Snezana Markoski and Sam Wood on the 2015 run of The Bachelor Australia. Wood has been charged with domestic violence offences and said through his lawyer he intends to defend against the charges. Photograph: Shine Australia View image in fullscreen Snezana Markoski and Sam Wood on the 2015 run of The Bachelor Australia. Wood has been charged with domestic violence offences and said through his lawyer he intends to defend against the charges. Photograph: Shine Australia Guardian journalism is independent. We earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more .
In today’s newsletter, a reality TV academic – and former Bachelor contestant – speaks with us about the attachments we form with romance reality participants in the wake of a domestic violence charge against a former star. We also recommend Troye Sivan’s new album, a five-star play and some excellent reads
Prefer the Guardian on Google Good morning. This week my social media feed has been filled with people expressing shock and even betrayal at the news that fitness influencer and former Bachelor star Sam Wood has been charged with domestic violence . His lawyer said in court on Thursday that Wood denied the allegations. To understand the specific attachment we form with romance reality stars, I’ve spoken with Dr Rebecca Trelease – Alyx
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Dr Rebecca Trelease is a senior lecturer at Auckland University of Technology’s school of communication studies in New Zealand, and during the first year of her PhD, she was also a participant on The Bachelor New Zealand. She’s been a “massive fan” of reality television since the early Big Brother days, and believes many fans engage with popular culture in a critical, scholarly way – regardless of their formal qualifications. But of her time on camera, and the media coverage surrounding it, she says: “It was really fascinating to see it first-hand, but it was also really awful at times and I wouldn’t recommend it.”
Alyx: Tell me a bit about the media cycle surrounding romance reality shows, and the connections that viewers are encouraged to develop with the cast? Rebecca: In romance reality, in some shows we want to see a main hero looking for love across the season, while in others, we want to see two individuals come together and follow them from meeting at the altar, to “are they gonna stay together at the end?”.
But we’re watching a person who’s put their face and their voice to a character that they don’t have a lot of control over, because you have a story producer with more power who is going to present what you do. Then you have an audience, and the way they perceive your story as well. So you have the participant, you have the audience and you have the producer. For a show to be believable, those three angles need to align.
Alyx: I’d love for you to talk to me a bit about what we as viewers don’t get to see. Rebecca: It depends on the filming setup. The show I was on, and you could put something like Married at First Sight into the same category, the contesta…