FALSE IMAGE OF REALITY

Who comprises the most numerous audiences of reality programmes? Do young people watch them? Are people uncomfortable to admit that they watch reality programmes? What intrigues us when it comes to realities? And how come we know everything about something that no one is watching? All these are some of the questions opened at OPENS Living Room at Promenada Shopping Centre.

“We thought that the topic of reality is extremely important because we have noticed that in society, and especially among young people, realities are mentioned. It was interesting for us to monitor that phenomenologically and to open the topic in public. We want to create the space in the public where we can approach this and other topics from different angles”, Dejana Baltes, OPENS Youth Activity Coordinator explains.

The concept of OPENS’ Living Rooms is designed to be open and held in public, in front of accidental passers-by and audience who have come there intentionally. The concept of the OPENS Living Room is then to invite the relevant interlocutors about the topic discussed and to create the space where dialogue and critical thinking is cherished.

“We are not here to tell someone whether they should or should not watch reality programmes. We are here to indicate young people to good and bad sides of realities. While people watch reality programmes, the false image of the behaviour is made which is further reflected or not to the person who watches them. Reality programmes imitate reality in a way, in sense that they are directed programmes and they stimulate reality. We have gathered here for everyone to see and discuss that from their point of view”, Sanja Stanković, sociologist explains.

“Here, reality is broadcasted at the television with national frequency, while in the Western countries the situation is different. There, you have to pay the programme to watch it. Even though here the law regulates television content, it is not respected, so we are surrounded by the content with explicit scenes as is the case in realities”, Alisa Rapajić, the student of journalism and one of the panellists says.
There is the general discussion about whether reality programmes should be banned at the television with national frequency or not, and those are delicate questions, the other panellist, Filip Đorđević, psychologist explains.

“Who are we to define that? Even though reality programmes do sound as something negative among people, I would not be brave enough to be so sure and say that I would ban them. The effect we want to achieve with young people is only for them to be aware of the things. I want them to be aware of the programme and to differentiate the good and the bad. For people who have grounds for the development of something negative within them, watching reality programmes would make that happen, and vice versa. My message is for young people to think on their own”, Đorđević says.