Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
Anthro
Reality television shows about Amish lifestyle and culture reveal an eerily ironic fascination of one of the only ethnic groups in the United States to deliberately eschew technology. The use of technology to capture ethnographic data on the Amish communities in America is therefore as problematic as the reality television shows are at trying to capture Amish life using the very tools the Amish shun. In "Researching the 'Un-Digital' Amish community: methodological and ethical reconsiderations for human subjects research," Tabetha Adkins claims that ethnographers and anthropologists need to develop and implement more flexible methodologies that are not only more ethical, but also more accurate.
The author establishes her biases as a self-declared "technophile" who originally imposed technological tools upon Amish subjects in a sort of active display of colonialism or cultural imperialism (Adkins, 2011, p. 39). Adkins (2011) claims that researchers have become dependent on their technological tools for observation, data collection, measurement, and analysis. Moreover, ethnographers hoping to collect data from a non-technological population group are using emails and other methods that are anathema to the Amish. As Adkins (2011) puts it, "digital texts and the technology that creates and displays...
39). The Amish have cleverly and admirably preserved an intact cultural and ethnic identity without succumbing to the dominant culture, as would be otherwise predicted. Some of the ways the Amish have achieved their goal of resiliency and resisted assimilations include the pervasiveness of religion in Amish society; the entrenchment of social norms; and the aggressive penetration of Amish languages throughout the community. In "The English Effect' on Amish language and literacy practices," Adkins (2011) notes that language is absolutely equated with identity in the Amish community. This in itself is nothing unusual. However, the Amish children have been exposed to "English only" written literacy in the American public school system. The method by which the Amish have demonstrated resilience in spite of tremendous pressures has been to create three unique domains for language use in the community. Those three domains include the home, the church, and the relations with the outside world. In the home, Amish speak Pennsylvania Dutch, a variation on Swiss German. In Church, the Amish speak High German for liturgical reasons. The Amish are also fluent in English as a lingua franca. What is unique about Pennsylvania Dutch and High German is that they are…
References
Adkins, T. (2011). "The English Effect' on Amish language and literacy practices." Community Literacy Journal 5(2): 25-45
Adkins, T. (2011). "Researching the 'Un-Digital' Amish community: methodological and ethical reconsiderations for human subjects research." Community Literacy Journal 6(1): 39-53.
Reality Television Television: the ever evolving medium: Television's growth as an edutainment medium has been phenomenal. In societies that are more developed, TV adores the living room of almost every household. TV viewing has been the leading recreational activity for majority of population with U.S. household reported to be glued to their TV sets for almost seven hours daily on an average. Even though TV ownership in Asia and Latin America are
Reality TV Disclosure and familiarity between the audience and program in reality TV With the prevalence of reality television programming, mass media has become more intrusive and real to the audience: what with the inclusion of so-called 'ordinary people,' audiences have become more acquainted with the rudiments of TV program creation and dynamics. Indeed, the most appealing quality of reality TV programs is that audiences are able to realize the possibility that
Then, a fourth reason is that reality shows can sometimes reveal situations of success, which in turn inspire and motivate the audiences to change their lives for the better. Examples of such shows include Dr. 90210, in which plastic surgeons operate on patients, change their appearance and as such increase their self-esteem, or the several shows revealing people fighting, and beating, obesity (Goodman). These types of reality shows set the
Individuals watching these types of rejections receive guilty pleasure from something they feel that they shouldn't be watching (Reality television). Also, relating to characters on reality shows helps people to feel better about their own lives and problems (DeWall, 2009). Yes, according to another survey, the ongoing popularity of reality television is due to these shows, unlike other shows such as news programs or sitcoms, allowing the viewers to imagine
Some shows are more palatable than others. The contest shows such as "America's Top Model," or "American Idol" are in general less about interpersonal problems and more about the competition. However, shows like "Nanny 911" or the various wife-swapping shows depict so much screaming and shouting that they fail to be enjoyable to watch. "Survivor" and "The Amazing Race" include a lot of bickering and most likely the editors of
It is true that reality television programs have effectively grabbed the public, including the kids attentions. While interest groups do not believe that violence and sex in television programs have any effect on the public, especially kids, the research has shown that the programming contents are highly effective in influencing the behavior of kids. For example, in watching Springer show, many children think that shouting, disrespecting, abusing is common, and