Our television today is filled with reality tv shows. But the question that i am asking is do these shows really depict what reality is? Well my answer is no. I believe that these televion shows, although we are told that this is reality are scripted. No ones life, to my belief, is that perfect or can have that much drama especially on tv. When you watch a reality tv show, there is always a plot or a story line for that particular show. Things are edited and things are cut out when filming is done to fit the plot. Reality can not be edited. I believe that reality, as we have discussed in class, is the truth no wait the absolute truth to a person. These tv shows do not depict that.
Another reason why my answer is no is because i believe that people will act a certain way to get attention when they are going to be cast on tv. Television is supposed to be entertainment and people are going to change the way they act to entertain the people. I also believe that the people editing the show are going to edit in a way to make the person seem like something they are not. That is just how i feel.
Although i am degrading reality tv shows, I cant get enough of them. They bring me entertainment. For example The Hills, now i know that a lot of people watch this show and although i know it is not really real i really want to find out if Hedi is finally going to realize that she needs to leave Spencer and get her friendship back with Lauren. See what these shows do to you!
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4 comments:
you make a good point star! as much as we want to believe that these shows are real, and not scripted nobody always looks perfect like they do on shows like the hills, and seriously, who has that much drama in their lives!? the producers just make it as ridiculous as possible so people like us will watch it! i guess it works though :]
Your post reminded me of my experience that I was shocked to realize that my favorite "reality" program turned out to have four writers for a plot. However,many people still believed that the program was real,which was totally fake.I wonder if there will be a program in the future which shows real"reality" !
I agree! Reality TV isn't really a true depiction of real life at all. It turns out to be more of a soap opera to me. The people are thrown into situations that are created for entertainment rather than what we would actually experience. I'm sure there are certain moments we can relate to, but not as dramatic as they are shown on what we view in television.
The problem I see, and what saddens me to think, is that because many of these kinds of shows aer so popular, it may start to work on the social mindset to the point where situations in society begin to mirror what's found on these reality tv shows. This is not without precedent. One silly yet relevant example has to do with cell phones. I saw this program called 'How Captain Kirk and Star Trek Influenced the Future' or something like that. They compared cell phones today to the communicators on Star Trek. They asked if it wasn't for Star Trek would we have cell phones? And even if we would, would they like as they do today? Agreement with what they suggest is not without merit, I think.
But there are other example which might hit closer to home. There was this one, in my opinion hoaky, reality show that featured Scott Baio and how he had a problem with staying true to one woman. He went to see a psychological therapist about it. The show was basically about how he did what his therapist told him to do and the drama that came from it. I wonder how many people who had the same issue and watched the show did what Scott Baio portrayed on this show. How many therapists got a financial shot the arm due to this show? Of course this isn't a criticism of these people in any way. I point to it here only to show how tv can make reality look like what's on tv.
I agree with what you suggest: reality tv shows don't portray real life (or at least often portray), despite the key word 'reality'. But I also think that they can influence life to look like what the show falsly portrays as life. Here one might raise the classic question of which came first, the chicken or the egg, when regarding reality TV shows?
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