Simulations 49-58
By: Tanner Morris
Baudrillard goes in depth about the Loud family and his philosophies behind what could be noted as a social experiment. The family was the first ever case of reality television, being documented without script through their daily home life. Baudrillard points out that this was so captivating to the American audience because “the real could be seen to have never existed as if you were there”. It was a way for people have a perspective of another reality without their body being their. This is a case of hyperreality though to a degree because it’s a model of reality, not actual reality, for the fact that outside factors such as cameras, and producers had an affect on the family’s actions wether voluntary or involuntary. This description of the show to me is quite interesting because nowadays reality tv has become so scripted and artificial, or hyperreal. What does this say about the way media progresses? I believe it try’s to become more and more captivating and dramatized until the point that it’s mind numbing. The vlog content on YouTube has taken place of reality tv because it's more personal look into someone’s life for the fact that they’re controlling the image of their self. But we still see that as soon as that person starts losing popularity then the same tactics of drama come out to play.
Baudrillard goes in depth about the Loud family and his philosophies behind what could be noted as a social experiment. The family was the first ever case of reality television, being documented without script through their daily home life. Baudrillard points out that this was so captivating to the American audience because “the real could be seen to have never existed as if you were there”. It was a way for people have a perspective of another reality without their body being their. This is a case of hyperreality though to a degree because it’s a model of reality, not actual reality, for the fact that outside factors such as cameras, and producers had an affect on the family’s actions wether voluntary or involuntary. This description of the show to me is quite interesting because nowadays reality tv has become so scripted and artificial, or hyperreal. What does this say about the way media progresses? I believe it try’s to become more and more captivating and dramatized until the point that it’s mind numbing. The vlog content on YouTube has taken place of reality tv because it's more personal look into someone’s life for the fact that they’re controlling the image of their self. But we still see that as soon as that person starts losing popularity then the same tactics of drama come out to play.
This portion of the reading has made me want to explore the progression of advertising of athletes to see if it shares the theme of becoming more artificial over the years.
The Loud family in Baudrillard's example reminds me of a movie called The Truman Show. In that movie, Truman is filmed his whole life and he doesn't notice it. And the audiences are also really excited watching him.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of nature documentaries. They are perfectly manipulated to make use believe that they are real. But not everything they capture is natural, they use bird sounds from sound libraries, they take up different animals, and sometimes choose to use trained animals.
ReplyDeleteI think it's really good that you related Loud to vloggers this day. It seems like a trend that if people want to become a hit, they need to show their personality(real or fake) and expose their personal life, because people love seeing that and the more they show the more people feel "closer" to them.
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