Reality Tv Engagement: Audience Relations Towards Reality Competition Shows

Absztrakt (kivonat)

The aim of the present thesis is to get a better understanding of the enormous engagement of reality competition shows. The topic was chosen due to the author’s personal interest based on her previous work experience at RTL Klub, one of the biggest commercial channels in Hungary. The set of hypotheses to be tested are the following: H1: Identification with the characters play an important role for the viewers. H2: Watching other people’s drama on a daily basis motivates viewers for the engagement. Moreover, the research questions addressed in the paper are: RQ1: Does the oversexualized content help the engagement of a reality? RQ2: Is it a motivating factor in the engagement to be able to shape a show for the audience? The history of media throughout the years are presented, and key media effect theories are going to be explained based on the works of McQuail (2010) and Barbier & Bretho (2004). Moreover, Aczél (2015) and Jenkins (2006) are helping to understand how media convergence effects the audience. Finally, Anette Hill (2005,2007,2019) with her several books and studies along with Bignell (2005) will dive-in to the reality genre. A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods are being used in the empirical part of the thesis. An online questionnaire of 368 participants reveals viewer’s opinions regarding the important factor of reality tv engagement. Furthermore, a former producer from Való Világ season 10 gives a better insight with an interview from a different perspective to the set of hypothesis and questions. The findings of the research led to the conclusion that for the audience it is a motivating factor to be able to identify with a character in a reality show. In addition, watching everyday drama also plays a big role in the engagement of these shows. Furthermore, oversexualized content in realities does not bring more viewers in front of the screens of televisions part of this phenomenon is due to the restricted media law. On top of that, being able to shape the show for instance, by voting who to send home from a competitive reality is not a must factor for the audience however, when they are given the chance they are more likely to live with it by giving a vote for their favorite or least favorite character.