The Popularity of Reality Shows Among Young People

Media has shown misrepresentation of women and girls on reality TV shows. Women and girls are treated like objects and only appreciated for their beauty rather than their intelligence. According to Child Beauty Pageants Statistics, reality shows have become a large part of the American culture, “based on statistics, about 5,000 child beauty pageants are held every year and 250,000 child contestants are participating (para 3). The reality TV show named, Toddlers and Tiaras is an example of a reality show about a beauty pageant competition for children. Toddlers and Tiaras negatively impacts young participants’ lives and viewer lives physically and psychologically.

Motive of Author: To analyze the evolution of reality television as a genre. To discuss the various methods that reality TV invokes in order to entertain its audiences. To discover the definition of reality TV through examining several generations of reality TV over the years.

There are many different opinions when the subject of reality television is discussed. Although reality television shows are thought to be negative they really are just mindless entertainment. Many can argue that these shows are misleading and disturbing. On the other side of this, people merely use these shows for entertainment and allow people to forget about stress in their lives. The cause of these different opinions is a result of different age, gender, religion, and race. The main purpose of these shows is simply to allow people to live vicariously through the characters. This excitement of being in other people’s lives is what makes reality television so addicting to people.

viewers that this ‘real world’ is fabricated with ‘near perfect’ flawless people, having MTV pay for all expenses to fall back on and go partying every night.

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.

At the end of a long day, relaxing in front of a television, watching a favorite show will hit the spot just right. Comparisons between the audience and the reality stars will take place whether it is noticeable or not. And finally, reality TV will continue to attract an abundant audience do to the constant changing of topics and

The judges mostly look at the girl’s personality. At the beginning of the pageant, each contestant gives the judges a bio about themselves; with this, judges base their questions off of the contestant’s answers. According to Taylor Jobin, “Pageants mock women's intelligence by asking impossible questions” (Taylor Jobin). This is not true for each question asked in this competition is based on the contestant bio. The bio may have information about the contestant’s recent vacation so the judge would ask in the interview “what was your favorite part about visiting Niagara Falls.” Another article by Rita Panahi says that they ask political questions only insulting people's intelligence and it fools nobody. A book about this specific competition

After the tragic unsolved murder of 5-year old beauty pageant girl JonBenet Ramsey, many people were appalled with what they saw after looking into the industry. People could not believe that six year olds were parading around on stage in a full face of makeup (Hollandsworth). However, with the rise of shows like TLC’s “Toddlers and Tiaras,” child beauty pageants have become a much more desensitized subject. The general format of the show is always the same. Following two or three young girls, almost always white, anywhere between the ages of two to nine years, “not only giving out the names of these children, but they also tell you what towns these little girls live in” (hollandsworth). The show captures what goes into

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

This essay will assess the debate on whether or not reality television is becoming more like a form of tabloidization; whether, reality TV has shifted from to entertaining the audience rather than educating the audience. John Corner believes that television has greatly expanded its range of images, depicting more of the ‘real’. He added that the shift in reality TV has employed factual programming, such as an increase in documentaries. On the other hand, Richard Kilborn believes that reality TV is a simulation of real life events through various forms of dramatic reconstruction… ’Documentaries can never be any more than a representation or an interpretation of events and issues in the real world’ (Kilborn, 5). Therefore, programs can be

Reality television has several sub-genres such as talent contests, reality news, makeover shows, and even some law enforcement programs. However, the genres that portray women in the most negative way followed by an enormous amount of stereotypes are dating shows and documentary or lifestyle series. Reality shows have grew to be one of the most exciting and successful forms of TV program today with many networks that provide different series of jaw-dropping “reality”. The different styles and format of these shows have favorably positioned them in the network markets, generating high ratings, large profits and fame for the cast members of these shows. Reality TV is difficult to define because of the branches of subject that have evolved over the course of the years. "In the early stages of the genre, reality TV was associated with on-scene footages of law and order or emergency services; more recently, reality TV is associated with anything and everything, from people to pets, from birth to death" (Hill, 2005, p. 41). Photography 's dominance as the most reliable method of documenting reality for many decades led to the use of cinematography to capture "the real" as first practiced by the Lumière brothers (Joniak, 2001). In which that open the doors to filming reality tv and recording ordinary subjects performing real activities.

It seems a lot like that because honestly who in their right mind would want to do some of that stuff. A lot of the times when the person is on the show they sign a contract or something close to that. However the contracts that they sign will not always have everything that will happen to that person in them. Other times the person is half way through and to get them to sign another contract they bring up a cash prize so that person feels like they have to or its all been a

Celebrities play just as large a role in the success of reality television. There is a popular reality game show format called I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! The first series of I’m a Celebrity attracted just over seven and half million viewers. The second series increased to nearly nine and a half million viewers, and the third series, which performed the best, attracted twelve million viewers in 2003. The format involved a group of celebrities, who lived together for several weeks in a purpose-built camp in the Australian rain forest (Hill, 2005). The celebrities needed to overcome various trials, such as crawling through confined spaces with hundreds of rats, in order to win food for the camp (Hill, 2005). The highest-rated episode

The way the show works is the contestants go and pick up their prospective blind date and are told to plan out a day of fun. A typical date usually goes like this: first the individual meets the other at some agreed upon location. They introduce themselves and then head out. They then proceed to usually some type of pre-dinner activity (ex. shopping, walk, or rock climbing). Then there is dinner of some sort were they do some more talking and use this as a window for opportunity to see what may happen later on that night. After dinner there is some type of after dinner event (ex. movie, dancing, moon light walk, etc.). From there they head to some one’s place of residence and usually engage in some R-rated activities. When that is over part two begins. They all come together on the air were they talk about what happened on the two dates. This is when things begin to get interesting!!! When the participants get together it all starts out well. They

Media influence is the force by which ideas are injected into people’s lives shaping the very culture of society. This influence is masqueraded through hidden media message, resulting in a change in its audience which can be positive or negative, abrupt or gradual, short term or long term. Although mass media’s influential effect can reach a wide ranged audience as an agent of socialization the responsibility to contain what it releases has not been of importance. “The media’s socially significant obligations are formally ignored.” (A.S. Zapesotskii, 2011, p 9). Media messages can be exerted through many different outlets such as TV shows, music, movies, commercials, news, magazines, games which are all gravitated to entertain audiences ultimately offering personal gratification that can sometimes blur the lines between reality and