Reality shows and similar formats of entertainment programmes have been highly popular in the past year, sometimes making record ratings for commercial stations. How beneficial were they to the society and to youth? That’s for everyone to decide. But we can witness a new trend: Public broadcasters are coming up with similar entertaining formats – but the goal is to improve public thinking. These factual entertainment and reality shows are trying to tackle widespread problems of this century such as debt, unemployment and environment protection – and offer solutions. This session examines three programmes which take an important issue, entertaining format and a charismatic host, to prove through several episodes that there are solutions out there, we just have to change our habits, lifestyle or behaviour. But the question remains: do they really help viewers to tackle similar problems? Will they really change the way they spend money, search for a job, go shopping? Or is it just a new way to grab audience and increase ratings?
…Read more
Less…
-
From UPF
TV cook Hugh Fearnely Whittingstall leaves the comfort of River Cottage (a long running cooking series on Channel 4) to examine Britain’s fishing industry. He ask… -
From UPF
In Debt is an original entertainment docu-reality series that probes the underbelly of the nation’s chronic personal debt problem. Over a series of ten episodes,… -
From UPF
Redemption Inc. is a prime-time series where a group of 10 ex-cons are given the opportunity of a lifetime: a chance to set up their own business with a start-up…