The French reality TV programme landscape and the Star Academy programme

Résumé du document

The television landscape has changed years ago with the incredible growth of new programmes. Indeed, reality TV knows a huge development among TV viewers raising key issues around ethics, politics, truth-telling and realist representation. Even if reality television is totally a new genre of TV programmes, it became famous very quickly. The main difference with traditional programmes is that ordinary people are the main characters of emissions instead of famous actors. A reality television programme presents unscripted dramatic or hilarious situations by recording people 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. In France, programmes such as "Perdue de vue" (kind of a talk-show) were the first to give the word to ordinary people. However, the launch of reality TV in France was symbolised by the start of Loft Story in April 2001. Since that date, the French audiovisual landscape radically changed and is now overrun by reality programmes.

Extraits

[...] The French reality TV programme landscape and the Star Academy programme Nowadays, media play an important role in our daily lives. Indeed, each individual spend numbers of hours reading, listening and watching media. That is why it is important to determine what and who the media are today. In addition, the concept of mass media has started to be controversially discussed about and new media begin to rise in the communication landscape. For instance, one can think about the micro-media phenomenon: flyers, fanzines The way people communicate with other is an interesting area of research. [...]

[...] To sum it up, reality TV programmes are extracted from the novel of Georges Orwell (1984, 1976) where ordinary people are used as laboratory animals. The Star Academy concept has several particularities: - First of all, we got a documentary style programme in which ordinary people are the main characters - Secondly, the participants are filmed 24h a day and 7 days a week - The public is highly involved (high interaction provided by the votes through phone calls or SMS) - Finally, it is a music talent contest and an artist is supposed to be formed and chosen by the public at the end of the four months. [...]

[...] However, Star Academy is really more than a TV programme. Indeed, with traditional TV programme the audience is passive (movies, news, series .). In the case of a reality show, the audience is active, this is not an obligation but a choice. However, the term of choice can be highly criticized as it can be seen as an addiction. Star Academy ended the one-way communication with media, we definitively entered the era when the audience interact directly with the TV shows broadcasted. [...]

[...] For example, Jérôme Clément, CEO of Arte France, declared that the diffusion of reality programmes on private channels “proves that we need a strong public service within respect for certain principles” (Biltereyst, 2004). Moreover, France Télévision (e.g. France France 3 ) described reality programmes as a “degrading format without any additional value”. Finally, the debate around reality TV sustains the initial distinction between public and private channels as each of them is following their strategic line. It is all about the choice to refuse reality TV even if it maximises the audience and therefore profit. [...]

[...] Finally, what is noticeable in most of the reality TV programmes is the social impact of sexual materials available. Indeed, in most of reality programmes (e.g. Lost Story, Big Brother ) young people can see naked women and couples making love. Arthurs (2004) believes that it can be a form a social education. Indeed, a research (conducted by David Buckingham and Sarah Bragg in 2004) used by Arthurs reveals extent to which these serials allow children to watch and talk abot normally hidden adult sexual behaviour, including adultery and homosexuality”. [...]