Reality Television Programs Have Been

Reality Television

Television programs have been in the forefront of shaping the public awareness and are also blamed for creating public propaganda and unrest. Traditionally while media programs were focused on the acting done through the people who wanted to perfect and depict the lives of other historical figures or times, presently a new genre of television programming has become common, referred as "reality television programming." In this programming, cameras are not focused to perfect a scene acted by a versatile actor, rather cameras are focused on the lives of common people and cameras are focused on depicting the most vulnerable weaknesses of human lives (Doyle, 114). For example, in Joe Millionare, the girls were depicted as a bunch of whiney, mean, silly, deceptive girls, asking to be put in their place. 'Joe' himself was nothing more than a common average person. Similarly, let us take the case of the Bachelor. The show was so unrealistic, even being a reality TV, several girls were trying to find true love through one-hour shows over several weeks. Similarly, there are several other shows: are you hot, survivors, and apprentice that are the staples of common public, including the children.

In fact, reality show has created a flawed impression in the minds of kids. What they watch on TV, they think as if it were the reality. They forget that what is choreographed is a fine tuned program that is shown to expose the most vulnerable weaknesses of the human lives. Kids love it because they come to understand that if people on television can behave peevishly, they have every right to act the similar way because it makes them cool in front of their peers.

There are several reasons that reality television has become popular today.

The concepts of money, instant fame, and the guilty pleasure are cited as the common reasons. Today's shows offer huge sums of money to people who do not necessarily possess the career skills that would make them a productive enough member of society. However, acting in reality television and putting their most vulnerable and private moments in front of the cameras provide them enough money that they were hardly earn through honest work.

Let us take the example of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. This show offered up to a million dollars to people answering a set of questions. The questions, however, differed from related shows in that they were usually trivia oriented. The audience was involved, as well as calling a friend and so on, which added to the drama aspect. The lighting, music, and editing all were contrived to produce the maximum possible suspense surrounding rather innocuous pop culture subjects one might find in any game of Trivial Pursuit for Children. The promise of money and the vicarious joy at someone winning lots of money, or more commonly spectacularly losing said money, is what draws millions of viewers. The second reason of reality television has become popular because people want to get instant fame (Glynn, 23-25). Reality television takes ordinary people, sets them up in extraordinary situations on a world stage with other similarly commonplace individuals, and makes them the focus of a nation's attention on,. This kind of concept offers a chance of vicarious living through which audience is hooked on the TV programming. The third reason that reality television is popular today is that it offers guilty pleasure syndrome. It shows that many people vicariously are delighted with the fortunes or misfortunes of the people when they are exposed via television programs (Glynn, 31).

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 some, if not guided by their parents or guardians, misbehave in front of public. Second, as the content of sexual contents and violence is increasing, a large part of American culture is becoming less tolerant and civilized because reality television programs usually expose the weak behavior not the strong behavior of the people (Palmer, 56)

Research has shown that kids that watch shows with violence without parental advice are less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others; more fearful of the world around them; more likely to behave in aggressive or harmful ways toward others; and less aroused by violent scenes than are those who only watch a little. The research also found that those who watched a violent program instead of a nonviolent one were slower to intervene or to call for help when, a little later, they saw younger children fighting or playing destructively (Libert, 114-129).

Empirical research on framing effects proves that main portrayal genres reality entertainment programs make use of victim blaming and scapegoat sentiments in the viewer. This kind of programs while may catch the attention of the viewers, it generates wrong ideas in the minds of kids, hoping that they can blame someone else for their failures in life.