As we began to consider the role of reality television and it’s place within a society that is increasingly reliant upon the mass media we found that reality television has increasing potential to be used for good. We decided that looking at lifestyle television would give us the most insights into how reality television is currently working in the public sphere.



To explore this subject we refined our question to:

How do certain of reality television shows reflect aspects of Australian culture and identity?

We conducted in depth case studies of largely popular lifestyle reality television shows in the Australian market, focusing our research on Bondi Rescue, My Kitchen Rules and The Amazing Race. Through detailed analysis of content and expert interviews with leading professionals in this research area, as well as interviews with former reality television contestants we formed a picture of where reality television is situated in the current landscape.



Our perceptions of reality television no doubt changed throughout the process. The common perception of reality television regards the form as ‘trash’ and not at all in line with actual reality or social issues. However after examining the elements that make up reality television, and recent developments, each of us came to the collective conclusion through our differing studies of subject areas that reality television has the propensity to be something much more influential. Whether it is through the opening of social and political discourse on representations of minorities, educational benefits about health and well-being or as a platform to alter common stereotypes, reality television offers promise of much more than ‘guilty pleasure’ television and has the potential to become a source of education and insight.

This website explores the ways in which we reached our conclusions as well as the personal and intellectual journey we took to get there. We hope that by reading these papers audiences can become more aware of the content they are digesting and perhaps empower themselves with increasing amount of agency over the content we see on Australian reality television and the way we, as a populace are represented.