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concern is dramatised via the editing process as an ominous foretelling. Clearly, the others will not accept Danielle, and just in case the less than subtle media language didn’t make this point clearly enough, we have already been exposed to teasers in which one ‘wife’ declares, ‘And then she came along,’ and another tips a table in Danielle’s direction. Merging reality television
with drama even further is MTV’s The Hills, a Laguna Beach spin-off ‘starring’ Lauren Conrad from the original series (the term ‘starring’ complicates the reality concept further). Conrad has left Laguna Beach to pursue a fashion career, studying at design school and interning at Teen Vogue. However, while a voiceover is provided, this is no documentary. Conrad’s narration takes the form of a confessional diary and the style in which is it shot, coupled with numerous events taking place
within a very short space of time, make the show look more like its fictional predecessor The OC than a programme recording real events. Non-diegetic music is taken to the extreme with fashionable recording artists providing a ‘soundtrack’ effect (appropriate for an MTV- produced programme), and camera interviews are replaced with intimate conversations with the ‘characters’ whose names are provided at the bottom of the screen as they appear, evocative of MTV’s The Real World (one of the original reality shows that prompted questions as to just how ‘real’ that world was).
Should we feel the
need to suspend our disbelief whilst watching something that purports to be a reality show? In the first episode, no sooner has Conrad arrived at her new apartment and met housemate Heidi Montag, she receives a
call from Teen Vogue asking if she can attend an interview in a mere twenty minutes. Of course this is not impossible, perhaps unlikely, but it adds a sense of drama and tension to the scenario. The sight of Conrad frantically ironing her skirt with hair straighteners while Montag excitedly squeals may be a lot more entertaining than Montag simply giving Conrad a tour of the apartment as they’d initially ‘envisaged’, but is it reality? Controversy dogs The Hills at every turn. According to a fellow diner supposedly present at Conrad’s ‘date’ with Gavin Beasley: It was clear that this… is not a reality show. They took five takes of Lauren ordering dinner. Additionally,
recontextualisation via editing also rears its head, with Beasley stating that: I ordered that salmon roll for myself and Lauren said she would like to try a piece, so of
course MTV edited the scene to make it look like I’m force-feeding her the salmon that she hates ... Even the show’s
producers, creators and spokespeople have confirmed that some scenes are filmed simply to add ‘continuity’ to the programme. Defending the editing
processes underpinning reality television, David Rupel who helped edit The Real World states: One of the most common complaints I heard was that people thought we edited things too much and that we weren’t telling the real story… Trust me – as someone who has literally watched tens of thousands of hours of raw footage, nobody is interesting all of the time… if you watch every second of someone’s life, the majority of it is quite boring.
Baudrillard declared that
we value a ‘simulated real’ over what is real. The contrived ‘version’ of reality provided by the shows examined here is evidently considered more compelling than the more authentic ‘boring footage’ Rupel describes. The skewed perception of reality that leads a soap fan to reprimand an actor for their character’s actions, leads us to the recognition that audiences are quite content to value soaps as real. Therefore, why not value reality as soap?
Emma Louise Howard is a former A Level Media student, has completed an MA in Critical Theory, and will soon be training as a Media Studies lecturer.
english and media centre | December 2009 | MediaMagazine 55
Channel 4 Press Site for images from The Real World and Real Housewives...;
Image.net for Make Me a Swan
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