Maybe I shouldn’t have doubted Tom Friedman when he claimed that Using a formula already familiar to American and European TV viewers, the The Malawi parliament has banned the show. Religious leaders have denounced it. But, Lacey In a region of the world where Big Brother is a reality and democracy a rarity, the mere First thought: If they’re right, will we soon see the U.S. military command in Baghdad Maybe I shouldn’t have doubted Tom Friedman when he claimed that “Superstar,” the Arabic version of “American Idol,” was a force for democracy in the Middle East. Today comes word that another reality TV show, “Big Brother Africa,” has roughly 30 million viewers in across that continent. From Nigeria to Botswana, Kenya to South Africa, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-67","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n“American Idol,” was a
\nthe Middle East. Today comes word that another reality TV show, “Big Brother Africa,” has
\nroughly 30 million viewers in across that continent. From Nigeria to Botswana, Kenya to South
\nAfrica, the show has become “a Rosrschach test of Africans’ views of themselves,”
\nregistration required.)<\/EM><\/P>
\n
\nproducers intalled a group of strangers in a house in Johannesburg and televised their trials,
\ntribulations and foibles — including all the usual bickering and romantic liaisons, not excluding
\nbreakfast belches, kissing and “shower hour” peeking.<\/P>
\n
\nwrites, its many fans have invoked a subtle theme in its defense: the idea of
\ndemocracy. “The contestants are nominated for eviction by their housemates and then voted off
\nby viewers on the Internet or by cellphone text messaging. The will of the people decides how the
\nshow unfolds.”<\/P>
\n
\ndisplay of such a social system no matter how trivial or contrived has educational value and,
\nLacey writes, sends a message to authoritarian rulers. This is the same argument Friedman
\nmade for “Superstar.” <\/P>
\n
\nproducing reality TV shows? Second thought: Not if it requires electricity.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"