For immediate release UWA44/00 Thursday 7 September 2000 WATCHING YOU, WATCHING THEM... ... Getting inside the heads of Big Brother fans The University of Wales, Aberystwyth (UWA) has set up a unique link with the Big Brother television programme to find out exactly what makes a Big Brother Fan. This exclusive connection has been developed to help academic research into interactive, "reality TV" audiences. On Thursday, September 7th a questionnaire will be prominently advertised on the programme’s web site designed to gauge audience attitudes, opinions and behaviour in relation to this broadcast/webcast phenomenon. This is the first time such a study has been possible because it is the first time that a single broadcast programme has managed to pull not only unprecedented broadcast audiences, but also a huge volume of webcast viewers. (Up to 4 million web users per day) The research programme is a collaboration between GMGEndemol Entertainment (the UK producers of Big Brother) and UWA and will provide the research team with an unprecedented database of viewers from which quantitative and qualitative studies of the audience can be launched. (A pilot questionnaire linked to the web site last Thursday solicited 4000 responses in under 24 hours of issue.) With this resource the university hopes to undertake a number of studies focussing on the following areas. Monitoring Convergence – will your television become your computer or will your computer become your television? What draws us to live web cams? Has the internet finally come of age and will our television sets give us everything we need to experience this new genre of interactive broadcasting? How important is the interactive element in Big Brother? Gender Monitor – Do men and women watch for different reasons? Do they differ in why they like or dislike individual participants? Pore-Close TV – Why do we need to get "pore-close" (Peter Bazalgette quote) to the people on our televisions? Project co-ordinator Janet Jones, a lecturer at the Department of Theatre Film and Television at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth believes the opportunity Big Brother provides to undertake a detailed study into audience reception of ‘reality TV’ will be an important step in the understanding of this new genre. "Never before have academic researchers been able to tap into such a large database of viewers this efficiently. This longitudinal tracking study of ‘first person media factual television’ will provide an ideal social framework for analysis." "We are experiencing a period of reorientation with the broadcast media generally and this is having a profound effect in the production and reception of factual-based programming. The old Griesonesque stamp of documentary for social purpose and betterment is being superseded by a new order that encompasses breakthrough interactive technology, a heightened degree of choice (the age of television consumer no longer television viewer) and the weakening position of public service broadcasting with the need to retain audiences in an increasingly fragmented market," she added. Chris Short, Web content manager on Big Brother said, "This is the beginning of something new, a turning point in broadcasting history and we welcome a study that can shed some light on the way audiences interact with this technology. These are still early days of broadcasting over the internet and we need to know as much as we can about it." "Our business is an ideas business. The web now liberates the content, so power will increasingly rest with the people who have creative ideas rather than the people who have the technology to distribute those ideas." The research at Aberystwyth will be undertaken jointly by the Department of Theatre Film and Television Studies and the Department of Education. The researchers will also be linked with scholars in Germany, The United States and The Netherlands (where Big Brother has also been transmitted) to help shed light on local identities, local reception and staging of this international TV format. Ends. Further information: Janet Jones, Department of Theatre Film and Television Studies Tel: 01970-621510 Daniel Chandler, Lecturer in Media Theory, Department of Education Tel: 01970 622120 or Arthur Dafis, Public Relations Officer, the University of Wales, Aberystwyth Tel: 01970 621763 Mobile: 07811 412295 e-mail: aid@aber.ac.uk Notes for the Editor: Janet Jones, Lecturer, Theatre, Film and Television Janet Jones spent 11 years with the BBC most recently as a producer/director with BBC News and Current Affairs in London working as a financial and political journalist. Her post graduate research focuses on issues of production and reception in the broadcast media with specific reference to the role of the journalist and spin doctors as ‘gatekeepers’ in election broadcasting. As an extension of this research Ms. Jones is also investigating how audiences perceive ‘television truth’ in the newer interactive, factual formats.