and are a form of exploitation. Considering the unlimited numbers of hour’s children invest in practice, it is like child labor she further expressed.

In their defense, participants' parents said that everything on the show was a matter of personal choice. They said they were simply encouraging their children's interests in participating in the dance competition, and that as parents, they had the authority to take a decision over their children's life. The parents have filed a petition now, demanding that the charges filed against them be dropped. Looking at this counter argument that they had the authority to take decisions in their children’s lives; will they be patient if mentally challenged individuals make rash decisions of their children? After all, they too are parents who have rights in their children’s lives and why do people create such havoc about abortion and female infanticide, isn’t that also a decision made by the parents, in their child’s life? http://www.fullhyderabad.com/hyderabad-news/reality-show-aata-must-be-stopped-human-rights-commission-610?sort=most+helpful&horder=DESC%29

In a group discussion conducted on the topic if reality TV shows using children should be banned in India, some opined as below:

·      “Yes, it should be banned.............. I think not only should reality show allow children under the age of 10 but they should not be taken to any hard competitive level where elimination is present.”

·      “Yes, this sows happiness in very few and distress in many in the immature stage. Children aren't matured. They take things like elimination very seriously and this may harm their mental growth. It is emotional manipulation for profit at its worst.”

·      “I agree with some points, but nowadays reality shows are for just drama, not true entertainment, all reality shows end in SMS voting (robbing customer by cellular companies with help of such show).”

·      “yes these realty shows involving children should be banned , as answered by our learned members
they lose their studies, unnecessarily hyped in their school/class , they may develop inferiority complex ( due to the fear of losing), may develop a vexation towards the society , (as their parents argue that their ward is better but due to politics he/she was eliminated to an inferior competitor), the amount of strain they have to undertake to make a grade and the amount of abusive language make them mentally sick

·      The reality shows are of long time and also hampers the child lessons and mental health.
I think the shows like boogie-woogie which is not as timely as other reality shows should be promoted for children's talent. Banning might be little unfair because some of them wants to be actor or media personality. Every child will not be doctors, engineers, CA’s, etc in future. So the best thing is reality shows must be of few days.

·      Yes, they should be banned. In fact the parents are treating their kids as money making machines and making them bonded labor and robbing their childhood. They are causing immense pressure on the minds of the kids and creating an opinion that unless they come first in a reality show, (I like to call it a stage managed shows to make money,) there is no life for those kids. In some shows the children aged between five to six years are imitating sexy vamps of cinema world and the male mentors, are abusing the bodies of girls which is nothing but child abuse.

·      If it is hindering the education of the children and keeping them ignorant, then it should be banned. If it also becomes a distraction for other children who see this as a means to fame and fortune without hard work, then it should be banned. The reality TV craze seems to have taken over the world but these children should be encouraged to get sound education instead of parading them on TV.

The technical aspects of the shows also have to be kept in mind, public sector channels for e.g. Doordarshan, during the black and white period used to have closed auditions in that the participants never had to appear in front of people and even the results used to be posted to their address avoiding any confrontation of the audience and avoiding any embarrassment but with times, this process has also changed and now private channels use every small detail to create a suspense criteria in the people. Traditionally, all channels followed the selection and rehearsals/practice sessions but broadcasted only the performances but the lust for money and TRP has driven channels to broadcast even small intimate details of their participants life and sometimes even make them do things that might tickle the audiences’ curiosity and keep the secret hidden behind confidentiality terms that the participants have to sign beforehand.

Program structure: The general duration of the program is one hour. In that hour more than ten minutes is allocated for advertisement. Parents interview about their children, their special nature and inclination towards music, about their family background will be for more than ten minutes and a very great praise and appreciation about the channel, program and their reach. Children’s interview about their aim and ambition to get the award given by that particular channel, interest in music and about their practice speaking about their interest in music and about their practice.

Anchor inviting the guests and praising the program, and telling about the selection criteria, giving introduction about the judges, music, and about the participants. Judges before listening to the song inviting and warming up the children, and after listening to the music,  judging and critically analyzing and appreciating the song that is sung and discussing among themselves and finally announcing the results, consoling if the child has not sung and appreciating if the child sings well. 

The prime time: The child singing is the prime time of the show, of the judge, of the parents, of the media people and the business people. The music show except few minutes of music it is actually full talk show which is of sheer waste. During this singing time when the child is more important but even during that prime time, judges reacting to the song, audience appreciating and seeing the song, parents seeing the child will be shown. Hardly the producer cuts very few shots of the child. So what is the point of calling this a musical show?

Carnatic musicians who have chosen as judge, they don’t judge the child’s musical knowledge by listening to classical music nor they appreciate a child singing classical music but they ask her to sing film based songs to judge her capacity as a singer, which means that classical music does not have any value or is it the motive of the reality shows to motivate the children to become film playback singer to get popularity very quickly.

It is traditionally followed that the art of Bharatnatyam is taught in three sections;

• Natya - dramatic art of story-telling.
• Nritta - pure dance movements.
• Nritya combination of abhinaya and nritta

The teacher starts training little children only with the art of Nritta, because Abhinaya insists the portrayal of 9 human expressions such as amour or love, wrath, ridicule, etc and these can be perfected only because people have experienced it and children at their tender ages cannot be expected to perform Bharatnatyam at competitions and more so at competitive TV shows. These shows treat children like they have come for some fancy dress competition and that too to wear clothes that the channel provides. The channel forces the participants to dress in a certain way and if it is a themed round then according to the theme, this only makes the children look like they are clowns who are parading around for the benefit of the producers.

These reality TV shows are only travelling away from reality if there needs to be a direction defined for this process, the use of background score in itself is a step faraway from reality and then forcing the participants to appear in a certain way to be able to fascinate the audience is already the second non realistic step taken. Repetitive cuts while shooting so that the actions can be rectified or groomed also, scripted remarks by judges’ takes away all that is real from the show and only an illusion of reality is left behind for the viewers. The producers manipulate the audience and the show so well that very rarely do individuals separate the reality from this illusion.

References:

 Andrew, Dudley. The Major Film Theories: An Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976.

Bord Well, David and Kristin Thompson. Film Art: An Introduction. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc, New York: 1997.

Hayward, Susan. Key Concepts in Cinema Studies. London and New York: Routledge, 2004.

Manvell, Dr. Roger. (Ed) The international Encylopedia of films. New York: Rainbird Reference Book Limited, 1975.   

Roberge, Gaston, Chitra Bani: A Book on Film Appreciation.

 Calcutta: Chitra Bani, 1974.