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School of Religious Education, and
Cardinal Clancy Centre for Research in the Spiritual, Moral, Religious and Pastoral Dimensions of Education. |
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Spiritual, Moral and Religious Education is a key area for Teaching and Research in Australian Catholic University |
SPIRITUALITY AND REALITY TELEVISION: MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE
Spirituality in reality television? “Not on this planet!” At first sight, a link between reality television and spirituality seems an unlikely one. Much reality television appeals to the “winners over losers” mentality; viewers have a sense of participative power in voting the outcomes; there is criticism and humiliation in the sequential ousting of competitors; the raw emotion of participants is on show for all to see; even for a day, ordinary people can become celebrities; and celebrities can display their ordinariness as gardeners. The potential for spirituality seems limited, and what is there seems not worth recommending, especially when the overall driving commercial purpose of doing anything to achieve viewer ratings is taken into account.
However, on closer inspection, reality television demonstrates dimensions of spirituality both in the onscreen participants and viewers. This analysis is not advocating an unrealistic importance for such spirituality by overstating the case; neither is it proposing that this is a ‘new' spirituality to be attended to and perhaps promoted. Its purpose is simpler: part of the education of critical interpreters of culture is learning how to discern the psychological and spiritual dynamics of what is consumed as public entertainment. There is a spiritual/moral dimension to ordinary life, even where this is filmed for broadcast television; tapping into this dimension is a part of what attracts viewers' interest -- even if in a superficial way. There are both positive and negative spiritual aspects of reality television; both need identification and evaluation.
The “how to” Programs: There is an ever increasing number of popular “how to” programs that focus on lifestyle -- whether it be in gardening, renovation, house buying, cooking, travel and makeovers. This is the ‘softer' side of reality television. Beneath the surface is the presumption that lifestyle; environment and personal fulfilment are linked. Having a specifically designed garden promotes a more ‘organic' and ‘holistic' lifestyle -- in other words, making a living space more spiritual or bringing the spirituality of nature into the living space; the green and freshness of nature have a calming influence; time needs to be put aside for the relaxed enjoyment of an attractive ambience. The renovators are striving to make most of their home; they may want to create some tranquillity and symmetry that can impact on their lifestyle. Cooking an attractive and healthy meal is an art, with respect for the ingredients, and needs to be more than just functional; the eating thereof is a communal celebration. Travel is proposed to be more about enjoyment of other cultures and nature than about material pleasure. The makeovers show how good looks and designer clothes are important for success; while this message may end up trapping people in slavery to externals, it highlights the basic need for affirmation and acceptance.
Many of the programs start with a bad situation that is to be made good. There is the dishevelled garden; the dreary, untidy room; the poorly dressed; and the face and hair in need of a makeover. The wrong is to be made right; the ugly made attractive; assets are to be enhanced. Running through all of this is a common theme: ‘becoming a better person' -- like a spirituality of desirable change. It is ironic that the most common participants' exclamation when they first behold the change is “O my God!”
All of these programs presume that enhancement of quality of life in all its dimensions is desirable. Their focus is not exclusively commercial, and their appreciation by viewers is not exclusively hedonistic. They highlight people's spiritual and moral needs, even if the quality of what seems to satisfy these needs is sometimes questionable. In an age and culture that are materialistic and secularised, it is an important step to be able to identify a spiritual/moral dimension in action; this can be a valuable starting point for enhancing this dimension in one's own life. For people who are religious, it identifies the spiritual points where their beliefs can affect their behaviour.
The Reality Competitions: Big Brother, Survivor, Temptation Island, Bachelor, Bachelorette, Idol, Wife Swap, The Fat Club, Hothouse, My Restaurant Rules and the like, offer a voyeuristic window on the behaviour of ordinary people put into an artificial ‘reality' competition. These programs represent the ‘harsher' side of reality television; they are what most people commonly understand as ‘proper' reality television.
The participants are easy enough to identify with; they are not reading prepared scripts; but they inevitably display the motives and moral codes they operate out of (or the codes they would like to put on show). Watching a program develop engages viewers in processes of identification and moral evaluation. In identifying more with one participant than another, or in hoping that one will succeed while others are eliminated, viewers are judging the appropriateness of behaviour and morals. Feeling an identification with a particular participant is like a gauge of who you are and what are your priorities. The longer their favourite survives, the more viewers' personal valuation of the participants is validated. Expressing judgments and voting support for favourites is like a ‘confessional' statement; viewers are articulating a moral point of view. They can enjoy “kicking out the transgressors” and they can delight that the “solid citizen” wins.
For this type of program, the very name “reality television” creates spiritual/values problems. For example: Twenty five women engaging in ‘behaviours' to increase their chances of being chosen by the ‘bachelor' – and this before cameras for public consumption; or teams on an island required to perform bizarre endurance tasks. This is contrivance and artificiality masquerading as reality; hardly a window on reality; and a values problem for viewers who think the ‘reality behaviour' will give them some clues for their own experience. Also, this format takes what would normally be trivial matters in relationships and portrays them as if they were matters of ‘life and death'; while in contrast, what are normally weighty matters in the formation of a relationship can be trivialised and devalued. In an episode of Bachelor, one woman is totally devastated at being eliminated; she says she has “nothing left” identity-wise because she had invested “her all” in being successful in the competition. These programs display strange twists in values precisely because they make the valuation process into a sham for the pursuit of ratings.
Implied meanings, identities and values are plentiful in these programs and they can be easily teased out. For example, many of the contestants themselves have used the phrase “survival of the fittest” to justify the choices they make in eviction/elimination; this implies that hurt and humiliation are a natural concomitant to the advancement of some individuals at the expense of others. This is also expressive of ‘economic rationalism' where a painful discarding of some individuals is just the natural cost saving that makes possible the economic advance of others. Casualties as ‘collateral damage' are the unfortunate, but unintended necessary consequences of actions that further the cause of the successful or the powerful.
One of the dominant themes in these reality programs is criticism and humiliation. In programs like the Weakest Link and Shafted, the humiliation is ritualised in game show format. It is puzzling why the constant experience of participant humiliation, and its associated emotions, are apparently enjoyable for viewers. Perhaps it feels good to see others, and not themselves, being humiliated. Why people can be interested in, and take pleasure from, the pains of others, whether real or fictional characters, remains problematic, and hence a good question to ask in relation to analysis of the media. Perhaps the reactions triggered are so basic and visceral -- making this question as basic as asking why people enjoy food or sex. The German language has a word that identifies this emotion -- “schadenfreude” meaning “taking joy in the misfortunes of others”.
Another aspect of the viewer appeal of these programs is the presumption that any ordinary individual could become a celebrity given the opportunity to participate. Perhaps this appeals to the secret desires of many who dream of becoming stars. Hence, bored people can feel some sort of affirmation of their ordinariness when watching the evidently bored and boring Big Brother contestants on show in primetime television. Here you have ordinary people, not trained as actors or journalists, but who are prepared to give up privacy and expose a lot of their inner selves, becoming temporary television personalities whose lives in the ‘big house' are discussed by viewers all around the country.
The Public Evaluations:
The ‘talk-back' television programs span a range in taste and quality. They include Dr Phil, Judge Judy, the various talk show hosts like Oprah, through to Jerry Springer and Cheaters. They are all about moral behaviour and relationships. Dr Phil engages in a type of public moral counselling. With Socratic questioning and a gentle confrontational style, Dr Phil seeks to get participants to review their behaviour and motivation; better self knowledge, acknowledging rather than obscuring behavioural consequences, and accepting responsibility for one's behaviour are proposed as keys to personal change. The viewers can test their own intuitions, interpretations and moral judgments with those they see on the program; they are engaged in the diagnosis of personal and social problems -- a diagnosis that inevitably impacts on their own outlook.
The Jerry Springer Show also evaluates behaviour -- usually the more bizarre types -- while the aggressive confrontations between participants, accompanied by chanting from the studio audience, are hallmarks of its entertainment appeal. There is an interesting similarity between Springer and the imperial role at the ancient Colosseum; Springer deftly asks questions and makes comments that seem to guide the chanting judgments of the studio audience to either a ‘thumbs up' or ‘thumbs down' evaluation of participants.
Perhaps it is not surprising that the title of Springer's biography is Ringmaster! At the end of each program, Jerry sums up and delivers a short secular homily that includes personal advice in relation to the problems displayed earlier in the show. Centuries ago, exercises in public moral evaluation in Europe were carried out in church homilies and morality plays. Now similar moral discourse has become part of public television entertainment, subject to the usual constraints of its ratings performance.
Reality Is Stranger Than Fiction:
This form of reality television is related to the ‘cinema verite', or cinema truth genre of documentary film, where real life is filmed and presented without much commentary or explicit interpretation. In this stable are programs like Real TV, Cops, World's wildest police chases, Police, camera, action, Worst drivers, Real sex in the city, Trauma: Life and Death in the ER, as well as shows on disasters and other miscellaneous topics like ‘brides' (perhaps Funniest home videos also fits this category.). For example, Bridezillas traces people's quest for the perfect wedding, even where this costs up to $300,000 or more. This taps into the need for affirmation theme noted earlier -- the brides need to feel special and unique, even if just for a day! For programs like these, it is difficult to see what aspects of spirituality, if any, are involved. For their viewer appeal, they seem to rely on basic human curiosity about what is different, strange, and traumatic -- as long as it is graphic and eye catching. Perhaps this draws on the same curiosity and emotions like shock, sadness, sympathy and so forth people feel when they witness some local traumatic event like a house fire or a car crash, or when they see disasters or crime reported in television news. Perhaps too, if television is always on search for the new and the bizarre that might catch some viewer attention, then it does not have to rely exclusively on fiction -- there is more than enough bizarre reality that can be recorded and played back on the airwaves.
