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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

There are numerous channels of different types of programming: educational, reality, and news reporting. Educational programming is beneficial in many ways. It helps children learn a variety of skills such as the alphabet, numbers, and manners. Reality TV programming is invasive . This type of programming promotes spreading rumors and nonsense about people in the world today. Invading the privacy of people is reality programming's biggest key to success. Everyone is always wanting to know about what other people are doing, who they are talking to, where they are going, and when and they will be somewhere. Celebrities are most likely the biggest victims of our ridiculing reality TV. Today, most people are interested in reality TV channels like Music TV, Entertainment TV and Abc networks. One can watch reality shows such as Cops, Trauma in the ER, and Keeping up with the Kardashians. Another programming is the news which is opinion based, depending on what one wants to see when he wants to see it. Multiple stories are broadcasted everyday with the latest news. The public has multiple channels to choose from when it comes to the news. Public interest is definitely important to television programming. Television gains its ratings from the public watching programming. Therefore, broadcasters make their living as to what interest the public on

To see how reality TV has evolved over the years. To learn about the many genres and methods of entertainment that is encompassed within reality TV.

Reality shows – the present of mass media on entertainment which make the big influence to American society. Everybody watched the same stuff, the same old movies, or the same reruns before the cable TV or Internet appeared. For example, the Simpson was a successful sitcom became an institution as important as the cult classic. They poured their shared pop culture experienced into the show. However, the character

Lastly, reality TV shows allow competitors, and the viewers realize this, to break out of their mundane lives for a brief stay in the spotlight before returning to their relative anonymity. In conclusion, the idea that these contestants are normal people, who continue living their lives after the show ends, gives viewers the belief and hope that they too have the chance to become something new. While reality TV is not real, the characters and the hope for change they create are real. Heidecker focuses on the story behind the characters on reality TV, but her reasoning behind the contestants’ lives after the show ends is flawed, which, in turn, makes her strongest point be unsound. As Heidecker states, “They [the contestants] are folks who (probably) want another life--who are taking a momentary swing at something beyond their everyday lives” (144-145).

In order to fit in to society, some people may modify their own actions based on the perceived reality of the TV show. It is easy to reality TV programs and the way they are perceived, could affect society as a whole.

Also, in many cases, the characters used in these shows are not ordinary individuals, but highly paid actors that simply recite scripts. Clearly, these shows are inaccurately labeled as “reality television,” and many individual’s time is wasted as a result. Time for many is very valuable. Wasting a person’s time because of an inaccurate description could be just as detrimental as wasting a person’s money because of an inaccurate description. Many people watch these shows to view real life situations, but what they are really viewing is the complete opposite. This cultivates confusion about what is real and what is fake.

In the midst of this generation, reality television has become very popular, it has begun to promote stereotypes. TV critics feel that reality television has been developed to entertain or cheer people up. Some reality shows can be good for individuals who like them, while some of them can be bad, depending on the show. As for opinion, television is the greatest invention that has been made because it helps people learn lessons about life, by educating and to experience new things. It helps to encourage people and can lead them to make important decisions about their futures.

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

In Cynthia Frisby’s "Getting Real with Reality TV" she claims that many people revolve their lives around reality TV. I agree with Frisby because of her idea that viewers are using social comparison to find gratification within their own lives. Frisby also explains how reality TV is a big part of how people live and it’s getting harder and harder to get away from it.

Reality TV is known as exciting entertainment because the audience never knew what will happen next as it is with no strings attached and even have the freedom of speech. Despite the entertainment it can bring, the content of reality shows are actually degrading the society. Our pop culture and civilization have been affected by the reality programs in a bad way. Indeed, reality TV is promoting bad social value to the

Reality programming is helpful to individuals and society. It shows us how people in certain situations handle and mishandle dealing with things. It can show us how people look at situations differently than you do. Maybe you think watching the Hunger Games is fun and exciting, or maybe you think it’s cruel and evil. We all have different opinions on reality shows but it is helpful to see the other person’s point of view and why they think individually. Reality programming can also motivate you, watching Biggest Loser you might think that exercising is a good choice and it will keep you from being on the reality show, My 600-Ib Life. It can also be helpful towards showing you how to survive in various situations like surviving in the wild and The Hunger Games.

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.”

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?