When I heard that Katie Price was about to launch a new Reality TV show called Signed by Katie my first reaction was 'oh no not another one'. Then I thought: 'why do we need another Reality show and why is Katie Price a suitable celebrity to front it?' Let me just clarify this is not another attack on Katie Price.
We live in the age of television, lifestyle magazines, and the Internet. We are bombarded with information everywhere we go, and now, more than ever, society is (over-) conscious of the effect of this barrage. Society pressurises cosmetic and fashion companies to consider the damage the idealised images they use in their advertising have on young and impressionable people. Recently, cosmetics giant L'Oreal had an advertising campaign banned by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) after an MP complained that their advertising was misleading. This specific campaign featured an image of Julia Roberts that had been touched up on a computer. The ban sparked a debate about the practice of photoshopping images destined for public consumption.
If you were to look at the development of Big Brother and the behaviour of the housemates, the UK music chart Christmas No.1 over the last 5 years, and a recent survey conducted with 1,000 16 year olds; You could reach a conclusion that Reality TV is having a psychological affect on our Society. In the Survey, 1,000 16 year olds were asked what they wanted to do as a career, 54% gave their answer as "become a celebrity". Out of those 54%, a fifth planned to achieve this through Reality TV. Year on year programmes like Big Brother get more and more elaborate and feature increasingly outrageous members of the public who are very aware of the amount of on screen face-time they can potentially get. Shows like The X-Factor have not only dominated TV but the music industry too. The X-Factor started in 2005 and with the exception of 2009, the X-Factor 'winner's song' has been Christmas No.1 which is usually followed shortly by the singer falling into relative obscurity.
Television is engrained in our culture and with the economy in a state of flux and the availability of literally hundreds of television channels it is, again, no surprise that the Reality TV format is doing so well. The car-crash TV element of the auditions suck us into the programme and we buy into the franchise. Discovering talent through Reality TV is a tested and entertaining format but there is a lot of it out there, what worries me particularly about Ms. Price's new show is the generic 'next big thing' tag line. Katie Price is currently 'famous for being famous' but at the start of her career, she effectively got famous for the body. WIthout going into detail, Katie Price (or Jordan) had an unpleasant start which seemed to crescendo with a breast enlargement and some revealing coverage in The Sun newspaper. These days, Katie Price has managed to distance herself, somewhat, from her early career and in many ways she is perfectly suited to front this show. I am concerned though, that the ubiquitous term 'next big thing' and the prize being a contract with a model management company feels too generic. We already have thousands of people who think they can be the next great singer, dancer, entertainer, or catwalk model. Do we really need to add a potential Jordan-esque aspiration to this list too?
There is one more pertinent anecdote to relate: The 2009 Christmas No.1 was a track by Rage Against The Machine. This track knocked em>X-Factor's Joe McEldery off the No.1 spot as a result of an anti X-Factor campaign on Facebook. Maybe I am an information hypochondriac, maybe I'm seeing trends in culture where there aren't any, maybe I should just watch Reality TV for the entertainment that it purports to be, but I believe we can do better. These programmes change people's lives and how people value their lives; we are on the verge of a generation whose primary career ambition is to become famous. Signed by Katie adds a new layer of non-discript non-specific celebrity to the growing list of options available to those who aspire to Reality TV fame. The Public can use the media to make a statement, the 2009 Christmas No.1 proves it; maybe this time we should eschew TV and force the programme makers work for our ratings once again with drama, comedy, horror ,instead of variations on an established and repetitive format.