Voting Democracy off the Island in Reality TV Shows

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

He remarks on how most Americans seem much more interested in what goes on in the daily lives of celebrities and reality television, as opposed to the detrimental health of the nation, the “bank collapses, wars, mounting poverty or the criminality of its financial class.” He goes on to compares Americans to psychopaths, stating that they share many similar traits like an incapacity for feeling guilt or remorse, grandiosity and self-importance, and a need for constant stimulation. We Americans are only concerned with ourselves, we view fame and fortune as the ultimate goal and have no qualms with stepping over friends and family to achieve it. With consumers in this state of mind, media and corporations make billions of dollars by helping assure everyone that we don't have to worry about others, that “everything is

Research Essay on Democracy and Citizenship in Australia “Australia is an excellent example to the world of a democracy which values the participation of its citizens in all levels of government. Discuss”

The world is not a replica of what is portrayed on television, and it was never proclaimed to be, however, Barbara Ehrenreich advocates “The worst years of our lives” which reflects the 1980’s in which is believed couch potatoes did not exist, yet. Ehrenreich implies the idea that modern people aren’t “real people” anymore, as they would be in the 1980’s era because they actually performed the activities presented on television. To a certain extent, I concede with Ehrenreich’s theory, because Americans have become inactive, the youth generations are being brainwashed, and we portray ourselves to the virtual world.

Since the inception of human civilization there have been countless cultures and societies which have helped shape the current world today as we know it. The modern human race dates back more than 200,000 years and in that time frame many cultures have risen to great virtue and success only to deteriorate or cease to exist altogether. First before examining one of these cultures we must know what culture truly means. The Army’s Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) Culture Center defines culture as a “dynamic social system,” containing the beliefs, behaviors, values and norms of a “specific organization, group, society or other collectivity” learned, shared, internalized, and changeable by all members of the society (Watson, 2010). In

Benjamin Franklin once said, “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is well-armed lamb contesting that vote.” I believe Franklin’s famous quote means that the majority of the vote does not represent all of the citizen’s interests, and this is unfair. For example, the two wolves would decide to eat the lamb for lunch and the lamb wouldn’t even get a say. However, if liberty (the lamb) had a tree on its property that it wanted to keep and the officials (the wolves) wanted to get rid of it, the lamb would get a say because the majority of the vote wouldn’t matter. The tree is on the lamb’s property, so it wouldn’t matter who else wants it there, because it’s the lamb’s right to keep it. Therefore, there are some matters where there is an imbalance of power in democracy, and other matters where individuals' rights are protected.

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.

Television in the 80’s and even now has the capacity to ruin the society due to the aspect of time put in watching it. In this perspective, more time is put in being “couch potatoes” than doing something more productive like development of one’s self and working. If people weren’t so hypnotized be the reality entertainment produces, people could use their time to do research

The Bachelorette, created in order to be politically correct in my opinion, is the same show in reverse—twenty-five young dashing men after one single, attractive and rich woman. Addressing these shows with an eye bent to cultural analysis, the messages and constructed social meanings depicted are decidedly derived from a capitalist society.

After the crash landing, the only thing you can really see from the island is a faint shape of a mountain from far away. Since our class trip was to Hawaii, we can only assume that that faint outline is one of the volcanoes that are on the group of islands. The island that we crashed on is much smaller than any of the Hawaiian islands. It is plentiful of freshwater, food, and materials for shelter. Knowing that we have a small chance of being found, my classmates have put me up to the test to make a Constitution for everyone on the island.

Collin, great job on comparing Anthony Bourdain No Reservations and the River Monsters TV shows, I never connected the act of participant observation with the media of television, but it makes perfect sense. It brings to mind the television show Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern and parts of the cult classic film, The Faces of Death. Both of which reveal norms in other cultures that would be 100% taboo in western culture, such as eating dog or horse as Houk wrote about. The only difference that came to mind over and over as I was reading was, I could not help but realize that our survival instinct would win out over our cultural beliefs every time if we were pushed to the extreme of being forced to choose between the two. As was the case with

All throughout America, competition flows through the people’s blood like an epidemic there’s no cure for. From the age Americans are infants, it is bred into them. They are taught that there are winners and there are losers, and not to be a loser. Although some believe this kind of competition can lead to success and happiness, the outcomes are quite the opposite. This is shown in Arthur Miller’s, Death of a Salesman when the main character, Willy Loman, not only lives his life by the myth of competition but also drives this myth into the minds of his family. This causes one of Willy’s sons to be led down a path of misguided aspirations, leads Willy to have very low self-esteem, and evokes poor relationships with others. Through this, Miller shows that competition is just a widely believed American myth which doesn’t lead to a fulfilling life.

Anthropology on Television What do food, occupation, and forensics have in common? Initially, there is not much to connect these three; until you add the word anthropology. Every aspect of culture can be a field of anthropological study. Without even knowing it, there are famous anthropologists who are a part of both scientific research and popular culture.

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).

But today, we are exploiting the power of our words. The words we now propagate are riddled with infectious diseases. Upon us now, is the black plague of the 21st century, reality television.