Blog #2: Hurry turn it on, turn it on, get your 15 minutes.

An issue that I think I have a different opinion on is the craze of reality television. Reality TV is one of the biggest trends in media right now. It seems like almost every other show on the air is a reality television show. But why do we watch it? Personally, I think it’s all a waste of time. Perfectly good shows get dropped by networks and yet somehow these ridiculous reality tv shows continue to thrive. So many people I know love the shows but I can’t stand to watch them.

I understand that sometimes it’s funny to watch people embarrass themselves or do silly things on tv, but it just gets to a point where it’s too much. The people in these reality shows are simply out for their 15 minutes of fame and are willing to do anything to be seen on television.



How real are these shows anyways? There is a lot that goes into the production of reality television, which isn’t really what one would think about when watching. The whole idea of a reality show is to put people into certain situations and get their initial reactions. However, with the powers of editing and everything else, producers can get shows and the people in them to look a certain way.

Not to mention most things that occur on reality tv shows is far from anything that any normal person would experience in their day to day life.

It’s not only the situations that are carefully planned out, but the people on the shows as well. The producers to these shows use an awful lot of stereotypes and even though the people differ from show to show you can normally pick out the characters such as the underdog, the liar, the partier, the naive one, the eye candy, etc.

People put on acts in order to get more air time on the shows, which kind of defeats the purpose of it being all that “real”. It makes it more like any other television show and to me that’s just another thing that lacks appeal. What makes one reality show better than the next? They’re all just loud, crazy people doing stupid things on television in hopes of becoming rich and famous.

Don't believe me? Meet 'Crazy James'.

When you get right down to it, there really isn’t anything all that “real” about these shows. It all goes back to media being a construction. They want you to think and feel a certain way about each different character and what they’re doing on the show. The shows are made with producers hoping you’ll see what they want you to see. Really, all they’re doing is exploiting innocent people for profit and entertainment, with no real regard for who might get hurt in the process, as long as it makes good television.

So why do people watch these shows? It’s beyond me. Although I did find this article on About.com which questioned the ethics behind reality tv, I think it makes some very good points. You can find it right here.

Reality tv is just another one of those media creations designed to create profit for the creators and make the people in them obscene amounts of money while people sit at home finding some form of entertainment in all the insanity. I just don’t see myself getting caught up in the hype. I’d rather be living life than watching other people do so on tv.