Between Heterotopy and Ideology: On the Realities of Reality TV in Serbia

Abstract

In this paper we will try to explain the phenomenon of reality TV using Foucault's concept of heterotopia. First, we will consider some of the major theoretical dilemmas that go together with the emergence of this television format, which primarily concerns the degree of democratization of contemporary media, as well as the degree of exploitation of "ordinary actors". We will also claim that ambivalence and hybridity are an inherent feature of television, and that, as we will show in the second part, they can be more comprehensively theoretically understood if we approach them as a specific kind of heterotopia. We will then use the local modifications of the format in order to illustrate the way in which the heterotopic nature of the reality TV offers to its viewers a specific (quasi)reflection regarding the structural features of the giving society that, in fact, only contributes to its further fragmentation.