Jouranl Analysis

Reality TV

            Reality television is a genre that people of all ages enjoy to watch, whether it is admitted or not.  Reality television is generally what society views as life.  We as society often watch reality television to find someone to associate with or to watch someone you could never be.  Reality television can last for just one season or multiple seasons. Reality television takes us into the world of the known and unknown. 

            In the book review by Kathleen LeBesco, she talks about different books in one article about the novel, Reality TV: The Work of Being Watched by Mark Andrejevic, it is said that when reality started in 2000, there were claims that it was not really reality TV because it was not “real”.  With the first reality TV being shows like Fear Factor, it is hard to say if it really is “real”. For those of you who do not remember, Fear Factor is the show when people would eat nasty things like cow testacies for money. Since this show reality TV has branched of into many different types.  Reality TV was brought along change television programming to start something new and upbeat. LeBesco states that according to Andrejevic “rather than empowering the people, digital interactivity has ushered in an era of proliferating media mergers and extreme concentration of wealth” (LeBesco, 2003, 1117).  Reality TV did change television but it also showed people how greedy and money hungry we as a society are.  People would sign up for these shows to either further their careers or just for the money.  But as a society why do we like to watch this people exploit themselves for money?

            After reading the article, Keeping it real: Why we like to watch reality dating television shows, by Robert Samuels, I began to realize that we watch reality television because of our own selfish reasons. For dating shows the number one reason that people like to watch reality TV was because “It’s fun to watch other people be rejected” (Samuels, 2007, 195).  We like to escape from the normal lives we live. We do not look at Reality TV as a payday for these people we watch it to see other people be humiliated because that is something that we have to deal with.  We enjoying know that other people go through the same things we do in our day to day lives.

That was the second reason people watch reality TV, “The people on these shows are just like us” (Samuel, 2007, 195). 

            Even though it is argued that reality TV is real because the people are not actors.  Reality TV is controlled just like any other program on television.  “By using real people and placing them real situations, reality television programs are thus able to lull the audience into misperceiving controlled situations as being spontaneous events” (Samuels, 2007, 196).  Reality TV is a genre of television programming that is going to increase due to demand.  We as a society will continue to watch because of the interest in the situations that this people are facing and people will continue to sign up for the money. 

References

LeBesco, K.(2005). Book Review: Reality TV: The art of being watched. Journal of Popular

 Culture, 38(6), 1116-1119. Retrieved from EBSCO database.

Samuels, R. (2007). Keeping it real: Why we like to watch reality dating television shows. In M. Petracca, & M. Sorapure, Common Culture (pp. 193-200). Upper Saddle River: Pearson.