Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Big Brother

The phrase "Be careful of what you say, Big Brother is watching you" has been associated with George Orwell's classic novel 1984. This book tells about a totalitarian society in which the government has complete control over the the people and Big brother is the supreme leader of the government (aka the Party).

The term Big Brother is associated with the government, corporations or any "leader" that is "taking people's freedom" and bringing them under control. For them control is power -- the more control they have over people (what they think, how they act, what they should buy, etc), the more powerful they become.

These days, the term Big Brother can very well be associated with the "voice" that tells 12 housemates what do do and how to act inside the "Big Brother House" in a chance to win 1 million pesos, a house and lot and a nissan pick-up truck.

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Pinoy Big Brother (with the tag line -- ang teleserye ng totoong buhay) is said to be the first "real" reality show in Philippines. 12 housemates (6 males and 6 females) are vying to be the last one "standing" / left in the "Big Brother House" after 100 days in order to win the said prize.

According to their website this is what to expect with Pinoy Big Brother:

1 house
12 complete strangers
100 days of isolation from the outside world

No phones, newspapers, radio or television sets
No contact with their loved ones

But there is someone who sees everything they do.
He guides, he challenges, he inspires…

He is Pinoy Big Brother.

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With the advent and success of reality based TV shows in the United States and the airing of these programs in the Philippines, it was only a matter of time before one of the networks buy copyrights of a said show (in this case Big Brother) and produce it locally.

Our society has turly become a voyeur society... we like to watch and talk about what our neighbor /other people are doing.

News has somehow ceased to be reports of facts but rather reports of what people say and what the government / "influential people" want the public to percieve ( see sassy lawyer's article on this matter).

TV programs that rate are NOT public affairs program that tells us the facts, rather these are programs that tell the public what celebrities are doing and what certain politicians are saying. Reality based shows are becoming more and more successful (which networks also love -- they spend less money on production cost but have high ROI).

I really don't know if this show (Pinoy Big Brother) will be successful, all I can say is that reality shows in the Philippines (Extra challenge, as well as the american produced shows) are raking it in (ratings and ROI).

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