Reality showde vaatamine: harjumused ja ajendid
Date
2005
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The aim of my bachelor’s thesis “Watching Reality Shows: Habits and Motives”
was to research people’s habits and motives of watching reality shows. More
precisely, I studied how popular are reality shows among Estonian TV viewers, which
are their habits and motives of watching reality shows, which are their attitudes
towards reality shows and the contestants of the shows. If most of the thesis concerns
with reality shows as a TV in general, then more explicitly I analyse people’s attitudes
towards two Estonian reality shows, Naistevahetus and Baar. These two shows
deserve more attention, because Naistevahetus is the most popular reality show in
Estonia according to the number of TV viewers and Baar received the most attention
and media publicity when compared to other reality shows in Estonia.
I have based my results and conclusions of this very research on eleven in depth-
interviews with my friends and acquaintances.
According to the results of my bachelor’s thesis, reality shows are very popular
among Estonian TV viewers, which are also proven by the number of viewers
according to Emor-research and the answers of the interviewees. The most popular
reality show in Estonia is Naistevahetus which is followed by Baar according to the
preference of the interviewees. The results confirm my hypothesis that home-
produced reality shows are more popular among Estonian TV viewers than foreign
shows. Still, some respondents preferred foreign shows because the producers of these
shows have better material resources and technical means, which enable to make
more exciting shows.
People do not have regular habits of watching reality shows; they usually watch
the shows when they happen to stumble upon them on television. Generally people
prefer to watch the shows together with other people so that they can have a live
discussion about the things happening on the screen. Therefore I conclude that the
hypothesis about people watching the shows together with someone else and
discussing them while watching was true.
The hypothesis that reality shows are an important theme in people’s
conversations turned out to be incorrect. Half of the interviewees did not talk about
reality shows with their collocutors and even if some respondents did, the topic was
not considered to be a substantial one. As media declares reality shows to be an important theme in people’s talks, it may be alleged that it is mainly a myth created
by media itself.
People give different reasons for watching reality shows. One of the reasons was
that the trend of reality shows has arrived in Estonia and therefore there are no
alternative good programs to reality shows on Estonian TV channels. Reality shows
are also considered to be exciting, emotional programs which present reality. People
in Estonia also get their motivation and inspiration to watch reality shows because of
extensive promotion and advertising
People’s attitude towards reality shows and their contestants depends much on the
concrete show and the way the contestant behaves on the screen. The participators are
not considered to be stars; the fact that a celebrity is born out of them is taken as the
speciality of small Estonian society.
The interviewees do not have certain standpoint about the question whether reality
shows present actual or artificial reality. Many respondents believe the shows to
present real life and some people believe the shows to follow a written screenplay.
The surprising outcome of the research was that interviewees, even those who
regularly watch the shows, have negative attitudes towards Naistevahetus and Baar.
The main reason was that the respondents did not understand the message of the
shows. This outcome may be considered as a result of normative answers – people
watch the shows but condemn them at the same time.
It is difficult to study what motivates people to watch reality shows because
people are not induced only by notorious motives but also by subconscious motives.
As people do not know and understand many motives themselves, they cannot give
thorough reasons for watching reality shows. The other problem, which complicated
the research, was the fact that people’s answers could not be taken biunique, because
of the possibility of normative answers.
Despite the several problems, which occurred during my study, the topic was
worth to be researched. Reality shows have earned extensive media publicity in
Estonia which makes them to be an object of public interest. I find that the present
was the best time to study the topic because reality shows received the largest
popularity and media publicity in Estonia during the autumn 2004 television season.
The research was considered to be important also by the interviewees. Namely,
they thanked me for the interview because due to that they realised how many reality
shows they actually watch and started to analyse the motives of wathing the shows.
Keywords
H Social Sciences (General), bakalaureusetööd