Big brother bullies little sister
Write an essay (900 -1000 words) in which you analyze and interpret the British newspaper article Big Brother bullies little sister. Part of your essay must focus on the writer’s development concerning his attitude to little sister – and on whom he places the blame.
Remember to start with a paragraph about something general about the theme.
Remember to have quotes and examples from the text – at least two quotes.
Bullying is persistent unwelcome behavior, we all have experienced. It can be in so many levels. It can leave its marks, and can have its consequences. But even though we do not think it is humane to bully, why is it continuing? Should we not step in, and help the bully victim? In the article “Big Brother Bullies little sister” by Stuart Jeffries, we are introduced to the contestant Jade in the “Big Brother” show, and how the show exposes people to get viewers.
Jade is 21 years old and are from Bermondsey, she swears and talks behind her fellow housemate’s backs. Even though she can be nice, the Television show does not show it. They keep it hidden, and only show the other side of Jade. The huge audience begins to hate Jade, and threaten to hurt her on an unofficial Big Brother website. They make money from the viewers, so they can´t just let Jade go.
“Channel 4, which thanks to the 25p-a-minute eviction phone lines and costly "news update" which misguided people can have texted their mobile phones, is making money out this hate” (p.28.ll,40-45)
The television show “Big Brother” is a game show in which a group of contestants, called housemates , live in a house isolated from , which includes everyday facilities such as a fully equipped kitchen, garden, bedroom, bathroom and. The house has dozens of cameras and microphones so the housemates are fully under watch. They earn money from the huge number of people paying for news update and voting’s. The name off the show “Big Brother” is because you say that a big brother watch over you. And also the contestants are called “little brother” and “little sister”, which is why the title is “Big Brother Bullies Little Sister” because it is the “Big Brother” that puts Jade in her situation (little sister). This kind of show is popular because the audience like the “peepshow”, the hidden and the upcoming drama from the different personalities the housemates has.
“It´s not just the tabloids who are to blame for creating this understandable fear. Also responsible are the show´s producers who, by means of contemptible editing, have helped make a flawed and evidently vulnerable young woman into a hate figure.” (p.28.ll,27-33)
As you can see in the quote, the producers expose and choose how the participants radiant. If they really wanted to stop the hating, they would not cut in the footage, so you do not only see the harsh drama and bad actions from a participant. But as they uncover footage now, the negative hating from the audience will appear. And the bad publicity about the participant occurs.
The Television show and the producers need the excitement in the footage, to get the audience’s attention. In that way, they will pay to see more, and get the updated news, and vote out the one they do not like. So something has to happen in the show, or else no one find it interesting to watch. “It´s hard, isn´t it, to feel sympathy for the exhibitionists currently living in the Big Brother house?” (p.27.ll 5-7) “I came to hate one contestant virulently and hoped she got quick and painful comeuppance. Jade, after all, was an intolerable loudmouth, a moron who thought that Sherlock Holmes was alive and related to Mother Teresa, and that East Anglia was near Tunisia.”(p.27.ll,26-32)
“… hand me the phone, I´ll vote her out immediately. That is how viewers are being encouraged to think about Jade. Much harder to have sympathy for a woman who, all but unwittingly, is being prepared for the most horrible time of her life.” (p.29.ll.4-10)
Jeffries writes here in an ironic way, and in a social critical way. The writers’ intention here is that it is Jades own fault, She humiliates herself, although the producers cuts in the footage, it's still her behavior. Jade should think about how people would look at her, when she comes out from the show and back to reality.
Jade signed up for the show, because she is attention-seeking, and want people to know that she is not like anybody else, it just goes wrong instead.
Jeffries view on the show is negative, he despises by the volunteers and their personality, but most off all, he do not like Jade at all. He do not like that the show “Big Brother” expose that kind of people, because then people only watch the show because of the hate and gossip that comes out of it. But then he sees how brutal the society is to her, over the unofficial “Big Brother website”, he want to vote her out from the show, in compassion. He says Jade has an understandable fear for when she comes home from the reality show, Jeffries do not want her hurt, like he did in the beginning of the article. At page 28 and 29 in the article he gets more compassion to her, and really sees her situation in the big picture. Jeffries´s compassion to Jade is also when he talks about her partner PJ, that he is so typical, and stupid. Also when Mohan says that Jade is damning indictment of the British school system, Jeffries own opinion appears when he writes that even though it could be true, she do not deserve to be punished further. At the beginning he wanted to hurt her but himself, but it was only a thought, until he sees many people want to take it in action.