The Detail: Reality TV's Achilles heel

RNZ News

6 days ago

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Photo:
Love Island Facebook
Reality TV's summer of love ended with laughter, celebration and cheers, but no amount of fireworks could make up for what's arguably been
Love Island UK'
s most controversial season.
Misogyny, sexist comments and bullying behaviour - show producers have been inundated with complaints about some of this season's contestants. One episode in particular
prompted more than 1000 complaints
and a call from Women's Aid UK.
Today,
The Detail
speaks to senior entertainment writer Tara Watson about the show's problematic history and Jane Herbert, an associate professor in developmental psychology from Wollongong University, about the wider implications of reality TV.
"We learn through just watching and observing the things that are in our world," Herbert said. "When we've got lots of programmes... presenting these extreme views to people, they start to see those behaviours as 'it's in my environment all the time, this must be the way that we're supposed to act'."
Shows like
Love Island
are premised on creating as much drama as possible and one issue that arises is bigotry - when an individual has such a strong view on something that they refuse to even acknowledge another view.
"We're not understanding what we might call a theory of mind, that people have other opinions that might be different from ours and that it's worthwhile listening to those opinions," Herbert said.
It's important to note that
Love Island UK
isn't the only reality TV show with issues.
Most recently,
MasterChef UK
fired two of its hosts
, after separate allegations of racist remarks and sexual misconduct were substantiated.
The host of another reality TV show -
The Repair Shop
- has recently been
charged with two counts of rape
.
Ultimately, it is up to individuals to choose what they watch and how much they consume, but Herbert said the widespread popularity and tactical evening release time made shows like
Love Island UK
difficult to ignore.
With the rise of social media and online streaming, access to these kinds of shows - whether that be through full length episodes or short social media clips - is easier than ever.
"It's changed a lot from when we were younger and we only had a couple of channels, and everyone watched the same thing.
"Now our viewing is very individual. We can pick and choose when we watch it, we can be watching it sometimes when we are in very vulnerable states and we can also share snip-bits with people as well, and present very distorted views," she said.
Herbert didn't think we should get rid of reality TV, arguing it could actually bring up important discussions.
"Number of partners or what things we enjoy in sex, there might not be a normal conversation and watching shows like [
Love Island
] might be helpful for getting some of those views out;" she explained. "When it becomes unhelpful is when you only hear one side of the story or one becomes very dominant."
Despite all its flaws, the genre remains incredibly popular. After facing a slump in previous years, this season's viewership of
Love Island UK
rose to over 2.6 million for the first episode.
"It feels like it's reality," Herbert said. "These shows, they draw us in, because we don't know exactly what's going to happen next.
"The target audience for these ones [
Love Island
] are vulnerable people who are just learning about relationships... so we need to think about the way we support people, when they're watching these sorts of shows."
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