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Influence of reality tv on today's culture
Influence of reality tv on today's culture
Reality TV as a cultural phenomenon
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The Real World?
"This is the true story of seven strangers picked to live in a loft and have their lives taped. Find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real”, so starts every episode of a popular TV show on MTV called The Real World. This show is based on the idea of having no script or actors, and to just see what happens when strangers live together and interact with each other for three months. This show has been on for over a decade now and is still a popular show even though throughout the last ten years the show has changed in many ways. It has changed in the people, places, and activities that make up the Real World. Through the show’s history The Real World has become less of a reality show and more of a circus show.
In the early 1990’s was the first time that The Real World aired on MTV. This show was different than any other show that had ever appeared on national television. What made this show so different was the lack of a script or actors. This genre of television was named reality television. When developing the idea of The Real World executives at MTV wanted to make a primetime soap opera but where having difficulties coming up with the funding to hire actors and writers, so their solution was to eliminate these aspects of a show. There idea was then to have seven strangers ages eighteen to twenty five live together and see if the American public could catch on to ...
The failing television networks have found a number of elements in reality shows which can save them money. These elements have combined to improve rating, while also improving the amount of money brought into the networks. The networks have had pressure from stockholders to improve the return on their investments, or possible begin to lose their money. So the networks have discovered ways to save money with reality’ shows one being they haven’t had to pay actors. All the main characters of this shows are contests and only one will be ~paid” at the end. In addition to not paying actors, they have also been able to cut back greatly on the number of writers used to write scripts. The reality shows have been in a way been “pre-tested” in other nations. The U.S. networks know that the shows can be successful because of the success they have had in Europe. These facts have all come together ...
“This is the true story… of seven strangers… picked to live in a house… work together and have their lives taped… to find out what happens… when people stop being polite… and start getting real” (Robinson par. 8). The reality television program, The Real World, by MTV, had its first airing in 1992 and is one of the longest-running shows in MTV history. Initially, the program was designed as an outlet for young individuals to express common issues of adulthood ranging from prejudice, religion, AIDS, sex, and substance abuse, but eventually it evolved into a showcase for immature and reckless behaviors.
Since the beginning of time itself, Television has been one the most influential pieces of media that the world has ever encountered. The beginning days of television depicted stereotypical mothers cooking and cleaning their homes for their husbands and children. Yet, as the decades passed, television took a dramatic turn, leaving the days of drama free entertainment as a vast memory. Now a day, however, when one hits the power on button to Bravo, the screen lights expand to ritzy socialites dealing with their everyday lives as “housewives”. Bravo TV’s hit number one reality television show, The Real Housewives of Atlanta, deals with the everyday lives of modern-day housewives. When speaking of these women and their family life, the reality series shows its viewers that family life in modern times is dramatic, full of misrepresentations of how people are perceived, and that fame comes at the cost of family.
How much of television is comprised of real life? By examining one show within its context, one can find the answer. Reality is reflected in the themes; rhetorical strategies; and audience, importance, and popularity. By examining the situational comedy series: Drake and Josh, a popular teen show from 2004, it is possible to see how reality shapes television. Drake and Josh is centered around two brothers in San Diego, California: Drake and Josh. Drake is portrayed as the suave, charming, bad boy in a band. He gets all the girls, leaving Josh in the dust. Josh is a nerdy brainiac, who has an unhealthy infatuation with Oprah Winfrey. They also have a meteorologist father and a kooky mother. Plus, a younger sister who painfully pranks them in
How Reality TV affects the audience and the characters who were participating into it? Does it really give knowledge to people who were watching and supporting? Or is it just the sake of money and exposing their appearance on television? When it comes to watching television, people at home can choose which types of program they want to want for many reasons. Some people look to television for inspiration; others want to be kept informed about their surroundings and the world. In the article entitled, “Reality TV and Culture” by Jack Perry, he argues, there are some good points to how reality television are formed and offered. Perry explains that, not all of the shows are designed to encourage and promote dangerous and unrealistic. However,
Reality based television has a broad landscape ranging from competitive game-like shows to programs following the daily lives of a group of people. Every major network now has some form of reality programming because the genre’s shows are high in viewership and require low costs for production. The genre is appealing to viewers because it provides them with a first-hand look into the lives of everyday people, which allows them to observe social behavior that helps them determine what is appropriate or not (Tyree, 2011, p. 397). Since the majority of modern reality stars start out as unknowns, frequent viewers of reality programming believed that fame is obtainable if they appear on a popular show (Mendible, 2004). According to Mendible’s evaluation of the genre in the article Humiliation, Subjectivity, and Reality TV, people enjoy reality programs beca...
The emergence and soon popularity of reality TV in some degree demonstrates the huge market of selling “real experience” through exposing “realities” of privacy, relationship between players, etc. (Deery 2004 in TV program area.). However, reality TV may not be intrinsically “real” though almost all involved players are unprofessional actors and programs are usually highly inscribed. Players are actually selected carefully (e.g. audition or interviews) and constrained by various signed agreements and all filmed scene sections are delicately edited with special purposes, making reality TV kind of erasing reality and fiction together (Bingchun & George (2003)).
Throughout the novel Brave New World the author Aldous Huxley shows the readers a dystopian society where Ford is worshiped as a God, people only live sixty years, where there is a drug exists without the unwanted side effects, and movies where you can feel what is happening. This is what the author thinks the future of the world would be. However, despite the author's attempt to predict the future the novel and the real world contrast because the concepts in the novel like love and marriage and life and death drastically contrast with how they are dealt with today.
The first effect of reality shows is the image it gives viewers. Reality shows give misconceptions of everyday life; the Real World and Jersey Shore show young adults relaxing, having a good time, and partying every day. The...
It is no secret that reality television shows often present contrived situations as reality. Many producers claim that there are no scripts used in the production of reality shows. They maintain that nothing in the lives of the participants is planned purely for viewers’ entertainment, and that what is presented in the show is their actual reality. However, most people know this to be untrue to a certain degree. The events and situations in reality shows are often staged, re-enacted, or cleverly edited to make them appear more dramatic, thereby more interesting, than they are. Elizabeth Larkin writes, “After so many “reality” programs, we can discern a pattern of “characters” that isn’t very far different from the stock characters found in fictional programming. There’s the sweet and naive person from a small town looking to make it big while still retaining small town values. There’s the party girl/guy who’s always looking for a good time and who shocks those around them—and the list goes on” (Larkin 290). Participants in reality television shows are often looking to gain wealth and fame, and they are willing to do anything necessary to achieve that.
MTV: Music Television was an idea formed by various communication specialists. Majority of the acknowledgment for the making of MTV is given to Tom Freston, an entertainment industry executive, and Robert Pittman, an American businessman. The idea to create a station such as MTV was not one that would have been called random, or unrelated to the time period. This idea was more of a question of how to accomplish something as new as this. Music videos were not widely popular, and in order for MTV to survive, audiences had to be consumed by these videos. On Saturday August 1st, 1981, at 12:01 am Eastern Time, MTV has their debut. The channel opened with, “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll,” said by John Lack in their New York City studio. The original purpose of MTV was to play music videos 24/7, all the time. People known as “Video Jockeys” or “VJs” directed these videos. Videos played all day for a period of time, but eventually MTV began running television programs such as “The Real World” and “The Osbournes.” In 1984, the NY Times reported that MTV planned to start a second 24-hour music channel in January aimed at viewers aged 25 to 49 (NY Times 1984). Present day, MT...
In Signs of Life in the USA, Francine Prose states that it is an essential semiotic principle that, one way or another, everything connects up in a society. Prose, an author of sixteen books of fiction and five nonfiction books (for children and adults) is a contributing editor at Harper’s and a writer on art for the Wall Street Journal. Prose also reviews books, teaches creative writing, speaks in many places about fiction, and is a member in a special Art program. In her provocative analysis of the underlying ideology of reality television (RTV), Prose discovers what may seem a surprising connection between the RTV craze and current trends in American politics. Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon state that today’s office-related entertainments are neither happy nor have happy endings and that their humor, when comical, become a combination of Schadenfreude, (taking pleasure in the suffering or misfortunes of others), and a certain rueful satisfaction taken by watching the sorts of things that one has to endure in real working life exaggerated for the sake of comedy (172). Like in NBC’s Average Joe, contestants are voted off and embarrassed throughout the show just to be rewarded with something they think is worth it all. While the whole show is based on Schadenfreude and they act as if they do not notice.
A drastic change from the average dating show. According to MTV.com, the program’s description reads, “If your perfect match was standing right in front of you, would you even know it? MTV selected 10 gorgeous single women and 10 hot single guys and put them through an extensive matchmaking process to find their perfect match.” The premise of this show keeps the main objective of helping singles find true love, but it is done so with a creative twist. Before the contestants are even sent to the location of the game show, or even met anyone who will share the experience with them, their “perfect match” has already been discovered through a dating website style algorithm. It is then there goal to discover who their perfect match is out of the ten possible matches. This is done by competing in weekly challenges and interacting with each other. At the end of every episode they all pair up and are told how many correct matches have been made, but the catch is that the contestants do not know which couples are a match. If by the end of the designated time all ten matches have been found, not only do they find love, but they split a cash prize. In the article “Why Do We Tune In To Reality TV?” the author discusses the multiple reasons as to why reality television is so popular and explains that, “Some were drawn to shows like Temptation Island because they found the singles "so beautiful" and "like people they
While Americans watch these shows, it seems that the show is real life, but in reality, no pun intended, before the show is even filmed, it’s written, edited, and produced (Breyer 21). Writers humiliate and degrade people just for the plot of the show, making their private lives public (Breyer 16). One question that viewers ask is, “Is Reality Television really real?” One can think so, but in the long run, it is really not. A great example of this is World Wrestling Entertainment, also known as the WWE.
In this day and age, there isn’t hardly a person who doesn’t watch some form of reality television. Whether it is an adrenaline pumping baking competition, a talent based show with singing and dancing, or the pure entertainment of a day in the life of celebrities most everyone watches some form of reality television. There seems to be a few different sides of reality TV that make it so entertaining for people to watch. There seems to be the shows that lure people in because of the motivational aspect, the drama, or the deep down genuine appearance. However, most people are oblivious to the fact that the screen they are watching isn’t usually what actually happens in real life. James Poniewozik explains the manipulation going on behind the camera