Americas Next Top Model Show in Light of Power Dynamics - Essay Example

Analysis of America’s Next Top Model Show in Light of Power Dynamics Television shows are one of the mediums of communication that involves the participation of various audiences - ordinary people as well as professionals. The television shows are mainly controlled by professionals who use their power to “rule” the program. It is, however, evident that in exercising the powers of controlling the programs, the truth is sometimes not revealed to the audience. This has been witnessed in some of the reality shows like America's Next Top Model and the Big Brother show. This paper will discuss the construction and power dynamics of America’s Next Top Model show. Ways in which professionals use their power to ‘rule’ the program without 'revealing' the truth to audience. America’s Next Top Model (ANTM) is a big brother show in which successful women applicants come together to compete for America’s Next Top Model title. This show is meant to give the women a chance to start a modeling career. The show is hosted by a female professional and model by the name Tyra Banks. It is rated as one of the biggest television shows in the world. The show is professionally constructed with episodes ranging from nine to eighteen. In all the seasons, there are about ten to twenty five female participants who vie for the adorable title. Each episode is structured in a way that one of the participants considered weak is eliminated by a panel of judges, Tyra Banks being part. The shows also provides a makeover in the earlier part of the show where the participants who are considered weak is put on probation and the audience is allowed to vote to save their preferred contestant (Kowalski 43). During the show, contestants undergo vigorous training in line with the theme of the particular week. This is meant to coach the girls and teach them various aspects related to the modeling career including press interviewing skills, sales skills, and cat walking (Kowalski 46). This is followed by photo shooting of the contestants who are given dresses that barely cover the bodies; the girls are actually semi-nude as they pose. From the photos shot, the judges make a decision and the female contestants with the lowest marks are eliminated or put on probation for a makeover. Other events featured in the show include in-depth assessment of personality traits and general knowledge. Each of the episodes ends with the ruling by a panel of judges who are experts in the fashion industry, regular judges of the show. A special guest judge is also usually called upon to assist in making a judgment. This involves posing challenging questions on modeling and fashion to the contestants, and their video photos are displayed and analyzed by the panelists. The contestants are often asked to leave the room to give the panelists a chance to deliberate on their decisions and make the rulings. The female contestants are then called upon to the show room and face their fate; the successful ones remain in the show while those who score low are put on probation or sent packing (Kowalski 47). In view of the above, it is beyond doubt that the show is, therefore, professionally structured in a way that real women contestants are put into unreal events in order to create a story. Criticism of the Reality Shows Most of the reality shows run for a bout thirty to sixty minutes, a constant duration. If the show could be real then the events would run for an unidentified period. This shows that there are some incidences behind the scene that the audience is not able to know. It also brings out an element of editing of the events behind the scene to enable the program run within the stipulated period. It also shows that the story being told is not real but is subject to a lot of editing and manipulation of the contestants or participants. The editors, therefore, become the storytellers and take the positions of the contestants by altering the sequence of events that actually happened behind the scenes. Meanwhile, the audience is made to believe that the events presented are the actual things that happened. The editing feature of reality show that happens behind the scene was acknowledged by Tyra who explained that it was mainly done for the purpose of promotion and marketing (Jet Magazine 62). Scholars have argued that the success of reality shows like America’s Next Top Model show lies in its ability to place the audience in extra ordinary situation. However, it faces some degree of criticism from the ordinary people who feel that the truth behind the scene is not being revealed to them (Lauzen, Dozier and Cleveland 448). The truth of what is happening throughout the show is hidden through scripting where the audience only watch contestants, while many things that happen behind the scene are never revealed. This is due to the programming powers vested on the professional producers, who use these powers to rule the programming without revealing the actual truth to the audience. The professional reality show programmers use the power they have to rule the programs they air to the audience without revealing the truth of the programs. The reality shows are not in actual sense real, but are merely artifact meant to educate as well as entertain the audience. The professional programmers, however, try to script the programs to look factual for the audience to relate with as observed by (Biressi & Nunn 3). The real motive of the reality show is to benefit the programmers and the contestants mainly but not the audience. The audience is only educated through various themes of the reality shows like catwalk styles, press interview etiquettes, marketing skills among others as well as to entertain, as is the case with ANTM show produced by Tyra Banks. The program also takes advantage of the curiosity and enthusiasm of the audience to keep their preferred contestant in the competition by bringing the issue of saving a contestant through a voting process. In the end, the audience ends up contributing huge amounts of money towards the show without realizing this. The reality shows programming are in most cases does not reveal the truth to the audience. The question that the audience may be left asking themselves is why the title reality shows. The shows claim to portray a true-life situation although this, in reality, is not the case since it is not common to find people inviting the audience to get inner knowledge of their personal lives as is most cases portrayed by reality shows. America’s Next Top Model reveals the personal lives of the contestants and even features openly their nude pictures. This is not a reflection of real life and is meant to deceive the audience with the aim of getting their attention and being glued to the television channel. What makes ANTM show looks like a reality show is only the fact that the female contestants who participate for the big brother title are not themselves professionals. However, what the audience is meant to believe through professional programming is not a reality but instead is a structured artifact as noted by Sparks (44). ANTM, Big Brother show at some instances the contestants are required to pose for a photo shooting while necked. This programming technique has elicited a lot of reaction to the audience as to the motive and as to whether this is meant to educate people in any way. Despite the fact that the professional programmer’s intention is to make the participants become celebrities by showing their nudity before cameras, the interest of the majority audience is not taken into account. There is no participatory democracy at all since it bring out anti social pictures to the public by portraying privacy of contestants to the public (Carpentier 25). The audience is, therefore, not being shown the real intention of showing nude pictures to public on television channels. This also raises questions as to whether the pictures portraying nudity of contestants in reality shows are actually real or just a mere script meant to create curiosity among the audience. This is because the audience is not at a position to know what is happening behind the scenes. The reality shows are scripted in a manner that the audience contributes money towards the promotion of the program without realizing. The professional programmers usually bring issues like elimination of contestants at various stages of episodes or putting them on probation for a makeup and solicit the public audience to vote for their preferred contestants. This is done as the programmers know that the audience always develop love and dislikes for some of the contestants and would always do anything possible in ensuring that their preferred contestant do not leave the show. It is, however, questionable whether the contestants being put on probation for a makeup are actually weak. The audience however, does not have the power to make a judgment but is only given an opportunity to save contestants of their choice. This shows lack of participatory democracy in programming reality shows. In some instances, the producers and the judges manipulate the contest by putting a contestant believed to be the strongest in the competition for a makeup in order to elicit a lot of reaction from the audience and make them participate actively in an attempt to save the contestant. However, the issue of putting the strong candidate on probation is something preplanned and the audience is not aware of this as they are behind the scene. This makes them contribute a lot of money used to pay the contestants of the reality shows without knowing that it is them the ordinary audience that contribute money used to pay the contestants (Lauzen, Dozier and Cleveland 446). Reality TV shows are usually programmed by professionals in such a a manner as to deceive the audience by claiming to provide a revelation of the situations around them. However, this is not the truth as most of the issues surrounding the reality TV show like the ANTM is all about fantasy. This is because when a contestant is put on probation for a makeover and the audience is called upon to vote and save the contestant despite the resolution of the judges, the contestant may end up winning the completion based on the favors he/she enjoys from the voters. This may be due to their physical appearance, color, or race. It is, therefore, merely a game of fantasy. In some instances, scripting is done behind the scene and compromise is applied in determining the winner without the approval of the audience. This is due to the powers vested on the programmers, and this has seen many audiences of the television reality shows get disgruntled with producers and judges who in some cases announce a winner who is not common with the expectations of the audience. This is due to the manipulative power and what happen behind the scene, which the audiences are not able to see due to scripting and acting (Biressi & Nunn 66). Despite the fact that the professional programmers of the shows claim to bring issues with which the audience can relate to in real life, the true revelation is not brought out to them. The big brother show tries to enlighten the audience on issues of real life such as what it takes to be a good press interviewer or presenter, good sale woman, good model and others. These aspects are educative to the audience. However, in some instance, the episode is only a dramatization of emotions as has been the case with America’s Next Top Model, Big Brother. The contestants dramatize issues in line with the instructions given to them by the producers to make the show interesting and to attract more audience. This has seen many reality shows like the ANTM show diverting from the main theme of model search and bringing dramatization issues in between the episodes. However, the audience is not made aware that these issues of dramatizations are preplanned by programmers behind the scene (Lauzen, Dozier and Cleveland 448). Voyeurism is one common feature of most of the reality shows where the contestants are posing for a photo shoot, undressed before full glare of camera. The producers however claim that this is a way of bringing the issue of social interaction and how it affects the social status of the people. However, the audience views this to be unethical and anti-social since it promotes pornography. The Big Brother show as part of competition has a part where the female contestants pose nude. In others, they pose semi nude with males and this is considered unethical. In this context, there is no social truth revealed to the audience but it is only a promotion of pornography to the audience watching the show. The audience has not discovered the benefits of showing nudity or semi nude photos in a show viewed by so many audiences (Baruh 191). The ANTM show does not reveal the truth to the ordinary people since it is so highly scripted. The show claims to educate the female contestants on how to become female profession models in fashion and media industry. It also claims that the contestants undergo thorough training in the show throughout the episode that make them become celebrities. However, this is professional programming gimmick, used to deceive the audience as the show is scripted in largely and does not reflect reality. The contestants, in actual sense, do not undergo the training as portrayed. In fact, the training is merely a fabrication meant to make the audience feel that the show is beneficial to the contestants. If the show presented the truth, it would be common to find the contestants whose interests lie in fashion and media pursue succeeding more due to the kind of education and training they receive. The different celebrities from reality shows that have attempted to take careers in media have proved none celebrities, as they do not merit the fame they receive. This shows that the training program portrayed is a professional programming gimmick meant to deceive the ordinary persons. It also shows that there is a lot of scripting being done behind the scene that the audience is not able to see ( Lauzen, Dozier and Cleveland 453). Most programmers edit their shows and this has been the case with America’s Next Top Model. Some of the episodes are edited and in some instance, audio and the video from different episodes are integrated in a show. This shows the extent at which the audience is deceived that the episodes aired to them on televisions are real. It also shows that there are many scenes happening behind the scenes that the audience are not aware of as the programming is ruled by professionals. This creates incidence of time chronology that did not happen but instead is inserted to make the show flow according to the programmer’s wishes. The editing powers of programmers, therefore, make them not reveal the actual truth of what happen behind the scene but instead they do it to satisfy their needs. This is because editing has the impact of changing storyline or events happening only to entertain the audience. ANTM show for example, has some parts edited to fit the requirement of the programmers (Jet Magazene 44). This is shown where at some parts of the episodes the contestants dramatize some of issues like falling while doing catwalk. This is meant to entertain the audience and leave them guessing what would happen next. This distorts the chronology and presentation of events happening in the show. It has also been established that most reality television shows make a contract with the winning contestants, but do not guarantee them getting the contract (Weekly World News 44).This is always announced before the ordinary public to make them feel how prestigious the completion is, and to make them participate actively. This does make the ordinary audience participate actively by voting many times in order to save their preferred contestant to win the prestigious contract. The motive behind the contract price being put high as opposed to what the producers pay the winning contestants is not known to the ordinary audience who only assume that the price announced is the exact amount that the winner receives. However, the contract prices being alleged in some cases are not paid to the winning contestants at the end of the show. This happens behind the scene so that the audience is not able to know what happens in reality. This was seen during the modeling competition where the modeling contract made with Revlon Promising the winner of the America’s Next Top Model was found to be much less, than that which the contestant was told before audience that she would get (Weekly World News 44). This incidence also portrays a way in which the professionals use their power to rule the programs without revealing truth to the audience. The professional also use their power to rule the programs without revealing the truth to the audience by bringing instances of acting. Contestants of America’s Next Top Model at some stages of the episode engage themselves in fake activities not on their own volition but under instruction by the professional producers. These instructions are given behind the scenes in advance; the audience is not aware of this and thinks it is real happenings. The storyline in this shows are sometimes scripted in advance by the professional programmers who have the power to rule programming. This scripting is meant to present appealing pictures to the audience but there is no factuality in the storyline. In the reality shows, the contestants are at times forced by the producers to portray a different characters that they do not actually posses. They are forced to assume behaviors that make them appear emotional, crazy, and needy in order to attract the attention of the audience (Sayre and King 94). Reality shows are driven by profit making motive as they are mainly financed by corporations. However, the audience is not aware of this, and this make the producer in some instances edit and script some of the episodes to look longer than they actually are. America’s Next Top Model, Big Brother show for instance run many episodes of about eighteen with the motive of getting high profits. At times, a compromise is reached behind the scene where an episode that requires two contestants to be eliminated from the completion only eliminates one to make the show lengthy. As a result, people will people will continue voting for the contestants thus raising their revenue base. The audience is, however, not aware of this as the programming is done behind the scene. Reality shows like America’s Top Model is one of the shows that are highly dominated with product placement commercials. Episodes are full of stopovers for commercial adverts for the companies who advertise their product on reality shows. The audience is, therefore, left to wonder as to why the reality show is scripted with many commercial adverts in between the episodes. The commercial adverts are only an arrangement between the programmers and the respective companies who make use of the opportune time to advertise their products. However, the audience in most cases has been disgruntled with the many commercial adverts. It is also arguable that the adverts are a programming tactic meant to run down the time in order for the producers to achieve their programming objective. It may also be to enable the show to run within the stipulated period set for the producers to meet their forecast profit. Reality shows have also been marred by instances of restaging of events that have previously been shown but producers assume that these result from filming errors. Restaging is also done to add authenticity to the events that have filming errors and to try to relate the theme to real events as was observed by Casinghino (213). This show the extent at which many things that are been show to the audience are merely scripted events that have no factual backing. It also shows that most of the events shown are not true but the producers present them in a way that deceives the audience that they are actually true. A question that an audience may be left asking is, why the change of stage. The other area where the audience is never presented with the truth relates to the announcement of the winner. In some cases, a winner is announced even before the viewers’ votes are counted. This shows that the winner is probably known even before the event begins but the audience is not told this because. This, therefore, means that the events are well programmed so that only the judges are the only ones who know the contestant to be eliminated and at what stage of the competition. The viewers’ votes are merely a way of getting money to promote the show without in any way influencing the outcome the competition. This denies the voters the democratic participation of choosing the contestant of their choice, which is an attribute of participatory event (Carpentier 22). This was witnessed in America’s Idol search competition in which the final four contestants to the completion were chosen by the judges very early without considering the viewers’ votes. During this occasion, it was reported by the New York times that Danny Gokey, Lil Rounds, Adam Lambert and Alexis Grace, had already been chosen by the judges as the final contestants (New York Times 2). In conclusion, it is a common fact that real world is not fully scripted as portrayed by the reality shows. It is therefore fully controlled and meddled on by the producers who script the events in the scene without revealing the truth to the audience. In many instances, they edit various episodes to fit in the period they want the programs to run and as a promotion and marketing strategy. Viewers at times are required to participate by voting to save their preferred contestants but since the winner may have been known by the judges even before the voting process begin, their votes do not count although they are kept to believe that their votes counts. Scripting is also done as a strategy to dramatize the events in order to keep the audience glued to the programs as they get entertained. They are also formatted with many commercial adverts in between the episodes as a marketing strategy. The reality shows are a gimmick game in that it makes a contract with the contestant pledging to give a prize to the winner but behind the scene, the price being announced to the audience is not the actual prize being won by the contestants but in most cases is far less. Scripting of the reality show therefore contradict the title reality as it is merely a fiction of drama used as an entertaining tool but with a profit motive. In this way, the professionals and producers use their power to rule the programming without revealing the truth to the audience. Work Cited Baruh Lemi. Publicized intimacies on reality television: An analysis of voyeuristic content and its contribution to the appeal of reality programming: Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Taylor & Francis Vol. 53, Issue 2, 190-210, 2009. Print. Biressi Anita, & Heather Nunn. Reality TV: Realism and Revelation, London: Wallflowers Press Publishers. 2005 Print. Carpentier, Nico. Media and Participation: a site of ideological-democratic struggle. Briston, UK: Intellect Publishers. 2011. Print. Casinghino Carl, Moving Images: Making Movies, Understanding Media. New York, NY: Dalmar Publication. 2010. Print. Jet magazine. Tyra Banks: From Sexy Model To Successful Businesswoman. New York, NY: Johnson Publication. 30th October 2006. Print. Kowalski Emma, America’s Next Top model, Major competitive Reality Show Mason Crest Publishers. 2010. Print. Lauzen, Martha M, Dozier, David M. & Cleveland, Elizabeth. Genre matters: An examination of women working behind the scenes and on-screen portrayals in reality and scripted prime time programming: Sex Roles, Vol. 55. 28 November 2006. Print. New York Times. American Idol' chatter four-see finalists March 17, 2009. Print. http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/american-idol-chatter-four-sees-finalists-article-1.37 Sayre Shay & King Cynthia. . Weekly World News 15 July 2003: Palm Coast Publishers, USA 2009 Print. Read More