Reality TV Shows, Private Television Networks and Social Change in India

Abstract

This chapter explores the emerging significance of private television networks, in India, as a social force and its impact on social change. In particular the entertainment genre of “reality shows” is examined to understand the narratives of reality, representation and change that are offered night after night on prime time television. Reality shows have been very popular with audiences, appear on the schedules of almost all television networks and have been at the center of a booming private television industry in India. The central appeal of reality shows rests on the dramatic potential of “ordinary” individuals who assert entrepreneurial zeal, exhibit ambition, seize opportunities and compete to win (or lose) “extraordinary” prize monies. Such a narrative resonates with the socioeconomic reimagining of a market-oriented India. Since the 1990s India has shifted towards privatization, liberalization and deregulation as the necessary logic for operating in a global economy. Private enterprise and (global) competitive market relations have replaced state-controlled developmental models of economy.KeywordsPrivate ConsumptionGame ShowTelevision ExperienceLegitimate ActorPrize MoneyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.