Research On Authenticity Of Chinese Reality Television

Reality is relied on by television unprecedently in dissemination of environment that new media and traditional media coexists.A ratings frenzy was set off in the mass production of reality TV since 2013,which promoting “real” as a selling point,developing its plots by games,constructing sense of reality by means of observing shooting,reality TV sized the commanding heights of television market in time of media convergence,with the emergence of programs as “Where Are We Going Dad”,“I am A Singer” and “Running Man”.My study is to explore authenticity of reality TV program in view of epistemology,treating authenticity as mechanism of identification,a positive assessment of objective matters in audience acceptance,which means that audiences believing coherence existing between objective world and what is represented in program,and stories in television is based on a foundation of fact and logic.Moreover,as cross-media text that mingles fiction and nonfiction,reality TV’s authenticity is more complex comparing with that of traditional factual genre,it refers to negotiation and power wrestling between media and audiences,as well as audience acceptance.My study focuses on authenticity of reality TV programs through empirical analysis.By interviewing of directors,boundary reconstruction of authenticity is revealed: producers refers to standards of traditional factual program and speculation of audiences’ standards,resulting in authenticity shifting between fiction and nonfiction,accordingly,redefinition of authenticity is called “reality contact”,which is considered as relationship of audience and text.Questionnaire focuses on audience acceptance of authenticity,the finding suggests that: in audiences’ framework,reality TV is not treated as a mirror of original real,stories is constructed with real and unreal.Audiences believe that they can judge authenticity of programs by reading the text in various ways positively,treating reality TV as highly commercialized media production,thus,identification of authenticity is a progress of eliminating the false and retaining the true.The article indicates that critical audience is a positive factor giving impetus to reality TV of the de-entertainment and return to authenticity.For the long term,reality TV will be produced in quality of authenticity within rules and regulations,communicating with public information and general knowledge,and for the convenience of cultivating critical audiences.