Producing Reality: Television Formats and Reality TV in the Canadian Context

Abstract

This article explores the rise of formatted reality production and consumption in Canada, paying particular attention to their impact on global and local industry and culture. Attention is paid to how cultural production in the Canadian television industry is implicated in contemporary global and national political economic contexts. The study utilizes a political economic framework in order to situate industry reports, conferences/trade shows, ratings data and interviews with industry members. The overall objective is to better understand the Canadian landscape of original reality television, Canadian format adaptations, and imported formatted American format adaptations. At issue are funding mechanisms, technology, policy, and culture.