Determining Dimensions of Reality: A Concept Mapping of the Reality TV Landscape

Abstract

This research examines the dimensions underlying reality-based TV programs as a first step towards uncovering the reality programming subgroups that might exist in viewers' minds and the themes that might distinguish them. Two samples—one of students and one of city residents—engaged in a sorting task of 33 reality-based programs. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) indicated two underlying dimensions along which audiences think about reality TV (romance and competitiveness), which were supported by subsequent analyses. These findings both help frame future theoretically driven research on reality-based programming and offer insight into how research interested in the effects of programming themes might proceed.

Notes

¹Jurors are selected randomly from the master jury list of the county, which is created by merging name lists provided by the Motor Vehicle Department and the Pima County Voter Registration Department.

²The jury data had a lower inclusion criterion as only 22 respondents were familiar with 30 or more programs. Though lowering the criterion may introduce error, the sample on which the analysis is based increased by 32%, which seemed like a reasonable tradeoff.

³The student sample that performed the ratings contained more women and watched more hours of TV, on average, per day than the sample that performed the sorting task (both p < .01). These comparisons, however, are skewed as only heavy reality TV consumers (who also tend to be more female and watch more television per day) fit the requirements to have their data included in the sorting task analyses whereas any student who knew at least one of the reality programs to be rated could be included in the ratings analyses. Though some error is likely introduced as a result of using two different student groups, the fact that both samples were drawn from the same subject pool and only those familiar with the programs performed the sorting and the rating should minimize this error.

⁴Degree or source of familiarity (e.g., from actual viewing, exposure to commercials for the programming, conversations with those who had viewed the programming) was not considered a critical factor to ability to sort programs as only minimal cues (e.g., romance, competition) are sufficient to allow confidence in grouping.

⁵Despite sometimes strong correlations among attributes, factor analyses of the attributes for each program did not reveal clear or consistent patterns such that the number of attributes could be easily reduced without sacrificing conceptual clarity.

⁶Of note, a cluster analysis based on viewing frequency of the 33 reality programs among the entire jury sample (N = 131) also revealed no clear grouping of reality programs consistent with the typologies proposed in the literature. Further, an exploratory factor analysis on viewing frequency of the 33 programs was performed to see whether self-reported viewing patterns might evidence meaningful groupings. Results suggested 10 factors, 6 of which could be labeled with confidence. Factor 1 represented programs aired on MTV (e.g., I Want a Famous Face, Newlyweds, The Real World, Punk'd). Factor 2 suggested dating programs (e.g., The Bachelor, Joe Millionaire, Meet My Folks). Factor 3 suggested personal transformation programs, including both talent (e.g., American Idol) and personal makeover (e.g., The Swan). Factor 4 suggested competition programs (e.g., Survivor, The Amazing Race). Factor 5 focused on home makeover (e.g., Trading Spaces), and Factor 7 focused on law enforcement (e.g., Cops). The remaining factors reflected combinations hard to characterize. For example, Factor 6 grouped The Simple Life, The Apprentice, and Temptation Island, and Factor 8 grouped Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and Road Rules. In essence, while this analysis suggests some sense that programs might be grouped into themes, it also suggests that audience viewing may be based on a host of other variables (e.g., favorite channel, work schedules, access to cable, competing preferences of other household members, etc.) that are tangential to the programming themes.