Unit 4: Coursework Blog: Critical investigation #2 draft

“I love when people underestimate me and then become pleasantly surprised”[1]

How are representations constructed in reality T.V shows like ‘Keeping Up With The Kardashians’?

Reality T.V covers a variety of different types of genres, in different manners. Reality T.V has mass appeal[2] and it is genre where real people’s lives are being filmed, and they are presented in a natural manner, as no script is produced, and audiences have been proven to believe this as 75% of those surveyed believe that reality T.V is “mostly real and unscripted”[3] implying it is all real, it is all done to entertain a bunch of people. Reality T.V has become a success due to the ‘increasing voyeuristic nature of the society’[4] in which we live and in part due to the obsession with celebrity and everyone wanting to be one. ‘Reality T.V has been emerging onto the market with the speedy growth’[5], and it holds a firm ground of being one of the most popular genres in today’s world. This is because it has become to first and foremost due to the fact that it generates a lot of money. ‘The income has been generated through various different types of shows’[6] and the mass audience of reality T.V are people who enjoy listening to gossip and peeking into the lives of others.

Reality television appears to have taken over our TV schedules. From the monstrous Big Brother the genre spawned many hybrids and sub-genres. There are many serious documentaries on BBC4 and Channel 4 such as “Wife Swap”, most of the nation seems to choose the ‘reality’ option. ‘The Dutch company behind Big Brother is announcing record profits and moving into ever more controversial programming’[7]. There are family orientated shows on E! Like “Keeping Up With The Kardashian” which reveals the day to day lifestyle of 5 sisters and their parents and brother. ‘Reality T.V is one of the most watched T.V as of the involvement of several different people, according to the statistical ratings’. [8] This shows that it is very popular and on demand. Furthermore, as the audience we see the effort the Kardashians have put in to become successful. Kim Kardashian has expressed herself of how she feels when she isn’t working as: “I feel lazy when I’m not working.”[9] This implies she has created an habit to work, and has been maintaining it, and suggests she is represented as a good role model.

The reality T.V show Keeping Up With The Kardashians has positive impacts on the audience, as of the accomplishments they’ve got through their career line, how the family’s grown together as one. The positive aspects are shown through the clothing lines they have of: ‘Jenner Collections’[10], ‘Kardashian Kollection’[11].

The opening of the DASH store in ‘Miami on 21^st May 2009’[12] is one of the many reasons the Kardashians are successful. Khloe Kardashian had said “it was a MAJOR success if I do say so myself”[13] this shows how she felt about it. This was a favouring factor for the Kardashians, as they made sales and the store was doing well, therefore they decided to expand and open more stores worldwide and merge with other clothing shops such as ‘Dorothy Perkins’[14] and ‘Lipsy’[15]. Kim Kardashian the ‘entrepreneur’[16] said “I was involved in everything from the scent to the bottles”[17] this was her talking about the launch of her two perfumes “true reflection” and “Glam” this allowed her to have a direct correlation with the audience. Katz and Bumlers theory of Uses of Gratifications links in with ‘Keeping Up With The Kardashians’, of ‘Diversion, Personal Identity, Surveillance and Personal Relation ’[18]. Escapism is shown as power it holds of helping you to forget about the stresses of the day, when you can see the Kardashians having a much worse day than you have had. There is a sense of identification from Kim, Khloe or Kourtney, with sociability and their attitudes and behaviour could allow the audience to make direct relations. The audience could make personal relations as audiences may relate to some attitudes the actors hold, or comparisons could be held between them as an audience and the actors.

Furthermore, the episode when the new store Kardashian Kaos store was opening in Las Vegas, the family had an opening ceremony. There was a point of view shot from Kim’s perspective when they’re opening one of their new stores, which allows the audience to see what Kim is seeing[19]. Furthermore, the clothing Kim is wearing is a leopard print playsuit, this is one of the outfits from her collection, and her wearing it shows her promoting it. The use of the diegetic sound of the public screaming and shouting “Hi Kim” automatically gives away how the atmosphere is. The camera then pans on and shows the audience, there are several pictures been taken of the family together, which connotes happiness and success for them. This shows how successful the Kardashians are, and their relationship still remains strong, as they are able to open the store as a happy family together. Also, the promotion of clothing they’re doing, as they’re wearing it would encourage the audience to purchase it, to be just like them.

‘Reality T.V has faced significant criticism since its rise in popularity’[20]. There is a lot of negativity about the Kardashians. The media demonises, the youth and has left an imprint on today’s society. The young adults look up to celebrities and idolising them, as they are so irresistible[21], due to them being lead such different lives[22], and having the ability to buy whatever they want[23], alongside the glamorous life they live[24]. Audiences see them as “rich, glamorous, posh and chic” these are all stereotypes of celebrities.

Representations of the Kardashians are posted on the internet regularly, in order to keep audiences informed on what is happening with their lives. The media reporters do this through all platforms of broadcasting through radio, through the use of e-media of the internet, and print it onto newspapers and magazines. All 3 platforms of: broadcasting, e-media and print were all covered through the event of Kim’s sex tape. There are articles saying “Kim Kardashian achieved her peak of fame after she made a sex tape with R&B singer Ray J that magically got off of a camera, onto a computer, and published to the internet without either of them realizing.”[25] This caused moral panic, which Stanley Cohen said it was the thought of having to worry about ‘values and thoughts of the society’[26]. This would’ve raised public perception of the possible ‘threat to societal values and interests’[27]. In this case as the media exaggerated the story of Kim’s sex tape, and it being leaked publically, which lead to the public becoming scared, because of the actions Kim had took, which was different perspective of hers, which her fan base wouldn’t have imaged. This meant young adults stopped looking at Kim in an idolised manner, which meant they stopped watching the show.

Furthermore, when Kim decided to do playboy, she created negative representations of herself and reduced her fan base. The episode when Kim done playboy she wore red, which represents her to be devil-like, daring and lovable. Furthermore, this could be interpreted sexually, as of her body language and gesture. The encouraging dialogue the photographer uses of “very nice” and “that’s good”[28] initially suggests she’s doing a good job, and would led to her doing more with the motivation she’s receiving. This shoot led to Kim’s fan base assuming she is all sexual.

Furthermore, the front cover of Zoo magazine, 26 May edition[29], sexualises Kim Kardashian; the readers are drawn in through the expensive rich lingerie she is wearing of red and black, which are elegant colours. The colours speak for themselves, and there are two headings which say “HOT 101 WINNER” Kim is being referred as the “hottest woman in the world”. The use of ranking, rating and judging a women on their appearance, automatically objectifies and degrades women’s standings[30]. Women are used for male sexual pleasure; this puts the female value down, and implies they have no standing, as men are always controlling women.

This initially goes against what the Kardashians believe, they believe they’ve become where they are due to the management skills of “mom” Kris Jenner[31]. Kim Kardashian has been said as if “she acts as if she's a role model for young girls dealing with body issues, when she has a model's body.”[32] The negativity produced by the reporters about Kim is horrendous; articles are manipulating Kim, against her audience. Furthermore, there is an article upon how Kim Kardashian has become a threat to western civilisation, giving her another bad name in society. As the head of a girl’s private school won praise for her attack on the west’s obsession with celebrity.[33]

The executive producer of the series, Ryan Seacrest, said that rooting from the background of the family, the series will show a family that "truly loves and supports one another"[34]. This could suggest it will all be planned out, and putting on an act of a loving family just to show their audience, the dream world they want to live for. The family has become successful Hollywood entertainers through the dynamics and building up of the family as one. Keeping up with the Kardashians isn’t scripted[35] at all, but isn’t a real life representation[36] either. As the family is aware of the success they’ve been making and how they’ve been entertaining people worldwide. On April 2012, a new 3 year deal was signed with the Kardashian family, for continuing the series until 2015. This shows how successful they’ve become, as they were able to sign a contract deal for 3 years beforehand, it shows the progress they’ve been able to make, since they first started the family business on E! In the year 2007[37]

It is said that “Art today has totally penetrated reality” by Baudrillard[38], which suggests that the boundary between popular culture and reality has all completely gone. This is because they have broken into the universal simulacrum, into four steps which are: “it is the reflection of a basic reality, it masks and perverts a basic reality, it marks the absence of a basic reality and it bears no relation to any reality whatever” this has led to differences being held between ‘real life’ and the media representations being erased. Hyper-reality, breeds with each other without reference to reality or meaning[39]. Furthermore, in terms of postmodernism, the characters in reality T.V aren’t real; they’re not facing real life situations, as it is all planned out this is shown through the series of Big Brother, when Jason came out, he was interviewed by Closer magazine. In which he argued that we weren’t seeing the real Jason[40], it was all a manipulative version, implying everyone was putting on an act. This suggests reality T.V is a sense of putting on a mask and becoming someone you’re not, just to entertain others. Furthermore, it could be said through reality T.V dependant on what type of show it is, a fly-on-the-wall or documentary, you could act differently. It could be argued that people generally in everyday life act differently around different people, so depending on who you are with you act in a different way, so they are themselves, but may not come across as if they are.

Media representations of gender has a big impact on society, as they enter the collective social conscience and reinforce culturally hegemonic views based upon gender[41], which represent males as dominant and stereotype them as being masculine and female’s lower and holding stereotypes of having limited forms of behaviour. Kim Kardashian is dominating within the series, as she always gets her way around everyone, which goes against the media representation and stereotyping of women. Furthermore, feminism started in 1960’s, which consisted of free love which helped escape the sexual double standards which were set, divorce had become a commonplace, and women were known to be “happy housewives”. This links makes straight links with Kim Kardashian due to her having had several divorces, and the programme goes against it as Kim has her own career of the clothing line so she isn’t a typical happy housewife. Moreover, liberal feminism have direct relation to the reality T.V show ‘Keeping Up With The Kardashians’ as they believe all people are created equally and shouldn’t be denied equality of opportunity because of their gender. The females all work within the Kardashian family, not only the men. However, Marxist feminism argues that females give birth and males must provide for their families. The Kardashians don’t fit into this that well as, Kourtney Kardashian gave birth to Mason, and Scott didn’t have a job to provide for Mason, and a lot of hassle and chaos was caused throughout this series.

Many Reality T.V shows include voice-overs so the audience is aware of what is happening if they don’t fully understand through the actions, movement or speech. Big Brother includes many voiceovers, in a form of ‘narration’[42], to tell the housemates what tasks they have to do, or even to call someone to the diary room. However, Keeping up with the Kardashian doesn’t include any type of voice-overs or music, which makes it more realistic as a fly-on-the-wall documentary about their lifestyles. However, there are various different angles in Keeping Up With The Kardashians, which keep the audience intrigued, and directly penetrate into the viewer’s minds, which covers the theory of the hypodermic needle, as it remains injected into their heads.

Historically, ‘An America Family’ is similar to ‘Keeping Up With The Kardashians’ this was an American television documentary which was filmed from May 30^th through December 31, 1971 and ‘first aired in 1973’[43]. The series started off with an establishing shot of the building of where the actors lived[44], which is how ‘Keeping Up With The Kardashians’ starts off. Both shows are family shows and are about the family lifestyle on a day to day basis.

In conclusion, representations are created through the actions of the actors. This could come across as a positive, due to them becoming successful, and it is evidently shown through their lifestyle. The representations are reinforced by stereotypes as the hegemonic control. The representations of the Kardashians can be negative factors and I believe the negative factors overtake the positives, this is shown through the 3 media platforms of print, broadcast and e-media, as the media have been implanting these accusations and creating assumptions of stories, just do dumb down the society. Furthermore, a study shows that girls who regularly watch T.V accepted and expected[45] this is usually causes a higher level of drama, aggression and bullying within their own lives, they also sometimes may become stressed or depressed, which could lead to them failing in their studies.

Words- including quotes: 2566

Words – excluding quotes: 2088

Works Cited

Internet:

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Newspapers/Magazines:

"Study says girls affected by reality TV." Daily Herald. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Jan. 2014. <http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20111103/news/711039954/>.
Wright, Helen. "Why Zoo's Kim Kardashian cover is wrong." theguardian.com. Guardian News and Media, 22 June 2012. Web. 4 Jan. 2014. <http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jun/22/zoo-kim-kardashian-cover-wrong>.
McVeigh, Tracy. "Kim Kardashian: how did she become such a threat to western civilisation?." The Observer. Guardian News and Media, 24 June 2012. Web. 4 Jan. 2014. <http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/jun/23/kim-kardashian-threat-western-civilisation>.
http://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/mm/subscribers/downloads/archive_mm/mmagpast/RealityTV.html
http://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/mm/subscribers/downloads/archive_mm/mmagpast/mm22_reality.html

Books:

Hill, Annette. Reality TV audiences and popular factual television. London: Routledge, 2005. Print.
Leblane, Rikki. <i>The Kim Kardashian Handbook - Everything you need to know about Kim Kardashian</i>. Dayboro: Emereo Publishing, 2012. Print.
Charlotte Nixon - Kim Kardashian: In Her Own Words [Kindle Edition]
Cowlin, Chris. The reality television quiz book 1000 questions on reality TV shows. Luton: Andrews UK Ltd., 2010. Print.

Moving image texts

"Kardashian Kaos, opening of Kardashian store in Las Vegas, Nv." YouTube. YouTube, 16 Dec. 2011. Web. 4 Jan. 2014. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abShr_KG6Cs>.
"Kim Kardashian Wants To 'Pose For Playboy Or Some Nude Shoot'." YouTube. YouTube, 4 Sept. 2013. Web. 4 Jan. 2014. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC-XCpvV_V8>.
"An American Family, episode 12." YouTube. YouTube, 26 May 2013. Web. 4 Jan. 2014. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaUWsE0EBp4>.

Works Consulted

Books

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· "Making Reality TV a Reality: Tips and Tricks to Getting on Your Favorite Reality TV and Game Show! [Paperback]." Making Reality TV a Reality: Tips and Tricks to Getting on Your Favorite Reality TV and Game Show!: Amazon.co.uk: Sandra Burkhardt, Tom Burkhardt: Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Jan. 2014. <http://www.amazon.co.uk/Making-Reality-TV-Getting-Favorite/dp/144214906X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1385846422&sr=1-2&keywords=reality+tv+show+keeping+up+with+the+kardashians>.

· "The Reality Television Quiz Book: 1,000 Questions on Reality TV Shows [Hardcover]." The Reality Television Quiz Book: 1,000 Questions on Reality TV Shows: Amazon.co.uk: Christopher Biggins, Chris Cowlin: Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Jan. 2014. <http://www.amazon.co.uk/Reality-Television-Quiz-Book-Questions/dp/1906358729/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1385846217&sr=1-1&keywords=reality+tv+show>.

· Kardashian, Kourtney, Kim Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian, and Nick Saglimbeni. Kardashian konfidential. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2010. Print.

· "Keeping It Real: Black Women & Reality TV | The Crunk Feminist Collective

· Mattern, Joanne. Kim Kardashian: reality TV star. Minneapolis, Minn.: ABDO Pub. Co., 2012. Print.

· Ryan, Kathleen M.. Television and the self knowledge, identity, and media representation. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2013. Print.

Newspapers/Magazine:

http://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/mm/subscribers/downloads/archive_mm/mmagpast/mm22_reality.html
PETERS, JEREMY W. . "Reality TVâ€™s Instant Stars Populate a Magazine." NYTimes [New York] 13 Nov. 2011: 1. Print.

Internet:

"Celebrity Endorsements in Non-Traditional Advertising: How the FTC Regulations Fail to Keep Up with the Kardashians." by Leah W. Feinman. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Jan. 2014. <http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1987222>.
." The Crunk Feminist Collective. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Jan. 2014. <http://www.crunkfeministcollective.com/2010/12/16/keeping-it-real-black-women-reality-tv/>.
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"Hollywood Life by Bonnie Fuller." Hollywood Life. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Jan. 2014. <http://hollywoodlife.com/2013/11/03/khloe-kardashian-swaps-wedding-ring-lamar-odom-divorce/>.
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"Keeping up with the Kardashians | E! Online." E! Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Jan. 2014. <http://uk.eonline.com/shows/kardashians>.
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