Summary Of Getting Real With Reality TV By Cynthia Frisby

Papacharissi and Mendelson (361) examine the notion of gratification among the audience watching reality television shows. They establish that apart from the one-off entertainment viewers get, they also gratify their psychological and social traits. Reality shows make use of ordinary people in doing extraordinary things such as surviving in harsh conditions, winning large sums of money, overcoming extreme fears among others. When ordinary people watch the actions of the participants, it becomes much easier for them to relate to them as their own representatives. Aslama and Pantti say that the shows resemble the political arena where the public vote in representatives to act on their behalf in the great stage of the nation (181).

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).

The selection called “Reality TV: Surprising throwback into the past?” written by Patricia Cohen suggests love and marriage through TV is shallow. Reality TV is mixing relationships with money and that is immoral. Women, like in this article, expect and trust the viewers to choose her true match through a series of bachelors. Ladies feel that if they don’t get married by late 20s, they are to be single for the rest of their lives. They consider going on a TV show because they feel like they have nothing to lose. In the process they might gain lots of money and a true love. When they take this crude way, they don’t realize the risks of divorce. The girls don’t see that this does not guarantee a real marriage.

The reality TV fad that is not going anywhere anytime soon, no matter how much some of us wish it had never started. As seen through the functionalist, conflict, and interactionist perspectives, reality TV has become an integral part of society.

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

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 essay, “Getting down to what is really real,” John Sullivan tells us about his thoughts on reality TV and explains why people are attracted to those shows. Some people might not like to admit they watch reality TV but it’s almost impossible to avoid hearing about it if you’re present on social media. We like watching it because it makes our lives look less stressful and drama is fun when you aren’t involved in it. It is easy to get attached to the characters and their unique personalities and most of all, people love the opportunity for easy fame.

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 television has become increasingly more popular and appears to be taking over the entertainment business. Psychologist Lawrence Rubin seems to think it all goes back to Aristotle, “The notion of being drawn to drama and tragedy”(Kinon, 2009). The viewer receives a false sense of “real life” and disconnects from their own “real life” by diving into someone else's. The effects these television shows have on society as a whole can be positive or negative depending on the message the show depicts. Shows such as “Jersey Shore”, “16 and Pregnant”, and “Dr. 90210” are a huge success to MTV but could be considered detrimental to society by painting distorted pictures of reality in the viewer’s mind. Shows including

Throughout this analysis, is a discussion of the real ethics of reality TV and how the current gender, media and popular culture depict a fusion between reality and reality on TV. The writing is based upon the "Real Appeal: The Ethics of Reality TV", Catehrine Lumby and Elspeth Probyn. The idea that anyone can become famous is not fairly evident upon most TV viewers; however it is clear that TV makes the viewer believe that what they are viewing is true and it is for this reason that it becomes reality TV. TV exposes the public to a rather promiscuous vision of reality and this tends to be the apex of reality TV. Quite clearly, as Lumby states, Reality television, as its name suggests, is a genre which attempts to trade off its

From here on, Frisby insists that Reality TV gives people inspiration and the chance to experience positions in which dream of being in. She continues to state that comparison is not avoidable, viewers are loyal to Reality TV. She adds that surveys were done to determine the comparison of the effect on people from Reality TV. The data identifies the gratification of the media, so that they could get a broad idea of the viewings of the programming. Then viewers’ thoughts had to be analyzed to see what kind of comparison the participants had during the shows. Lastly the researched showed that no matter the gender there was not much of a difference in the response gotten from the participants regular and non-viewers experience a notable mood

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.”

“ Reality TV is sleazy, it is manipulative. It is as momentary as anything in popular culture,” according to Morley Safer. Reality TV makes us think that we need luxurious materials to be happy. It also makes us, as a society, behave in a bad manner because that is what we see on tv. (“Is Reality TV making You stupid?”) Believe it or not what we see on tv is not always true, it is sometimes fake ( "Reality TV's Growing Pains: It Can't Be ChildProofed.").

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?