How real is reality television

Scripted or not is the wrong question

People ask whether reality shows are scripted, but there is a wide space between the two answers. Without writing any lines, deciding who shares a space and what task they are given already narrows the range of what can happen. Designing the situation is itself an act of making a story. For example, keeping people with very different temperaments in a small space for a long time, or making them choose over limited resources, creates conflict without any script. In that sense the direction of the story is partly set as early as casting.

The gap between shot and aired

Dozens of hours from several cameras over several days become one hour. What is kept and what is cut decides how a person comes across. Quiet stretches never reach the screen, and only the minutes where feeling showed survive, which makes everything look more dramatic than it was. That is why it is hard to conclude from a few minutes of footage that someone is "just like that".

What editing creates

The same footage reads differently depending on order and placement. Laying an interview answer over another scene, changing the chronology, or adding music can make the same action mean something else. These techniques differ from inventing lies, but they are powerful because they can change the cause and effect viewers perceive.

• Placing an interview from another day over a scene
• Reordering time to imply cause and effect
• Assigning emotion through music and sound effects
• Attaching a reaction shot from a different moment

Participants know about the cameras

Once you know you are being filmed, behaving exactly as usual is difficult. Even after the novelty fades, camera-aware choices mix in. This is less a deception than the ordinary response of people who know they are being observed. The more experienced a participant, the more they know what the camera wants and may turn their reactions up or down accordingly.

Why it still works

What remains is that it is not wholly invented. Within a designed situation, the actual reactions are not fully predictable even to the people making it. It is better for viewers and participants alike, though, not to assume what appears on screen is the whole of anyone. Those unpredictable moments are what keep people coming back to the reality format.

Questions to ask while watching

Watching reality television critically does not mean giving up the fun. Recalling these questions now and then builds an eye for separating staging from reality, and adds the pleasure of appreciating the craft. Asking these questions out of habit makes you hold off a little on judging participants and pay more attention to how a scene was made. That alone puts a healthy distance between the figure on screen and the real person.

• What was cut before and after this scene?
• Was this interview recorded on the same day as the scene?
• How would the scene feel without the music?
• Why did this person's other sides not make it in?
• What situations did the producers decide in advance?

Protections for participants

Because real people's emotions are broadcast as they are, there have been steady calls for procedures that protect participants: prior agreement on what is filmed and how much is shown, review before broadcast, and support for dealing with the reaction afterwards. The specifics differ by programme and production company and are often not made public, but it is clear that conflict on screen carries over to real people after broadcast. If someone remains in psychological difficulty after appearing, it is better to seek professional help than to endure it alone.

Keeping your distance when controversy hits

After a reality broadcast, criticism sometimes piles onto a single participant. The basis for that judgement is mostly edited footage. Before joining in, simply remembering how small a fragment of the whole situation that scene is can prevent much misunderstanding. Going to someone's personal account to attack them has nothing to do with enjoying the show, and in some cases can become a legal matter.