Duncan O'Leary
Duncan works on projects looking at public services, skills and work.
at 12:10pm on Tuesday, 16th January 2007
Ok i admit it. I watch Big Brother. And i’m worried. In the space of two weeks a whole series of tensions have emerged that look disconcertingly familiar.
Today the media are picking up on the tension between Shilpa – the Bollywood star – and the white, English-born housemates, with some suggesting outright racism.
But add in:
- 79 year Ken had to leave, because he couldn’t get on with the younger generation (and visa versa)
- Middle-class Ken and Leo couldn’t get on with Jade’s working-class family
...and you’re starting to build up a list of the divisions that Britain badly needs to rid itself of.
Reality tv? Let’s hope not.
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But it's also probably down to the manipulation of television as a medium for watching, representing, and making judgements about people. The cynicism of the producers in seeking to portray conflict in the guise of human interest - to pursue innocent 'good tv' - inevitably reduces interaction to a series of clashes between stereotypes. It's slightly less trivial on something like CBB than on a programme like Wife Swap, which dresses itself as socially insightful but operates more through the reduction of meaningful conversation to a series of basic 'class conversations'.
I think Richard Rorty said something relevant to this in his book Philosophy and Social Hope, when he wonders about how the cynicism of television producers and script writers enters our moral deliberations. Which seems relevant.
The artist Phil Collins, most recently in his Turner Prize work, deals with these tensions between reality and representation very well. He is also much better at talking about it than I seem to be, so I'd really recommend engaging with him and his work.
The consequences of these things feel pretty important, and relate closely to the collection we're in the process of producing on the social value of privacy. Get in touch if you have thoughts.