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Chapter 5

TV's constitution of citizenship

In chapter five, part of the book Better Living Trough Reality TV, authors L.Ouellette and J.Hay, give us an overview of the function of reality TV as a consulting resource, shaping and establishing standards and "private constitutions" of different communities. This is a link to Foucault's explanation of liberal government, it's development trough households and it's current dimension in the present epoch.

The authors give examples of different types of group governance, starting with the smallest framework - the household,scaling up to neighborhoods, where subjects are tested and questioned by contrasting populations that are usually looked up to. Teamwork, endurance and competition add to that model of self-reliant citizenship. Moreover group governance converts from rational to commercial in the strive to produce the ideal corporate citizens. Other aim of reality tv's citizen games are the youth. Their strategy is exercising abilities and responsibilities to becoming a mature citizen. To add even more to the functions of reality Tv in building good, citizens is the emphasize on individuality and artistry and democratic government in a multicultural society.

Reality TV acts as a tool of "reinventing government" and making it administered beyond nation states. By staging citizenship tests and behavioral experiments, reality tv forms "nongovernmental" ways of governance in different communities of various scale and function. These citizenship tests are turned into a game, a form of entertainment with educational purposes.