This is a clip from Charlie Brooker's "Screenwipe" series. It deals with how "real" reality TV actually is and how easy it is to construct a narrative which is actually completely different from... well, reality.
There are concrete examples and illustrations given. I believe the video's purpose is to get us to question just how many of these documentaries/info/reality TV programmes are as real/factual as we think they are - thanks to how much control the producers do have over what makes the final cut and how it is presented.
Warm regards,
Charis
Hi Charis! I'm actually thinking of writing my term essay along the lines of to what extent is the mass media being used as a projection of reality, so this video is really helpful! Thanks alot for sharing! :)
ReplyDeleteI love how this ties in to “Simulacra and simulation”.
ReplyDeleteThis simply highlights Baudrillard’s main concern of the culture of simulation where it has progressed to the point that simulation no longer refers to the real world but more of hyperreality. Reality has been replaced by a systems of signs that causes images to become reflections of reality, and subsequently masks for reality, and ultimately "masks that mask the absence of reality".
In a way, just like presented in the video, electronic media now has made everything a simulation like "how political scandals mask broader truths about the capitalist system". Even for history shown in movies becomes more “real” than what the reality "was".