I do think the British public are becoming more voyeuristic and judgemental; and shows such as BB pander to their desires (particularly by giving the public a chance to evict the contestants).

Worse still its creating a neo-Soviet culture of accepting surveillance and informing on people; in East London a telco is even patching street CCTV to peoples houses along with the Freeview channels and broadband; so you can watch it and call Scotland Yard if you see your neighbour breaching their ASBO!

That said I was a regular viewer of shows such as Central TV’s Crimes, Fires and Accidents, and similar shows on Freeview (although they all seem to be repeats nowadays).

Whilst people thought this was “voyeuristic”, there were strict rules on what could be shown (to protect the legal process and sensitivity to victims), and I think these shows did perhaps make people think about the risks of dangerous driving, and did often also show the Emergency Services as hard-working and brave people when they had to deal with stuff like multiple vehicle collisions, complicated rescues and large blazes.

They were also useful ways of finding out about new Police tactics to monitor citizens movements (cops liked to brag a lot on the crime shows).

However all these shows used real life incidents ; stuff like BB and many other “reality” shows deliberately appear to stir up conflict when it is not required…… I think they are popular though with TV companies because they are cheap.

Documentaries which follow the blue lights about require mobile camera crews which are exposed to the same health and safety hazards as the emergency service personnel, other reality shows require location crews – but on something like BB they can use z-list celebs and wannabes to save costs, and there doesn’t need to be much research and writing ( a few psychiatrists on standby).. its money for old rope (particularly when you consider the 09x numbers used for voting have high call charges)

it annoys me these shows (and the soaps) are always about the worst aspects of humanity. BB deliberately encourages conflict and sometimes actual domestic violence; soaps run storylines which show that fighting is the best way to sort out your differences, and that even if you get prison time its OK because you can get regular visitors etc (which isn’t at all true).

Even “serious debate” programmes on BBC2 and Radio 4 are like this now; there are always raised voices; presenters interrupting guests (often before they have had the chance to answer the first question) and no one ever tries to reach a consensus….

a lot of the reality shows are really cruel nowadays, many are competitive and people gloat at the losers and still loathe the winners.

Even the house makeover/ DIY programmes always have the builders/designers arguing over how stuff should be done.

Now I’ve worked on a lot of collaborative projects – raves, setting up fairly large computer networks for friends, other DIY things, and there is no way that amount of conflict amongst us! There is sometimes swearing when things do not work as they should (and much of it often from myself!) , but then we work together to fix these things instead of blaming each other…

yet on telly they are always nearly fighting over something or other (and its usually a minor issue that could have been sorted out by better discussion at the planning stage)

and whats with all the “kids with behavioural disorders” reality shows? These should be banned IMO – that sort of video belongs only in NHS training facilities for limited viewing, these kids mental health problems should not be used to fill up airtime (I can see one of them getting seriously bullied in real life…, perhaps years after the original show when they least expect it…) plus viewed out of context by kids they may think “its OK to be like that because its on telly”

and then society wonders why despite all the surveillance there is no “respect”…..

i don’t have a tv so I’m immune :horay:

but someone did record some of ‘space cadets’ for me, which i watched

despite the producers trying to stir up trouble (sending ‘cloaked’ messages to actor Charlie, such as pictures of astronauts haveing a punch up) it didn’t work that way

the ‘contestants’ turned out to all be really nice people who weren’t even competing with each other, but all pulled together and seemed genuinely happy for their fellow ‘winners’

refreshing, that

You no nowadays and I dont meen to put any one in any sort of social class here. The under edjucated lifes are actualy like soaps (im sure theres an exeption to the rule) , I dont no which one follows the other do soaps copy real life or does real life become like a soap?
The hole celebrity thing to I meen the likes of Jordan, I dont know her so wont make a personal oppinion about her but I do take my hat off to her. Im not saying its write that someone so talentless should earn all that money (when nhs staff are paid a pitance and theres starving kids in the world) but all she ever did was get her tits out, it was the general public that put her where she is. Now she doesen’t even have to do that, she just has an interview with okay magazine for a couple of grand!