This webpage was created for the Johns Hopkins University undergrad course, "Anthropology of Media," taught by Anand Pandian, PhD. The course website, which includes the project pages from every member of the class, can be found here.

Authenticity of the Wilderness: Surviving with Bear Grylls and Les Stroud

These days, for better or for worse, it seems like whenever people think of American culture, the grave, looming image of reality television is always at the forefront of these thoughts. How is it that this phenomenon of exhibitionism, of a certain culture of hyper-reality, has become so deeply engrained in our consciousness and our living rooms? Beginning in the early 90’s with shows such as Big BrotherSurvivor,The Mole, and The Bachelor, to name a few, reality television quickly became a dominant form of entertainment through the most dominant technological medium of the 20th century, the television. Today, the plethora of television channels is littered with reality television programming, ranging in subject matter from the lives of college students to ice fisherman to cake designers. One of the perennially popular genres of reality television is the wilderness survival show. Seen first in programs like Survivor that portrayed normal individuals coping in exotic and often harsh environments, the genre has become refined to shows such as Man vs. Wild with Bear Grylls, former United Kingdom Special Forces trooper, and Survivorman with Les Stroud, Canadian wilderness guide and survival instructor.

The wildnerness survival show has evolved into a distinct format, an intimate experience between viewer and host, in which experts like Bear Grylls or Les Stroud act as your personal guide to the wilderness and the dangers it may offer. Having been dropped in remote, exotic locations, the hosts take the viewers through their daily activities, and specifically the steps they take to engage their environment and learn how to survive in it. Although the guides are obviously experts and take great pride in their work, the viewer gets the feeling that each moment is a learning experience for them as well, and there is a mutual sharing of the mix of wonderment and fear in encountering these places. One of the prerequisites of the locales is that they are remote and seemingly uninhabited, in order to mimic the extreme situations that people might find themselves in. Ultimately, these shows are meant to be not only entertaining, but also educational.

However, the essential question is what exactly is the relationship between the viewer and the content; and more specifically, what is being conveyed by this medium? What exactly is the nature of the “reality” being portrayed? A defining feature of reality television is its central paradox: the production and representation of “reality” as an authentic display of what life is really like. And herein lies the key to the success of reality television, the representation of “authenticity.” In wilderness survival shows, nature and the foreign experience of it represent a return to a more primitive and paradoxically unmediated lifestyle. The wilderness and nature itself takes on an important role in these shows, as a source of something distinctly other and anti-human, a venture into the unknown. Away from the world of artifice and technology, this is where the truest authenticity is found. It is this mode of experience that we will delve into, in order to determine exactly the nature of the authentic that is sought in these places, and how host and viewer alike identify with this experience of “reality”.    


Introductory material: 

These are just some images to introduce you to your wilderness survival guides. Notice how many of the images of Bear Grylls find him performing some outlandish act, whereas Les Stroud as depicted as being within his environment, and adapting. Then again, apparently even Les Stroud needs a good GPS device every once in a while. So much for "roughing it."

 

Here's some relevant video content to introduce you to the shows. Notice the ways in which the natural setting and the hosts interaction with it is somehow "produced." Notice also the differences in the approach of these survival guides, and how they go about connecting with their viewers. Enjoy: