|
Mardi Lumsden Well, I had to come clean some time: I am a reformed reality TV junkie. But watching wasn’t enough for me. I have auditioned for every reality TV program in Australia, apart from Big Brother. (I had to draw the line somewhere.)
From Race Around the World to Australian Survivor and Idol, I was there, flashing my wares. To this day I don’t know what the appeal was for me. Maybe it was the fleetingly cruel glimpse of fame? Maybe it was the challenge of outlasting the physical and emotional challenges? Or maybe, just maybe, it looked like fun at the time. It turns out reality television may have a more of a positive affect on people than first thought. An Australian Communications and Media Authority report revealed reality TV may have a positive influence on its young audience (15 to 24 year olds) by exposing them to situations and ways to deal with those situations they otherwise would not encounter. “It made them aware of, and more tolerant of, social diversity and caused them to reflect on their own behaviours and the impact they have on others,” said the report, parts of which were published in The Australian on 1 August. But what about the effect reality TV has on the contestant? In July this year, 35-year-old American, Cheryl Kosewicz, committed suicide after being the forth person voted off the CBS and Chanel 10 program Pirate Master. On the show’s website Cheryl, a district attorney, described herself as “confident, athletic, competitive and loud”. She is not the first reality TV casualty. Numerous contestants from reality TV programs have ended their lives shortly after finishing the series. The first person voted off the first reality TV series perhaps gave a hint of the affect of emotional stress to contestants. The show was Sweden's Expedition: Robinson in 1997. The program later became known as Survivor. Sinisa Savija was a 34-year-old Bosnian refugee who was rebuilding his life in Sweden. Sinisa’s widow said after being voted off the program he did not react well to his impending nationwide public humiliation. Understandable, don’t you think? Producers for the program said Sinisa was going through a marriage break up, dealing with memories of war, and killed himself before the show aired, so how could the show be responsible? His death did force reality programs to make all contestants go through stringent psychological testing before being selected. Then there was 23-year-old boxer Najai “Nitro” Turpin, who shot himself after losing a match on the Sly Stallone fronted program The Contender. Najai was raising his two younger siblings and his first child when he saw The Contender as a way for his family to escape the circle of poverty. The same year Melanie Bell, a television producer, jumped from a building in Las Vegas while shooting the show Vegas Elvis. In 2005 17-year-old Carina Stephenson from northern England hung herself from a tree near her family home. Carina and her family had spent the previous months filming The Colony in Australia for the History Channel. She had apparently been the main advocate for the family participating in the program, where four families lived as early settlers in Australia. The program was to be aired in England less than a month after her death. Can we really blame reality TV for killing these people? All of these contestants apparently had other issues bothering them. Sinisa Savija’s memories of war were said to contribute to his demise, friends of Melanie Bell said she was battling anorexia, and Carina Stephenson had just told her family she was a lesbian and was frequenting suicide websites. Perhaps it was the pressure from being watched 24/7 that broke these people. In 2004 Robert Andersson, another contestant on Expedition: Robinson staged the fake rescue of a rape victim in the hope of positively influencing his public profile. He even hired fake paparazzi. He later said in an interview, “I thought it was funny, but I am an idiot…My whole life is a docusoap.” For Robert Andersson, it was the pressure of not being watched that drove him to react, but playing up for the camera is hardly taking your own life. Before all of this though, perhaps we should have seen what a little bit of public humiliation on national television could make someone do when a Jenny Jones talk show guest shot another guest for saying publicly he had a gay crush on his friend. That was in 1995. Before Expedition: Robinson, or Big Brother, or Pop Idol, the affect of public humiliation was as evident as two bullets in the chest of a friend. So when we watch, transfixed, as young hopefuls with stars in their eyes sing their heart out to a backing track of tripe only to be cut down in front of millions of people because they didn’t sway their hips enough or lose enough weight to warrant wearing a tight dress, what exactly are watching? Are we watching them learn the ropes to fame, or are we watching others chip away slowly at their confidence and self esteem? And are we, the audience, teaching people it is ok to treat others like that? It is probably good that I wasn’t a contestant after all, because I think I would have voted Dicko off the island, turned around to yelled,"touch down" to a chorus of "you go girl" from Marcia in the background. Ok, back to reality now.
Trackback(0)
 |
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Show/Hide comment form
