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Articles on Reality TV

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You’re fired! Donald Trump shouts his catch-phrase at a 2006 casting call for The Apprentice. Fred Prouser/Reuters

Understanding Trump by watching The Apprentice

How does Donald Trump, the son of a millionaire, manage to be an ‘outsider’? A clue might be found in The Apprentice, a melodrama which uses exaggerated emotion to tell the story of an underdog overcoming adversity.
Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry flexes during a preseason game against the Los Angeles Lakers. USA Today Sports/Reuters

Why sports fans need villains

Many decry ‘superteams’ like the NBA’s Golden State Warriors as bad for the sport. But psychology research shows that they also make us more likely to watch – and bask in the joy of seeing them fail.
Donald Trump in the boardroom during an episode of ‘The Apprentice.’ Nick Lehr/The Conversation

Obsessed with reality TV? You may be a narcissist

Studies have shown that since the 1970s, people’s scores on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory are rising. Could there be a connection to television consumption?
Channel 7’s new program Seven Year Switch is not based on evidence, despite couching itself in scientific terms. Channel 7

Relationship reality TV: entertainment masquerading as science

What do the viewing public make of reality TV shows about relationships when they’re masqueraded as “science” and feature “relationship experts”?
Despite criticism from the Chinese government, which claims it espouses “the wrong values”, the popularity of dating show If You Are The One continues unabated. SBS Television

If You Are The One and The Bachelor know how to get to us: we all fear dying alone

The Chinese dating show If You Are the One has a domestic audience of 50 million, and a cult following in Australia. It seems harsher than shows such as The Bachelor – but is it really all that different?
It’s an abuse of copyright to use it to stifle creativity – even the everyday, unglamorous kinds. Randi Boice

Reality bites: when copyright law and reality cooking meet, only the lawyers win

High-stress scenarios, flavoured with competitive chefs, and garnished with a panel of celebrity judges … what could possibly go wrong? The copyright spat between channels Seven and Nine is illustrative.
Lance Loud in a 1973 PBS publicity photo for An American Family. public domain

Homophobia just ain’t what it used to be

Outright homophobia has mostly moved from the mainstream of public discourse to its margins. For this, we can thank pioneers like Lance Loud of An American Family.
‘I’m sorry honey, there may be no way back.’ KennyK

Why the soap opera is in terminal decline

It has been 30 years since EastEnders arrived on UK screens to begin chronicling the lives of the denizens of fictional Albert Square in east London. But the history of soap operas goes back a great deal…
The First Contact cast members’ transformation over the series is an optical illusion of Australian race relations. SBS

SBS’s First Contact is the real ‘festering sore’ of the nation

The SBS/Blackfella Films production First Contact – that takes six non-Indigenous people and immerses them into Aboriginal Australia for the first time – captured the nation’s attention this week amassing…

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