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Comparing UK and US Editions of Big Brother The Big Brother series originally, a Dutch production, has mutated into several variants all over the world. This only indicated the popularity of the series. The voyeuristic nature of the reality show animated George Orwell's vision of a Big Brother in his novel, Nineteen Eight-four. Although continents apart, the US and UK versions shared similar incidents where participants made racist and prejudicial comments. One could now look beyond the respective production values of both shows and view the incidents with an international perspective.
Big Brother is a reality television show syndicated in over several countries, with each country creating its settings. The reality shows format is generally followed with the exception of special episodes. The series, originally a Dutch production was launched in 1999. In the maiden episode, nine people volunteered to be filmed 24 / 7 for 100 days.
A record 15 million people watched the final closing of the first episode and has since been replicated in several countries such as the UK, US, Sweden, France, Argentina, Poland, and Australia to name a few (Where Did It Start? n. d. ). The show is modelled after George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty Four where it explored the idea of an omnipresent and omnipotent Big Brother that oversees human activities in the future.
It is a reality TV show that places a group of strangers together in a house. Under the glare of cameras and lights, the group is watched 24 / 7 live on TV for three months. Each week, a housemate is voted out of the house through audience votes. The surviving housemate for each episode wins the top prize. The exposure to some of the participants is their ticket to more lucrative offers in the entertainment industry. Though, often hounded with controversy, the show thrives on the curiosity of many audiences worldwide and the voyeuristic nature of its format.
The UK version was introduced in July 2000 and aired by Channel 4 while the initial US episodes also showing the initial run on July of 2000 was produced by CBS (Big Brother 2000 (UK) 2005; Anonymous 2000). Two Episodes from the UK and US The Big Brother series in both countries are not without controversy. In Big Brother 8 of the UK, housemate Emily Parr was removed from the house after racial slur pronouncements against fellow housemate Charley Uchea, who was black. Parr used the word nigger and the program producers received numerous complaints. This incident coming after an earlier incident of racism in another Big Brother program, the Celebrity Big Brother 5 received a barrage of complaints from audiences. Racial insensitivity was also observed in Big Brother 8 in the US where one of the participants made anti-Semitic remarks.
A participant named Amber Siyavus Tomcavage apparently bad-mouthed the Jewish community, when she was engaged in a discussion with fellow housemate James. She made a remark to the effect that Jews she has met are "bad" people, and you could tell them by either their noses or their names (Friedman 2007). Despite the two shows being continents apart, it was appalling to note that in both countries, racism and prejudice still persisted. Elliot Aronson (1999) wrote that there are four mitigating circumstances that cause prejudice.
They are: (1) economic and political competition or conflict, (2) displaced aggression, (3) personality needs, and (4) conformity to existing social norms (p. 128). Economic and political circumstances motivate prejudice especially when there is a pronounce shortage on resources and one group would want to gain some advantage over a more inferior group. Often, prejudice occurs when there is intense competition for scarce resources. For example, in the nineteenth century, Americans felt threatened about their job security when companies started taking in Chinese immigrants to fill jobs that the native white Americans would not like to take. The Americans felt the Chinese were competing with them thus derogatory and racial slurs were often resorted to vent out their displeasure (p. 130). Prejudice could be a form of scapegoating where the fault of one individual of specific characteristics was transferred to another person perceived and generalized as having the same characteristics as the former but did not have anything to do with the original offence.
A transference of aggression occurred when the desire to retaliate appeared to be too big or too vague (p. 131). Prejudice in some instances could be a function of a flawed personality. Some individuals had personalities that were predisposed to become prejudiced not because of external or environmental influences. Finally, prejudice was motivated by the need for compliance or conformity to social norms.
People were swayed to adopt a prejudicial attitude towards certain groups of people by way of previous histories, the idea that its just the way things are in my town, or a tradition passed on from one generation to another. If prejudice towards the black community in the South was prevalent and continued to thrive, it was because the attitude of the white community was acceptable. Discrimination is a product of established prejudiced within social systems. Discrimination is the enactment of prejudice whether learned, intrinsic to personality traits or the need to conform to larger society biases. Discrimination puts into action the motivations of prejudice and several typologies have developed. Feagin and Eckberg (1980) discussed two basic types of discriminatory actions intentional and unintentional (p. 10).
Intentional discriminatory acts are prejudice-motivated, conformity-motivated and gain-motivated. Discrimination may also be unintentional but nevertheless created the same impact as intentional ones. Discrimination is present in all levels of social organization whether it deals with age, sex, ethnicity, social status and education to name a few. Each has its specific effects on the person or groups subjected to the marginalisation. The two shows voyeuristic nature tends to expose how archaic attitudes toward race among participants continued to thrive.
This, in a sense, is reflective of the contemporary American and British societies that had to contend with a burgeoning immigrant population. Prejudice and discrimination should have no place in the current interlinked and global community yet they still persist and the ideals of a global village are twisted beyond recognition because some would insist on retaining racist and prejudiced views. The issue now becomes international in context because one can look beyond the respective production values of each Big Brother variant. Although both Big Brother productions followed the standard requisites and concept of the show, each with the similar house settings, the sets of participants, the rules, the eviction and possibly the audience, it would appear that some participants that are continents apart shared similar views when it comes to race and class. With the exception of accents, both appealed to English speaking audiences.
The participants picked from both versions of Big Brother came from ordinary working class backgrounds. The two incidents of racial improprieties only indicated how embedded prejudice and discrimination still are in modern society. Prejudice and discrimination will always negatively affect communities as evidenced by the negative feedback that the programs received from their audiences. Their presence in the global context is unwelcome and should not be encouraged. The UK version did conduct self-censorship when they pulled out other possible racially offending remarks off the air to avoid another incident. In essence, prejudice and discrimination, as seen in these two episodes defeat the purpose of creating a global village where each member lives in harmony, equality and justice.
Prejudice and discrimination, when institutionalised become acceptable and morally correct. They erode the tenets of democracy, moral, and ethical conducts. The presence of prejudice and discrimination could alienate the minority groups living in both countries. Television is a powerful medium and unfortunate incidents such as those in the two episode of Big Brother could convince some vulnerable audiences that prejudice and discrimination are acceptable. Bibliography Anonymous. 8 June 2000.
Big Brother: U. S. networks produce own versions of voyeurism for TV's mass audience, Kamloops Daily News, A. 12 [Online] Available at: ProQuest Database [Accessed 10 December 2008 ] Aronson, E. 1999. Causes of Prejudice in Hatred, Bigotry, and Prejudice: Definitions, Causes & Solutions. (eds) Robert M. Baird and Stuart E. Rosenbaum, Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, pp. 127 - 140.
Big Brother 2000 (UK). 2005. [Online] Available at: web [Accessed 10 December 2008 ] Feagin, J. and Eckberg, D. L. 1980. Discrimination: Motivation, Action, Effects and Context, Annual Review of Sociology, Volume 6, pp. 1 - 20. Friedman, R. 2007. Anti-Semitic Rant on CBS' 'Big Brother 8 ' [Online] Available at: web [Accessed 10 December 2008 ] Where Did it Start?
n. d. [Online] Available at: web [Accessed 10 December 2008 ]
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Research essay sample on Prejudice And Discrimination Big Brother
