The name is absent

existence, a culture ‘concerned with visual events in which information,
meaning and pleasure is sought by the consumer in an interface with visual
technology’ (Mirzoeff, 1998: 3). The influence of media today is fundamental
in the social construction of reality and the associated cognitive processes.
Therefore, the cultural patterns, the identity and the experience of
(un)reality of millions of people are sustained by the images that emanate
from technological media including cinema, videogames and television
screens. It is actually here, within the production processes of cinema and
television, and in videogames content, that contemporary history and life are
not only being reflected, but more importantly, are being (de)constructed.
Gradually we have started ‘to see the world by means of mediated vision and
doing so we have increasingly been able to distance and detach ourselves
from contact with its reality’ (Robins, 1996: 21).

In this sense, Bennis and Mitroff (1989: 11) distinguish two different
kinds of generations of unreality. Unreality one is an artificial reality where a
person and an image can interact on a screen and the viewer is unable to
differentiate which one of the images is real. Unreality two is a deliberate
distortion of reality, and one of the most illustrative examples of this is the
information that we receive from the television news: it can make unreality
look so entertaining that we do not care about reality anymore. Both
unrealities involve some dangers, but whilst unreality one can be used and
manipulated to obtain certain entertainment and educational benefits,
unreality two is only used to manipulate us.

Today, visual media generate a bidirectional product as it allows the
spectator, through the use of technology, to cross from the side of reality to
the side of fiction without encountering any barrier on the journey. This can
be illustrated in the popularity and proliferation of reality television shows
such as Big Brother (Endemol, 1999 - present) and the satisfaction of
audiences in perceiving a supposed reality. Indeed, it is not only often the
fans/members of the viewing public themselves who become
contestants/participants on shows such as Big Brother, but the audience also
determines the fate of the contestants by voting them out via text and e-
mail, and even suggesting to the producers tasks for them to undertake. Thus

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