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Abstract: The intellectual downgrading of today’s TV programming…<\/p>\nAbstract: The intellectual downgrading of today’s TV programming…<\/p>\n
There\u2019s an advert on TV that is particularly infuriating. It features two attractive women standing next to identical washing machines positioned in the middle of an unbelievably uncluttered kitchen. One of the women is bemoaning her inability to remove a stubborn stain from a garment she has just pulled out of the machine. She obviously hasn\u2019t realised her machine is neither plugged in nor connected to the water supply.<\/p>\n
I know what you\u2019re thinking: it\u2019s only an advert. But that\u2019s the part that interests me \u2013 you know that the two women are fooling you, and yet you\u2019re still expected to trust them. Not only that, but trust them to the extent that you will rush out and buy the product they say works without water or electricity. This means you must be gullible.<\/p>\n
There is of course another explanation: \u2018suspension of disbelief\u2019; and it\u2019s behind the intellectual degrading of TV programming.<\/p>\n
When the English Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge created this term in 1817, Europe was evolving from a belief in the supernatural and was embracing a time of new science and rational thinking. For this reason Coleridge asked his readers “to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith”. What he was saying was that in order to appreciate the subtle intensities of his romantic writing, it was necessary to momentarily put aside logic, and just go with the flow.<\/p>\n
Today, suspension of disbelief is an integral part of enjoying films. It\u2019s why a woman cries when someone dies in a romantic drama. Obviously no one is actually dying in the movie. An actor is just pretending to be someone – invariably a fictional character \u2013 and that character is portrayed as if they were dying. However the tears being shed by the woman watching it are real. And that\u2019s the problem.<\/p>\n
Like most of the intriguing quirks in human behaviour, psychology tries to get to the bottom of this and looks to the brain for answers, specifically the ongoing struggle between the pre-frontal cortex, which governs abstract thinking and rational analysis, and the limbic system, which is involved in emotional behaviour.<\/p>\n
Because the human brain is so evolved, we are able to \u2018juggle\u2019 both systems. This means that when we watch a fictional movie on TV we are able to able to temporarily disengage our logical action system \u2013 which tells us \u2018it\u2019s just a movie\u2019 \u2013 and still engage our emotional system. As a result we momentarily suspend the disbelief that what we see is not real, and react emotionally.<\/p>\n
Hopefully, when the movie is finished, we re-engage our logical action system, say \u201cwhat a great movie\u201d, realise that no one actually died, and get on with our lives. Importantly, we don\u2019t follow up on what we saw and try to contact the family of the character who died in the movie and send them our condolences. Something in our head recognises that the people we saw on the TV \u2013 like the two women with their washing machines – were temporarily fooling us into believing that what we see is real.<\/p>\n
So why then when the woman in the TV advert claims that a washing powder she put into her unplugged and unplumbed washing machine magically removes stubborn stains, do we believe her to the point that we\u2019re willing to buy the washing powder in question? It\u2019s a fair question, and whatever\u2019s the answer, it is behind the growth of one of the most pervasive and depraved forms of televised entertainment: \u2018reality TV\u2019.<\/p>\n
Skim through the offering of a premium DStv package, and you\u2019ll be struck not only by the overwhelming plethora of so-called reality TV programmes, but how the bottom of is genre is most definitely being mined. The documentary channels \u2013 those with a traditionally strong male audience – are pumped full of variants of muscular American career stories. Beyond the normal fare of axmen, ice road truckers, pawn stars and crab fishermen, there are men in shooting duals, men racing with front-end loaders, men trying to outbid each other for the contents of shipping containers, and even men battling each other to build the biggest fish-tanks.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s in the women\u2019s lifestyle channels that the true horror unfolds: programmes glamourising swinging wives, wives of polygamists, fashion contests for drag queens, and brides-to-be fighting each other to secure the prize of a nose job. Is this really what women want to see?<\/p>\n
Because these programmes have all been dressed up as \u2018reality TV\u2019 they suggest, unlike typical TV entertainment, that you don\u2019t suspend disbelief, but actually believe that it\u2019s real. However, just like the actors in TV movies, the characters are well aware of the cameras, and perform for them; they are purposefully directed to encourage desired content; and, importantly; their performances are later edited for maximum effect – what you\u2019re not supposed to see is \u2018left on the cutting room floor\u2019.<\/p>\n
So next time you see a programme about plastic surgeons who give boob jobs to cheating soldiers\u2019 wives competing with each other to see who\u2019s got the most realistic spray-on tan, look for the unplugged washing machine, and don\u2019t buy into it.<\/p>\n
Originally published in the Sunday Tribune, 2 December 2012.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Abstract: The intellectual downgrading of today’s TV programming… There\u2019s an advert on TV that is particularly infuriating. It features two attractive women standing next to identical washing machines positioned in the middle of an unbelievably uncluttered kitchen. One of the women is bemoaning her inability to remove a stubborn stain from a garment she has…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":412,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107,1,21],"tags":[89,79,88],"class_list":["post-411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-general","category-science","tag-reality-tv","tag-sunday-tribune","tag-suspending-disbelief"],"yoast_head":"\n