| Amo
The era of onlookers
The upgrade and transformation of the traditional reality show model
The popularity of observation variety shows is not a phenomenon unique to us, but a product of the times and the general social background. As early as 2008, "The One-Minute Life-Changing Story" appeared in Japan, and since then many observation programs have gradually emerged. In South Korea, since the launch of " I Live Alone " in 2013, observation variety shows such as "We Got Married", "Strange Bedfellows" and " My Little Kid " have continuously brought ratings peaks. " Heartbeat Signal " is also a program model derived from South Korea.
Yang Chaoyue attended as the "Heartbeat Detective" guest in "Heartbeat Signal".
It can be said that observation variety shows are a new way of playing and a new upgrade of the reality show format that has been popular for many years. The German philosopher Heidegger (Martin Heidegger) pointed out in the 1930s that we have entered the "age of world images". He believed that "in essence, the world is grasped as images." Now, his prediction has come true. With the all-encompassing communication capabilities of the media, the spectacle of media images is getting closer and closer to reality. Nowadays, not only have a large number of various reality shows appeared on the market, including exciting and interesting outdoor game shows and slow-paced variety shows, but many websites and their multimedia live broadcasts are also conducting live broadcasts of various real people. Short videos, etc. In these reality shows, viewers get a glimpse into all aspects of the lives of celebrities and ordinary people, including eating, sleeping, dating, working, making friends, etc. We have never been as used to watching as we are today, overwhelmed by the torrent of information and different scenarios. The publicization of the "private sphere" has become the main theme of popular culture. Mass media is gradually producing and packaging all aspects of private life into mature commodities, and people are also happy to use this to consume entertainment. In the words of German sociologist Habermas (Jürgen Habermas), "the public of cultural criticism has gradually transformed into the public of cultural consumption."
In such an environment, the reality show model will inevitably undergo continuous transformation and innovation to win the interest of consumers. If in the past reality shows, the audience just watched from a distance and peeked into some aspects of life, then today's observational reality shows are an upgrade of this voyeurism. Compared with the traditional reality show model, the most distinctive feature of this model is "observation". This kind of "observation" not only refers to the audience's observation of the photographed object, but also includes the process of the guests observing the photographed object in the studio, and the audience observing the guests in the studio. For example, "Heartbeat Signal" opens up two scenes. The first scene is 8 ordinary people of different ages and personalities making friends. The second scene is a studio, where the Heartbeat Detective Team composed of celebrity guests and psychology experts interacts with each other. Audiences work together to predict the outcome of dating. The model of
reality show + studio observation and commentary is not only as simple as adding narration to the plot, but also creates a multi-level viewing space, making the boundaries between seeing and being seen, and the audience and performers blurred and overlapping. In these multiple onlookers, the plot can also be superimposed, thereby achieving more exaggerated and entertaining purposes.
Take Hunan TV "My Girl" as an example. This program shoots and shows the daily life and emotional life of female stars, while the artist father watches and comments in the studio. On the one hand, the audience can gain attention by watching the lives of artists. For example, in the show, Papi Jiang and Jiao Junyan rank the lives of family members, which triggers netizens to discuss the pursuit of contemporary women; Wu Xin has low self-esteem in her work and life. There are many worries that the audience pays attention to and discusses, etc. At the same time, the audience is also watching the attitude and reaction of the artist's father in the studio, thereby observing the relationship between the father and his daughter and further understanding the living conditions of the artist/artist family. In addition, sometimes the words spoken by artists or commentators can further promote the plot or represent the voice of the audience. When they said the evaluation that the audience recognized, the expressions and responses of others became a new point of view. Therefore, this kind of "observation, dismantling and evaluation" perspective program creates more content and multi-level viewing perspectives.
Moreover, this upgraded method allows the onlookers to move from the invisible screen to the bright studio. On the one hand, the massive content satisfies the curiosity of the audience; on the other hand, the onlookers who can’t wait to analyze themselves and the studio guests who actively explain simultaneously make the onlookers feel more at ease and calm. They are loyal to the onlookers, encouraging viewing and evaluation, discussion, speculation, and even participating in promoting new plots to prove the legitimacy of the "onlooker" thing itself and help shape it into a kind of experience worthy of more public participation. Participatory forms of entertainment consumption.
Screenshots of the program "My Girl", which adopts a typical "observation variety show" setting: reality show scenes and observation and commentating guests from the second studio are interspersed and edited.
As a result, the boundaries of our onlookers have been greatly extended, not only within the program, but also outside the program. In the past, the audience's views on the program may have been fragmented and personal, but in observation programs, because studio guests often say controversial or represent the voice of a certain group when making comments, it is extremely easy to become a group topic. , triggering people to take sides and discuss. In this way, from the onlookers, the media and businesses saw with satisfaction that the audience spent more time and generated more consumption and entertainment - we not only watched, but also commented.
Live barrages and speech idols
What kind of KOL do we need in the "lazy man era"?
There is no doubt that commentary is the highlight of observational variety shows. In many programs on this subject, we can find that the life records of the subjects under observation are often cut off, giving the audience the feeling of skipping the scene, in order to give the studio guests enough time to evaluate, and even in some programs , there are more shots of commentators than those being observed, and what’s more, a “picture-in-picture” format is used. When the video of the person being observed is played, the observers participate in comments in a small screen. Their comments were like a live barrage, filling the entire show.
Although the comment culture did not arise today, it is true that the audience's tolerance for cutting off the plot at any time and the habit of watching content in comments were only formed in the era of the popularization of the Internet. This is because the strong interactivity of the Internet has brought about a movie-watching experience of "hugging, gathering, and enjoying together". " New York Times " once wrote an article analyzing that in the traditional era, watching movies was a quiet and escapist act of appreciating entertainment. But nowadays, purely private movie viewing is no longer mainstream.
Danmaku in observational variety shows
The popular barrage websites in recent years have demonstrated that audiences like to exchange their feelings about watching movies in real time, and hope to find a collective emotional resonance. When funny scenes appeared, they rushed to say "23333", "laughing to death" and "hahaha". When "cute" scenes appeared, they needed to express "so cute" and "cute". When they see scary scenes, they need "barrage protection". Sometimes, they will cherish each other or argue fiercely in the barrage... This kind of virtual "tribal" viewing is better than traditional video viewing. mode facilitates real-time communication and multi-directional interaction among audiences, enhances the sense of community and avoids personal loneliness. This is the charm and innovation of barrage and real-time, and it is also the significance of barrage communication. It declares that people are not satisfied with just watching content, but also want to enjoy other pleasures brought by watching content at the same time. The creators of observational variety shows are keenly aware of this, so they use the form of "live barrage" to bind the audience more firmly to the program.
In addition, the fact that I hope to watch guest comments instead of commenting myself, and that I hope to agree with the commentators who "frequently produce good quotes" instead of actively producing good quotes may mean that the audience is becoming more and more lazy to think. Observing today's society, we are indeed in an "increasingly lazy" society. Movie commentary and game play-by-play are increasingly appearing on media platforms. There are speech idols all over the world who have become famous by "explaining".The American satirical animation "South Park" poignantly shows this strange phenomenon: when children get the latest video games, they don't play them themselves, but immediately go to the Internet to watch others play the games.
In response to this phenomenon, American writer and sociologist Malcolm Gladwell proposed the concept of "slacktivism", which refers directly to those who feel good about themselves but have political or social problems. Modern man with zero influence. Lazy man activism outlines a social picture: people sit in front of computers/TVs, constantly playing with their mobile phones, not expressing many opinions but frequently retweeting or liking. This is a new generation of social participants.
American writer and sociologist Malcolm Gladwell proposed the concept of "slacktivism" and discussed the possible impact of this phenomenon in many works.
In addition to the increasing convenience of communication due to the popularization of technology, Gladwell believes that the accelerated pace of life caused by the development of industrial society is also an important reason for this situation. The growing mental pressure of modern people, the aesthetic fatigue caused by the sameness/plagiarism in the cultural industry, and the encouragement of the industrial system have led to people increasingly needing psychological catharsis and sensory pleasure. Engaging in tortuous and esoteric thinking is far less important than satisfying personal pleasure.
Therefore, in these programs that claim to focus on social reality, the commentators who comment on the lives and social issues of the people being observed are mostly celebrities rather than experts. There are also many celebrities who have not had the same or similar life experiences as the people being observed. They are by no means serious about understanding and research, but showing their charm in jokes. Therefore, these new era speech idols who represent the audience are very different from traditional commentators. Most of their evaluations are nonsensical deconstruction and construction. Of course, the audience also understands and accepts this and considers it one of the goals of watching the show. For example, Zhang Yuqi, a member of the Heartbeat Detective Team in "Heartbeat Signal", showed her true and casual side. When observing the love stories of amateur guests, she claimed to "believe in zodiac signs" and hoped to define male guests through zodiac signs. After guessing her character, some netizens said, "I want to pick Zhang Yuqi under my real name."
Extended reading
"Single Modernity", author: [US] Fredric Jameson (Fredric Jameson), translator: Wang Fengzhen / Wang Liya, version: China Renmin University Press 2009 4月
Audiences watch other people’s lives, but they don’t really care; audiences are eager to evaluate, but are too lazy to evaluate themselves; audiences place their hope in idols, not the truth - whether it is the perspective of onlookers, the way of commenting, or the "speech" "Idol" attitude, everything in observational variety shows seems to point to the casual and joking faces of the audience who entertained themselves until the end of time. Just as the American cultural critic Fredric R. Jameson summed up the characteristics of the postmodern era: depth The flattening, the loss of subjectivity and the disappearance of the sense of distance. People only want to wander in the eternal present.
Model Life
Even if he knows that this is a "routine",
cannot be a true bystander
In addition to providing spectacles and comments, another key point of observation variety shows to promote and win topics is that they try to observe samples. , providing some kind of solution to life. Guests on "Heart Signal" often use watching the love process to discuss what is really important in love and how to attract the other half. " Love Dream Space " is similar. It claims that using the program to observe the love status of the post-90s and post-00s generations can "provide the audience with love secrets." " Wife's Romantic Travel " hopes to be able to Observations on the relationship between several couples explore the perfect way to get along in marriage.
These are basically problems that everyone will encounter. They are also the most anxious and unanswered life questions for contemporary young people, so they have received a lot of attention. But in fact, observational variety shows cannot provide any conclusions for reference. They target the anxieties of most people in society and try to sell routine standard answers.
Like most reality shows, observational variety shows will exaggerately create different types of labeled people/life for the ultimate program effect and ratings. For example, in " Daughters' Love ", the guests chose Ren Jiaxuan who represents most people who are hurt by love but long for love, Fu Yuanhui who has never had any love experience, and Du Haitao who has experienced a long-distance love race for 6 years. and Shen Mengchen , etc. "Wife's Romantic Travel" selects 4 couples who are both representative and different from each other as the objects of observation to express 4 different marital values. During the show, the "Governing Council" responsible for commenting defined the guests: Jordan Chan and Cai'er Ying are "spicy love", Xie Na and Zhang Jie are "sweet love", and Fu Xinbo and Ying'er are "three fresh love" , Guo Xiaodong and Cheng Lisha are in "bitter love". However, these people who are not necessarily representative are treated as typical specimens of a pluralistic society, as if their performance in front of the camera can generate grand social issues.
"Wife's Romantic Travel" program screen.
While selecting the best candidates, the program team will also actively participate in life interference. For example, in "My Girl", Yuan Shanshan and Qian Feng were inexplicably "blinded" under the strings of Yu Haoming; Wu Xin and who made an appointment to see a doctor Xu Haiqiao also feels like being matched.
More importantly, compared to ordinary reality shows, observation variety shows can intelligently guide discussions through commentators. Traditional reality shows still leave enough space for the audience to think for themselves, while observation variety shows often fill all the space with evaluation and multiple observations. The endless comments make the audience unconsciously start to move towards the topics and topics preset by the program. direction.
Under normal circumstances, when people watch other people's lives, they will generate their own interpretations of cultural and social concepts based on their own life experiences, and express their own views and opinions. Thereby forming a confirmation and identity for oneself and producing one's own cultural pleasure. As Mr. Lu Xun said: "In a Dream of Red Mansions, Taoists see obscenity, Confucian scholars see Yi, talented people see lingering, revolutionaries see Paiman, and gossips see the secrets of the palace." But today, the agenda-setting agenda of the mass media is trying to narrow the scope of these perceptions.
During the viewing process, the audience may not necessarily invest their own emotions and experiences into the participants. However, because when watching the program, the audience experiences other people's lives from the perspective of bystanders. In fact, it is different from the studio observers. The perspective is similar, causing the audience to often see the observer as their own spokesperson. In addition, most of the questions raised by observers are questions that everyone wants to know. This angle setting makes the audience feel more involved. Especially when seeing close-ups of the expressions of studio guests who are also observers for the first time and constantly listening to their opinions, or seeing a guest whose views are contrary to their own constantly being echoed and approved by others, it is difficult for the audience to do so. Completely uninfluenced and led.
"The Lost Region", author: [US] Joshua Meyrowitz, translator: Xiao Zhijun, version: Tsinghua University Press, November 2002
"Media Situation" theory was developed by American communication scholar Meyrowitz (Joshua Meyrowitz) proposed in his book "Vanishing Territories: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behavior". Meyrowitz believes that television has the social influence of establishing new social situations and changing or strengthening people's original cognitions, attitudes and behaviors through mass communication. In other words, since the natural environment in which people live is isolated from each other, and the public environment is created by media such as television, television can create an influential world through continuous and widespread dissemination and the use of celebrities and authorities to assist. The powerful, engaging social situation creates an illusion of reality in the audience, and then inevitably caters to the "public opinion" in this social situation - therefore, in the face of the "other people's lives" carefully created by the mass media, we I can never be a calm bystander.
After all, the audience hiding behind the "real" camera, laughing and scolding others' lives, also has the loneliness of longing for empathy and the pain of being confused about the future. They are also wandering between social recognition and rejection. between. The final result is that although many netizens believe that love and marriage are not the only way to achieve happiness in life, under the bombardment of sweet reality shows and the constant comments of parents, the program "Daughters' Love" was broadcast Later, more and more netizens joined their parents in urging Shen Mengchen and her boyfriend Du Haitao to get married. Maybe they thought they had found a happy example.
Written by: Amo Editor:Zouzai Yu Yaqin
Proofreading:Xue Jingning
