Big Brotheris "a uniquely damaging and vicious piece of television, pandering to the worst instincts of the viewer, broadcaster and participant, degrading all three in the process." (David Aaronovitch) - How far do you agree with this assessment?

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Reality Television:

Big Brother is “a uniquely damaging and vicious piece of television, pandering to the worst instincts of the viewer, broadcaster and participant, degrading all three in the process.”

(David Aaronovitch)

How far do you agree with this assessment?

In the summer of 2000 Big Brother fever swept the country. This ‘Reality TV’ show was first aired and created in Holland and has conquered the globe. Produced by Bazal TV for Channel 4 it reached huge audiences and broke the record for the largest TV phone vote in British History; thousands of people voted every week to evict one member of the house. Every Friday at 11:00 p.m., prime time for a 16-28 audience, evictions took place. Davina McCall, a lively young presenter, fronted the show. The weekly eviction and run up was an immediate hit for Channel 4 the programme built on its popularity despite criticism that the show is populist and uninformative. Now with spin-offs everywhere and Channel 4 about to broadcast the third series of Big Brother, the criticism of the show still comes loud and clear.

This television show was aired every day of the week: On Mondays it was the psychological analysis, Tuesdays were the nomination days, and so on. It even had its Omnibus on Sunday like the soap operas. The house started with ten people, five women, and five men, a microcosm of society or so we were led to believe. They would battle it out over the 9 weeks nominating two other people each week to go to the public vote and eventually one person was left to claim their cash prize of £70,000. It claimed to be ‘infotainment’, a social experiment never before tried, but with the entertaining twist of a soap opera or game show. Some people would argue that, in short, Big Brother is reality TV and even documentaries themselves, gone bad.

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Documentary is the oldest form of film making. The first film was shot in France by the Lumiere Brothers, ‘Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory’; now in the present day the documentary still lives on. Although the documentary may have changed its shape and form over the years it still follows the same criteria, as suggested by Michael Rabiger in 1998 in his book. Rabiger states that the documentary should tell a good story but at the same time include contextual information. It should not be a textbook, for information can not be presented as “value-free”, and it should contain ...

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