Welcome to Eureka Street

back to site
Forgot your password?
Subscribe

Keywords: Reality Tv

  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    In praise of the human kind

    • Ken Haley
    • 31 May 2024

    Social psychologist Hugh Mackay has been people-watching for more than 60 years. At 86 he has published The Way We Are: Lessons from a lifetime of listening, a compendium of his choicest insights on Australian life quarter-way through the new century.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Everyone’s a critic

    • Juliette Hughes 
    • 16 August 2022
    1 Comment

    Five years ago, the beloved and I were in a reality show called Everyone’s a Critic. The show took us all to art galleries, mostly in Melbourne and Sydney, plonked us in front of some artworks, asking us to say what we thought of them. I realised TV norms being what they are, that we could have a ten-minute conversation about artists with whom we were familiar and all that would make it onto the program would be ten seconds of me mentioning my mum.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Mental illness does not equal violence

    • Neve Mahoney
    • 22 February 2018
    11 Comments

    Many films and TV shows use mental illness to explain violent behaviour. The stereotype is so ingrained that after the recent Florida shooting, Trump said he would deal with 'the difficult issue of mental health', but didn't mention guns once. In reality, people with mental illness are more likely to be the victims than perpetrators of violence.

    READ MORE
  • MEDIA

    Homes that enable the disabled

    • Andrea McQueen
    • 27 August 2014
    10 Comments

    In recent years, people with disabilities have been coming out of institutions. They are in our streets, our shops and our schools, but not on TV. We need programs like the ABC's Dreamhouse to prompt conversation about what kinds of lives are possible for people with disabilities, and how we can best use our tax money to make dreams come true.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Alternatives to trash reality TV

    • Michael McVeigh
    • 20 December 2013
    4 Comments

    In Pimp my Soup Van, contestants are asked to deck out a van with items that could be used to help people on the streets. In Please Marry My Boys, they sit down with the mothers of people in gay relationships and hear about their experiences. The Refugee Factor asks contestants to listen to asylum seekers' stories, and press a red button at the point where they feel that they, too, would have fled their homeland.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Pilgrim's misguided tilt at TV fame

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 27 June 2013

    Luciano pleads with two startled widows at a funeral, who reassure him that he is on the right path to getting into 'the house'. While they think they've offered comfort to a troubled seeker, he thinks he's received an inside tip from Big Brother's spies. The dissonance between his pursuit of fame, and the comfort found by others in religious faith, is profound.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Taking revenge on idiot America

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 22 November 2012
    2 Comments

    A teen attempts suicide after being ridiculed by the judges of an American Idol style talent show. A news anchor spouts propaganda so extreme it might make a Fox News presenter blush. A reality TV participant extracts an in-use tampon and hurls it at a rival. Appalled by this endless stream of TV trash, one man snaps. 

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Rednecks, bogans and bad boat people

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 23 June 2011
    13 Comments

    The participants on SBS's Go Back Where You Came From seem like rejects from a bad reality TV show and are stereotypical in their views. Some reflect on the difference between 'good' and 'bad' refugees: this false dichotomy is a sticking point for many refugee advocates too.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Masterchef cooks up fine reality trash

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 02 July 2009
    6 Comments

    The original UK Masterchef is the pinnacle of reality TV. Masterchef Australia is the theme park version, sacrificing excellence to entertainment. It may be a different beast to its predecessor, but it's not all bad, either.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Surface reality only in DIY TV

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 07 August 2006

    DIY programs bulge with all manner of handy hints, as happy hosts clamour to offer their free-to-air advice. But scratch the surface, and even a friendly face can turn ugly on you.

    READ MORE