Conflicts in Reality TV | Case Studies

Running head: CONFLICTS IN REALITY TV
Conflicts in Reality TV
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CONFLICTS IN REALITY TV
Introduction
It is a commonplace knowledge within the human society that people are different,
distinct from each other. Although people strive to make peace and accommodate with others in
order to maintain a balance within the society, conflicts seem to be unavoidable and inescapable
at times. In its most general sense, when individuals disagree in their opinions, or their interests
clash, conflicts arise. Social psychologists define conflict as the arousal of two or more
contesting motives that cannot be mitigated together (Sherif, 2015). However, analysis of a
nature of conflicts provides excellent opportunity to comprehend the attitude, characteristics,
values and interests of the opposing sides.
It is often argued that media has a strong role in how people in the contemporary society
perceive the world. Thus, how media portray a particular attitude, interest or value define how
the audience will view the nature of the conflict or which side of the argument they support. An
excellent example of this may be the national coverage of conflicting countries, either in
diplomatic situations or at war. The two sides of the media will eventually glorify their
respective countries. When a third party viewer, who is not a direct party in the conflict, is likely
to be influenced by the coverage that he or she is watching.
However, in the world of reality TV, conflict has gained a new dimension. Reality TV is
a relatively new aspect of media, which is a genre of television programming that records
purportedly real- life, unscripted situations. The genre developed and attained popularity with the
success of Idols, Survivors and Big Brother. The central criticism that such reality shows receive

CONFLICTS IN REALITY TV
indicate to a shocking tendency of the contemporary society—they allegedly trigger conflict
among the participants purposefully, and people seem to love watching them quarrelling,
fighting and yelling at each other. Often, these shows are harsh and cruel to their participants in
order to evoke drama, which often takes a toll on the mental health of the participants. Moreover,
the portrayals of such conflicts are not always unbiased. Thus, it affects the perception of the
viewers and influence what message they are receiving from it (Kraszewski, 2017).
This study presents a case study of the said media portrayal in reality TV shows. The
purpose of this study is to analyse how the particular show is using conflicts in their content and
what message is being transmitted to the audience due to their particular style of presentation. To
this end, the study takes evidence from two globally famous reality TV shows, namely Big
Brother and Undercover Boss and examines the nature of conflict shown in the particular
episode. The analysis will consist of two scenes from one episode of the each show. In the
analysis of the two scenes, one will be used to contextualize and describe the conflict, and the
other scene will be analysed to understand how the conflicting participants are treated within the
show. Finally, the study will conclude by estimating what message is conveyed across the
audience from the portrayals and the closure of those conflicts.
Case 1: Big Brother
Scene 1
Big Brother is one of the most famous reality TV shows with its franchise in numerous
countries. It is one of the earliest reality shows that made the genre popular across the world. The
show depicts a host of participants locked down in an isolated house, without any connection to