“Realism is not a matter of any fidelity to an empirical reality, but of the discursive conventions by which and for which a sense of reality is constructed.” –John Fiske, Television Culture, 21.

Lecture Summary Realism constructs a “reality” and presents it as unconstructed Realism makes the viewer feel all-knowing Realism positions the viewer socially

Reality and Realism Reality: The unconstructed, empirical world Realism: A constructed sense of “reality” - an imagined world (Barthes: Nature and History)

What is “Believable” conforms to the “invisible metadiscourse” –content norms –formal norms –ideological norms

Example: Motivated editing –shot / reverse shot technique 180 degree rule eyeline match

Colin MacCabe, “Realism and the Cinema,” 1974 the classic realist text (unarticulated) metalanguage and the object language dominant specularity

Metalanguage and object language “He thinks of nothing,” she said to herself, “but his own ambition (…) – nothing more.” She could see that he was in search of her but had not yet...

Object languages (= “object discourses) appear as reality “in inverted commas” there may be several o.l.’s

Metalanguage –a.k.a. “narrative discourse,” “dominant narrative” –often unarticulated –“denies its own status as articulation”

“Hierarchy” among discourses hierarchy: the metalanguage is at a higher level than the object language(s) a higher level means more knowledge

Specularity the (social) position of the unseen spectator Dominant specularity: –the position of the spectator who knows the truth (reality)

Positioning the Viewer “the text produces a socially located position that it invites the viewer to occupy in order to understand it easily and unproblematically”

TV: Social extension Britain: working class (often) setting United States: middle class setting

TV: In the “Present” Sense of being “live” –Film: “a record of what has happened” –Television: “a relay of what is happenening”

The Quiz Show how does it create a sense of “being live”? what is the role of the musical score?

Reality TV reality or realism? –an empirical or a constructed world?