Reality Tv - the Real Issues Essay

The evolution of television content is currently steadily moving towards reality television shows. The shift from interest in fiction drama series to reality shows has turned the regular television viewers into addicted voyeurs. There have been diverse views on the effect of reality television shows ranging from support to criticism. George Will, in his article “Reality television: oxymoron” believes that reality television is making ordinary people degenerate morally and act stupid in the effort to please a disinterested audience. Reality TV shows are relying heavily on building extraordinary characters or events out of the norm and attract the attention of the audience. Kellner argues that the audience is enticed by “media constructs

"Reality TV is set up to make people entertaining. A good person with values and principles is not good television" a quote by Ronda Rousey a mixed martial arts artist. Many people believe or want to believe that reality tv is true, but many other people avoid it for the fact that it is obviously fake. I personally don't watch reality tv but for the sake of this essay, I watched a few episodes of many television series to see and determine what I think about them. The point of this essay is to prove how fake reality tv is and I have succeeded in accomplishing that. Most of the reality shows have the camera crew all up in people's business or "secret" cameras placed in which people don’t know about them yet keep

Lastly, reality television programs are detrimental to society because they humiliate many of the characters. This is detrimental to the characters because of obvious reasons such as suicide. The effects of this on society are even greater. Many people watch shows such as American Idol because they find it humorous when some of the characters have awful singing abilities, and therefore humiliate themselves. In my opinion, this makes many viewers bullies inside. If an individual watches the misfortune of others to make them feel better about themself, they are a bully. Therefore, reality television indirectly causes people to be bullies. Studies show that if a person has negative thoughts as a result of watching people humiliated on television; they may begin to

Television is one of the most accessible sources available to citizens. And with reality T.V, it changed the television industry forever. In today 's society, Reality Television plays an important role in people 's everyday lives. Jeremy W. Peters, the author of “When Reality TV Gets Too Real” argued that there should be a limit for how far an reality T.V should go. While James Poniewozik the author of “Why Reality TV Is Good for Us” said that reality T.V was the best thing to happen to television. Some might say television is bad for the society, and some might disagree with that, but reality T.V has proven to be the best thing that ever happened to television.

In the media, reality TV stars like Snooki and Kim Kardashian are on the rise. Most channels on television have at least one reality show, from following housewives to remodeling homes of real life families. However, there are some reality programs that display bad examples, especially for young audiences that are keeping up with each episode. On MTV people see girls being drunk in public, addicts doing drugs, and young girls raising babies at young ages; these are situations seen on reality TV shows. Jeremy W. Peters’ “When Reality TV Gets Too Real” and James Poniewozik’s “Why Reality TV is Good for us” inform readers about what the general public can view on television and how it affects the minds of children. Reality TV shows such as

Reality TV burst onto the television scene in the early 2000s’s. Shows such as, The Bachelor, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, and American Idol are just a few of the hundreds of reality TV shows that are capturing the hearts of Americans on a weekly basis. The effects go unnoticed by the viewers, but as these shows are watched, they begin to take over the personality of the audience and are changing the way people perceive the world today.

This research will focus on the negative impact of reality TV and analyse facts and examples of influence from reality TV shows. The information provided and studies are referred from year 2000 till present hence it will be based on most recent popular reality TV shows.

With a sense of voyeurism millions of Americans tune into reality television every night without much thought of the negative message these show project. Since 1948 with the inception of Candid Camera viewers have been able to select between scripted television and reality television changing the nature of at home entertainment. The Millennium marked a change with the Academy of Arts and Science adding the reality genre to the Emmy Awards, celebrating ordinary people in unscripted situations. However with more and more of theses shows glamorizing negative behavior and social situations as well as taking away from scripted television and rewarding bad behavior it is no wonder the Millennial and next generations are said to be doomed.

Reality TV shows know exactly what kind of entertainment to display that will keep the audience hooked. For example, there is a reality TV show that is called “Love & Hip-Hop” and on this show every female is abused, messy, or egotistical. The director has scenes of drug abuse, alcohol, relationship advice and everyday problems. These things tend to hook the audience in because of the negatives of everything. For instance, we tend to tune in on the news only to hear “today on 3000 block of NW Houston a

An epidemic is currently spreading through North America: reality TV shows. Although some individuals may argue that these programs are meant to be entertaining and light-hearted, the reality is that reality TV, which seems to be a misnomer because it is not realistic or reflective of reality at all, promotes extremely dangerous gender, body, and racial stereotypes.

For close to a decade, the ethics behind the existence of reality TV have been questioned. While there are ardent viewers of reality TV, researchers and other scholars disapprove them, and claim that the world would have been in a better place. Reality TV shows, especially in America, are extremely profitable to media owners, and this has increased their popularity in the recent years. The main target audience for these shows are teenagers and women, who spend a lot of time discussing about them, even hours after the shows. Most of the reality shows in America and other parts of the world have common ideas. The most fundamental aspect of most reality TV shows is that they display people who go through embarrassing, painful and humiliating ordeals. This is what the reality shows expect their audiences to be entertained, and presumably laugh at the situations the people go through. For this reason and many more, it has been found that they are more detrimental than entertaining to the society, and therefore, the world would be in a better place without them (Pozner 89-91).

To quote Matt Philbin, managing editor of the MRC Culture & Media Institute, “the problem with much of reality TV is that it isn’t about real people or reality at all. These are highly scripted, performed shows, ‘written’ like a piece of fiction and as such they need the classic conflict-driven characters and soap opera melodrama.”

It seems that you can’t turn on a television set anymore without a reality show being on. All networks have recently started to pump out reality shows left and right. And why wouldn’t they? Reality shows are highly rated, with three of them being in the top ten on the Nielsen ratings chart. In fact, these shows are becoming more popular than the sitcoms and dramas aired. New sitcoms and dramas struggle to get attention of the public when going against a reality show. Programs such as The Beast and Go Fish, which critics loved and raved about, are victims of the wrath of reality shows. These shows are now cancelled.

Today’s audience grabs hold of reality TV now a day. Looking forward week to week to watch these unscripted real life situation shows. In a way it 's becoming increasingly hard to avoid not watching. Some viewers see the TV show and tend to be attention seekers, and reality TV allows them to fantasize about achieving status through instant fame. Too much reality TV may lead viewers to idealize real world situations, like romanticizing dating. Like when Truman saw the girl in the library who was an actress and a fan of the show. He wanted to take her out sometime later that week, but she said it couldn’t happen because she knows what’s going on, but she had true love for him and asked to go out with him right then on a little date to the beach. As they went to the beach she was going to spill the beans and tell him everything. Then a man of the show in a car drove there to stop her acting like her father to get her before she ruined the show. It’s like most reality TV love shows on today people who audition for a show and know it’s scripted, but end up actually having a real feeling for the person.

There has been a huge increase in “reality” based television over the last few years. From Survivor to Big Brother it seems that we are constantly being bombarded with a new type of reality television program. But why do people watch these shows? What makes these shows so interesting? One theory brought up in an article in Psychology Today by Steven Reiss Ph.D. and James Wiltz, a Ph.D. candidate at Ohio State University, is that, “reality television allows Americans to fantasize about gaining status through automatic fame” (Reiss and Wiltz, 2001). This is the American dream, acquiring fame with little to no work at all. And what better way to do it than on television?