Juliana Abdul Wahab

Field: Media Studies ( Film and Broadcasting)
Country of origin: Malaysia
Period of stay at IIAS: 16/01/2010 - 25/07/2010
Status: Affiliated fellow
Home institute: School of Communication, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia
Research topic: Reality TV and Quest of Globalization

Project description
Before the outbreak of the reality phenomenon largely within the domain of entertainment programme come into being, the type of reality tv was originally associated with the type of programmes that is closely link with factual television programmes such as television news and documentary. Nonetheless, recent development in television industry has redefined the usage of the terminology. Reality tv is no longer being associated to news and documentary alone; more so at the rate of the development of reality tv is taking place at the now, the phenomenon has also 'enroll’ itself into other types of television programmes. The term reality tv has now redefine to the new genre.

Genre is the term used to categorize the different types or format of television programme which appear to fall into the a clear generic categories such as news, drama, talk show, sitcoms and etc.  However, the recent phenomenon associated to reality tv has create a ‘bluring of   boundaries’ of television genre. A single production of reality tv shows now consist a combination of various television genre i.e adventure and game show to produce a new kind of programme. Some of the prevalent characteristics of reality tv is unscripted, documenting actual event and featuring ordinary people. Reality tv breed to be the fast growing television format internationally since its arrival in the late 1999.  In the commercial climate that administered television industry, economic factor play a major role. Reality tv is inexpensive to produce.

Globalization process in this sense can be seen as a major factor that contributed to the growth of reality tv phenomenon across the globe. This project in essence aims at tracing the development of reality television in general and attempt to locate the development within the push and pull factor that contribute to its popularity around the globe. A documentation search will be employed to collect data on this aspect. A content analysis of selected reality television programmes, both locally and internationally produced will also be used to analysed the ideology embedded in the production of the programme. Most importantly, this study attempt to critically access the phenomenon within the frame work of globalization.

Publications