As millions of reality television fans are mourning the end of this year’s series of ‘Love Island’, a Birmingham City University student is preparing to study the show as part of her undergraduate degree.
School of Media student Vicky Squires will be focusing on series two and three of the dating reality television programme, exploring how episodes of ‘Love Island’ might influence the behaviour of young viewing audiences.
ITV2’s ‘Love Island’ sees hopeful singletons move in to a villa together for weeks on end in a bid to find love.
Vicky’s study will focus on confrontational arguments between cast members, acts of rebellion and scenes of a sexual nature.
“I hope that my research will help others by highlighting how reality television influences the behaviour of others and just how powerful this can be, especially for younger audiences who might think that behaving in a similar manner will make them ‘cool’ and ‘popular’”, said 20 year-old Vicky, who hails from Chalton in Bedfordshire.
Vicky opted to study ‘Love Island’ as part of her final-year dissertation project, which will see her conduct focus groups and a virtual ethnography, to ascertain the opinions of Love Island viewers.
“I chose to focus on ‘Love Island’ as the programme has massively grown in popularity and it’s also now like a small empire of its own, not only on the television but online and in stores with tonnes of merchandise inspired by the show.”
The most recent series of ‘Love Island’, won by Dani Dyer and Jack Fincham, broke ITV2 records for the most-watched programme in the digital channel's history.
The series averaged 2.7 million viewers in overnight ratings, an increase of one million from last year.
