Introduction: Reality Television Work-Related Activity and Health, Safety and Wellbeing

How popular culture shapes attitudes towards workplace health, safety and wellbeing (WHSW) has received little attention in the literature. The chapter provides the rationale for examining whether some aspects of workers’ HSW are trivialised (if at all) in the Australian construction and renovation reality television show, The Block. Adopting an observational approach, the entire Season 16 (2020) (n = 50 episodes) was critically reviewed to assess the level of trivialisation of both identifiable hazards and low order controls. The observations focussed on workplace activities generally perceived or deemed as not high risk or not likely dangerous in the traditional WHSW sense. This introductory chapter sets the scene for the chapters to follow and provides the structure of the study. It also provides definitions that inform the research and provides the scope for the undertaking. It also presents a justification for exploring the convergence of reality TV and construction work and identifies the study’s limitations.