French broadcaster Jrme Clment explains why he objects to the concept of reality TV
‘Loft Story plays on viewers’ emotions in the most perverse way,” says Jrme Clment, head of the television channel Arte France. “It’s a lie from start to finish. It claims to show us a slice of real life, but in fact it’s a world that consists solely of young people who are seeking fame and money; a world where there are no newspapers or books or even pens.
“It’s an artificial society in which people are taken hostage even if they have agreed to take part to see what they can get out of it and their private lives are laid bare before millions of viewers. The programme uses psychodrama to create a televisual artefact. The possibilities for invention are limitless after all, why not arrange for a murder to take place live?
“For the head of the M6 channel Loft Story is a good way of boosting the ratings. It’s also the logical result of the extreme perversity of a system whose sole aim is to increase market share. In their scramble for profit commercial channels are encouraged to use ever more outrageous methods to make an impact on public opinion.
“Loft Story forces us to ask questions about the role of TV and how we use it. It raises issues of legitimacy and ethics. We need to establish how and why it has cornered a 31% [prime time] market share,” says Clment.
“Everyone, particularly the press, is talking about Loft Story. It proves that TV remains a social factor. Politicians want to let the TV channels make the programmes they want, they are reluctant to set themselves up as censors, and they don’t wish to alienate the majority of young people who watch the programme.
“Politicians have a responsibility to take an interest in TV insofar as it reflects the contradictions of our society and can be exploited by those seeking power. It was the impact of TV that enabled Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia to become the most powerful party in Italy. This kind of TV is dangerous for democracy and helps to introduce fascism by the back door.
“One would expect the CSA [France’s TV watchdog] to deal with essentials, not details such as the presence of alcohol and cigarettes in Loft Story. Meanwhile the cancer is gradually spreading to the whole of the French broadcasting scene. The answer to Loft Story does not lie in a more repressive attitude, but in a stricter ethical framework, which should be imposed by the CSA.
‘The CSA has devised a warning sign [which appears at the bottom of the TV screen] to indicate that a programme contains violence. Meanwhile it has surreptitiously allowed much more perverse material to become everyday fare.
“Some see a connection between the voyeuristic and exhibitionist elements in Loft Story and in Catherine Millet’s account of her sex life [La Vie Sexuelle de Catherine M]. But in fact they have nothing in common. Millet adopted the artistic approach of someone who chooses to make a spectacle of her life just as a painter might choose to paint a self-portrait whereas there is no personal decision in Loft Story.
“The contestants have not chosen their make-believe living conditions. They have no freedom. By all means let’s grant freedom to creators, but not to slave-traders.”