The Reality of Reality TV

Although reality TV has the word “real” in the title, most reality television shows are few and far between when it comes to the truth of what actually happened. In a survey taken, people were asked about their age, gender, favorite reality TV show, and if they were religious or not. Through the survey much was revealed about the demographics about male and females between the age of 18 and 28 who mostly attend NJC. Most of the people surveyed attend Northeastern Junior College, a school with a conservative background, which plays a role in what reality TV shows they watched.

Some of the females surveyed claimed to have watched Bachelor, Basketball Wives, and Love and Hip Hop; shows that are mainly about women falling in love with a man or trying to find the perfect one. For instance, Basketball Wives is a show based out of Miami Florida, which centers on wives, or romantic affiliations of women with professional basketball players. Teen Mom was favored by some in the survey of which were teenagers and both females, insinuating the females could in some ways relate with friends who maybe went through the same things.

Most of the males surveyed favored reality TV shows such as Duck Dynasty, or Man Vs Wild, which entail to men out in the country or in the wild, being one with nature or finding ways to live off of nature. Cops and WWE were both favored by males under the age of 20 showing that they may have been intrigued by aggression and violence. All of these shows include some kind of triumph over one another, usually in case of violence which males are drawn to.

Of the people surveyed the people who were secular more so enjoyed reality TV shows in which man had to depend on nature. Since nature, science and the earth go hand a...

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... could fall between breaking and not breaking the rules depending on what the actors said when they were interviewed. If the actors state their actual opinions then being interviewed would not break any rules. However if the actors were told what to say or producers insinuate what they should say, they did not describe the events in full truth.

The only trick of reality television that does not go against the unwritten rules is the fake setting. In fake setting, real events may happen but at least all of the actors have a chance to say what they would actually say or do what they want to do freely without being edited. The setting really does not matter as long as the events that happen actually did happen in real life.

Works Cited

Poniewozik, J., & McDowell, J. (2006). HOW REALITY TV FAKES IT. Time, 167(6), 60-62 retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost