FROM GLOBAL TO REALITY TV SHOWS IN SERBIA

Text topic: Reality Programmes in Serbia – A GLOBAL OR NATIONAL PHENOMENON

Text author: Горан Гаврић

In Serbia, reality television programmes came to life with “Big Brother“, an invention of Dutchman “John“ de Mol, initiated as a kind of experiment that was inspired by contemporary artists’ research into how police and security services use video cameras. This resulted in creation of a space in which everyone comes to be seen and to see others. In the meantime, many circumstances have changed, both globally and in Serbia, so after “Big Brother”, the reality television programmes in our country have evolved considerably and have taken forms that fall outside the reality, adopting a wide range of mostly negative influences from different spheres of society. To what extenth as television, with its displaying of various forms of non-culture and kitsch through television broadcasts and shows, exerted its influence that such a stunning transformation of this form of reality TV has occurred? And does it mean that an unfortunate bare picture of the overall social situation in the country and the far-reaching goals of certain structures underlie these negative enough influences? By bringing small states into an economically dependent position, the great powers not only considerably shape their economic policy but also indirectly influence the formation of other segments of society that emerge or that are in some way connected with their emerging economies. One of these segments is culture, and its spread is achieved through cultural globalization which breaks down cultural barriers.However, at the same time, it distorts and shapes the cultural identity of a particular society according to its own needs. Although the well known Latin maxim of “bread and games” (panem et circenses) can be applied to reality television programmes, their negative effects extend much deeper and can affect different segments of society. This danger has become real with the development of the society itself, but also with the unpredictable and elusive movements of globalization, the consequences of which can be felt at national level, even on a smaller sample of reality television programmes. The hierarchy, which was vertical in the “global” reality (directed by the global towards the national leaders), becomes horizontal within a nation, thanks to the reality television programmes (leaders are drowning and concealing their roles behind the screened absurdity, and the reality itself becomes a means to certain ends). If we exclude psychotherapeutic effect, which in some sense cannot be denied, the reality TV sends a not at all naïve message, with potentially harmful effects on its viewers.