Why Reality Television Is Reality Real Or Reality?

"Fist-pumping beachgoers. Singers competing for millions. Survivors outwitting, outlasting and outplaying. Turn on the television and chances are you’ll see all of these things. Whether you’re watching MTV, OWN or a main broadcast network, nearly every channel is home to reality television," USA Today reports. In the early 2000's, Reality TV began to come into play. It has become one of the most popular genres on television today. Although, for more than a decade, Reality TV has increased in popularity among Americans, the relative effects it has on

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).

With many opinions about reality television to understand the truth one has to look at the roots of these shows. Most people try to say that reality television started with MTV and there inappropriate shows but these shows really began with shows like, Candid Camera, which was shown in the 1940’s. This show involved people who were put in funny situations and pranked. This show was only meant to entertain, nothing more nothing less. Although some of today’s reality television shows are more complicated than this earlier show, they provide the same mindless entertainment.

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.

Reality TV shows will continue to thrive as they fill up TV screens in homes all across the nation. The people that watch reality television will go through their daily routine waiting anxiously for their favorite part of the day when they can take a seat on the couch, kick their feet back, and catch up on the latest gossip

What is reality tv ?Reality tv is essentially unscripted programming that doesn't employ actors and focuses on footage of real events or situations.Some reality shows aren’t always real.Which mean the show is scripted.For example Bad girls club is a real reality show because the show isn’t scripted and is based on footage of real life events.

“Reality shows are everywhere, from cable and broadcast television to the Internet. Reality TV programming has generated millions of viewers,

In reality tv a lot of the times it may not be so real. Many times they edit scenes making it seem like one thing when really it may have been nothing like that. The tv shows also edit the show so then one person looks a certain way or is always acts a certain way when he/she is on camera.

It is 8:30 Monday night and the whole family is in the living room watching the Fox network's primetime hit "Ally McBeal". Suddenly, just after the program resumes after a painstakingly long commercial break, you see a man and a woman lying in bed talking to each other after having a night of hot, passionate sex. You look down and see your ten year old son or daughter lying on the floor just staring at the TV, taking it all in. You begin channel surfing, and end up on channel 3, CBS. There is a brand new sitcom being aired called "Some of My Best Friends". Almost immediately after you and your family begin viewing this program, two men, both proclaiming to be gay, begin kissing and embracing each other. Upset by all of this

Have you ever been watching your favorite reality tv show and wondered if it was real or was it all just fake. Well, the reality TV shows that you watch are fake. On reality TV shows, there are no scripts. Although there are writers that write plot lines to create different types of conflicts. Also, sometimes, they have to redo scripts all over again.

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.

The cultural phenomenon ‘Reality Television (TV)’ has become an increasingly popular genre of television since its paroxysm onto the airwaves in 1945. The term ‘Reality Television’ can be defined as the genre of entertainment that documents the lives of ‘ordinary’ individuals through the exhibition of allegedly unscripted real-life scenarios, despite inquisitive inquiries disclosing Reality TV to entail facets of script. The primary objective of Reality TV is purely to entertain the audience. This genre of television is appealing to viewers due to its entertainment principle/value, the audience’s competency to correlate to the characters and their situations, and the contingency it presents for escapism and voyeurism. We can capitalise the Australian appropriation of the American popular dating Reality TV show ‘The Bachelor’ as a tool to further comprehend the purpose and appeal of Reality television. The postulations of media’s obligations to society in contrast to their current actions and media as a mirror to society - the normative theory, can also be utilised as an implement to apprehend Reality TV. Through the strict analysis of ‘ The Bachelor’ and the employment of the normative theory, the purpose and appealing factor of Reality TV can be deeply examined.

As you can see reality tv is dominating our lives. Just as we say goodbye to the biggest looser, we say hello to Masterchef, but why is reality tv so popular? What tips and tricks go down behind the scenes to influence the way we portray the characters? Reality TV programs claim to be showing us a true glimpse of life as it happens, but what we truly see isn't “real”. Reality television is not a reflection of reality, because there are many techniques that producer use, such as adding music/ sound effects, variety of camera shots and angles, little things like editing and voice overs, which create a biased view of the situation.

But can reality television actually be called reality? Do people watch because reality television offers an alternative to boring and hackneyed type programs? The fact is that reality TV is just as boring and predictable as the so-called unreal programs. Reality TV can, for the most part, hardly be considered real. An article in Rolling Stone confirms this, stating that, “The premise is always the same: Put ordinary stiffs on television on TV and they’ll do anything, anything, to stay on TV. Didn’t we already learn that from Kirstie Alley?” (Rolling Stone, 2001). If this were in fact the case, then way would anyone watch what is described as something as horribly predictable as the above? How could such a style of

Although they claim to be "reality", all reality TV shows are edited for time and to make them more interesting, which is part of why they skew our view of reality. For instance, no one is ever just plain boring on reality television shows. At least if they are those parts get edited away to make them seem at least slightly entertaining. What this tricky editing leads us to believe when we watch is that the way these people are acting is the way everybody in society acts or should act. When we can't be as witty, attractive, popular or as good at competition as the contestants we feel inadequate.