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Reality Television Essay In this contemporary society, many individuals are getting hooked and exposed to numerous kinds and different genres of reality television shows. Most of the producers of the reality television seem that they are aiming to give us entertainment and show us what “reality” is through their programs. However, these shows are intended to persuade, influence, and manipulate its viewers in many ways. In Reality Bites Back: The Troubling Truth about Guilty Pleasure TV, Jennifer Pozner examines how reality TV shows such as America’s Next Top Model can have a strong influence in today’s society. America’s Next Top Model is a popular modeling and competition show that aims towards a group of people, particularly women. These aspiring models have to face weekly challenges while living together in order to compete for a modeling contract. Given that many viewers enjoy watching the show, it has become a serious issue affecting our culture. In general, many reality television shows, particularly the America’s Next Top Model, sends negative messages and reinforces stereotypes to manipulate the viewers to believe that the ideal standard level of beauty can be attained. America’s Next Top Model’s goal is to help the female community to feel good about the way they look in their own skin. Tyra Banks, one of the judges and producer of America’s Next Top Model, stated, “It’s my number one passion in my life to stretch the definition of beauty. I listen to many heartbreaking stories of women who thought they would be happier if they looked different. I want every girl to appreciate the skin she’s in” (pg. 196). This reality television program shows the transformations of different young women from different backgrounds, si... ... middle of paper ... ... of beauty. The female viewers, who watch the show, are also getting the false notion that being “thin” is the ideal body image in this society without knowing that can be harmful and create damaging impacts on them. In general, America’s Next Top Model is not truly promoting the desired beauty, but establishing unhealthy beauty standards that influence viewer’s perceptions. Work Cited Page “Be My Friend, Tyra!” America’s Next Top Model. The CW. New York. 10 March 2010. Television. “Makeover Madness.” America’s Next Top Model. The CW. New York. 17 March 2010. Television. Pozner, Jennifer. “Get Comfortable with My Flaw Finder.” Reality Bites Back: The Troubling Truth about Guilty Pleasure TV. Berkeley: Seal Press, 2010. 60-97. Print. Pozner, Jennifer. Reality Bites Back: The Troubling Truth about Guilty Pleasure TV. Berkeley: Seal Press, 2010. Print.
Winn, Marie. “Television Addiction” The McGraw-Hill Reader. 8th ed. Ed. Gilbert Muller, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003. 505-507
Poniewozik, James. “What’s Right With Reality TV.” Time 175.7 (2010): 92-97. Academic Search Complete. Web. 17 May 2013.
In the Time’s article, “Why Reality TV Is Good for Us,” author James Poniewozik discusses the rapid growth of reality television shows, as well as their recent popularity and success. According to Poniewozik, reality shows involve a huge chunk of the entertainment industry that succeeds because of their audiences’ astonishment and disgust regarding the exaggerated events that take place on the shows (Poniewozik)
Nabi, Robin L., et al. "Reality-Based Television Programming and the Psychology of Its Appeal." Media Psychology 5 (2003): 303-330.
Our author discusses all the aspects of reality TV; from the way it captivates the viewers to the way it gratifies them. The author also appeals argument to the correct audience, which is also helps retaining the particular viewers. The author uses an aggressive tone to appeal to the audience. The author does not use sophisticated language, so the reader could not follow. She had written this article so well that the readers would not feel lost at any point. This also helps audience to retain their interest in this article. In this article, the author shows some interesting statistics that supports her argument and also helps individuals to believe and keep them interested. The author states, “78.2% reported being regular viewers of reality television programs”(p.275). The author also shows that the statistics was taken from 110 people who were asked to complete a uses and gratification survey on reality television (p.275). The results of the statistic shows that about half of the people interviewed watch TV on a regular basis. If these statistics were taken on a larger scale, it would show similar results and it would prove that people are regular viewers of reality television. When you show statistics, which supports an argument, it becomes very interesting for the audience to believe and continue having audience’s attention. The statistics clearly proves author’s
In an article ' The Plug-In Drug ' the author Marie Winn discusses the bad influence of television on today's society. Television is a ' drug ' that interfere with family ritual, destroys human relationships and undermines the family.
American actress, Lisa Bonet, once said, “What saddens me is the corruption of youth and beauty, and the loss of soul, which is only replaced by money.” Today’s television shows are decaying into more polluted and inappropriate ideas, which are then presented worldwide. This is a negative influence on not only young people, but also society as a whole. How can it be expected of youth today to be appropriate role models to future generations with such corrupt influences? With the filth, dishonesty, and abuse of freedom of speech, reality television ultimately does more harm on today’s society than good.
As the fictitious character of Katniss Everdeen captured the 21st century audience, so does the viewer of American reality television. Taken into account the influences of American reality shows, there’s just so much a parent can monitor children’s TV viewing. It’s a given fact that the young mimics the adults and as such, if these reality icons influence a supposedly mature adult, how much more of youngsters? In as much as I want to argue that it all depends on one’s moral standards, it seems to be apparent that the influence of today’s American reality TV may be perceived as psychologically destructive. Hence, may one day contradict a supposedly civilized society governed by standards of right and
Maybe you want to eat worm-based cakes, or fish eyeballs, or even jump off of a building-- but through the television glass, even the scariest of moments of reality can be entertaining. In the article “Reality Television: Oxymoron,” George F. Will speaks about television desensitizing people to important issues. Many shows broadcast are very violent, causing a domino effect resulting in darker and darker shows designed to compete. George F. Will agrees; reality television is more mainstream drama than “reality.”
Imagine a distant post-apocalyptic future in which a large silver box has just been excavated from the ruins of what was once Los Angeles, a box that contains stack after stack of DVD’s with titles like Survivor, The Bachelor, Biggest Loser, The Swan, Real World, The Apprentice, and Hell’s Kitchen. What might anthropologists conclude about our 21st century society if these shows were their only glimpse into how we lived our lives? Francine Prose ponders this same question in her essay “Voting Democracy off the Island: Reality TV and the Republican Ethos,” in which she asks not only what future anthropologists might deduce, but, “for that matter,” what “contemporary TV-addicted children and adults” might realize if they were to more closely examine their motivation for watching these shows (22). Salman Rushdie, in his article “Reality TV: A Dearth of Talent and the Death of Mortality,” suggests that we need to examine reality television closely because “it tells us things about ourselves,” and even if we don’t think it does, it “ought to,” a claim that suggests that if we merely brush off reality television as a fad, we might be missing something inherently valuable about our nature (16). In her essay, “The Distorting Mirror of Reality Television,” Sarah Coleman suggests that reality television offers a distorted reflection, a “dark view of humanity in the guise of light entertainment,” a consideration that asks us to see who we are in this distorted reflection of our values (19). The question then is: what do we see when we see ourselves in this “dime-store mirror” (“Reality TV” 16)? Whatever the answer to this question might be, the question itself suggests that there is something inherently human about our fascination with r...
This essay examines three reality TV shows: MTV's The Real World: Denver, CBS's Survivor: Cook Islands, and the FX network's miniseries Black. White. The essay argues that the reality shows promote differences in individuals. Each reality show positioned race as the main factor in the conflicts the cast members experienced while on the show. The shows put the cast members in situations that reinforced “cultural codes” (Bell-Jordan) and stereotypes. The cast members of each of the shows were put into situations that were constantly enforcing racial stereotypes, done on purpose by the producers. In the essay, the author argues that media makes the viewers have a struggle in what they choose to believe. She also states that society participates in an unconscious struggle on how to discern what they see on the television. Society is in a fight to discover what is the meaning behind what they are watching on the television. Viewers are not realizing the material being transmitted to them on the television is causing an impact on how they look at individuals of other races. An individual is unconsciously accepting all that is being transmitted to them, but they must decide how valid what is being portrayed about certain races. Producers give specific roles and place stereotypes on individuals in order to gain viewers. Producers place stereotypes on the cast of their show because it attracts attention from viewers; the producers stereotyped the models on the show Americas Next Top Model. The models were given “roles” that categorize them with a specific race. The "role" the models portray is often dehumanizing to the models and is misinterpreting to who is watching the show. The roles that the models are made to act in gives the viewer t...
...th the modern era defining beautiful as having less weight. (WiseGeek, n.d.) Another argument is that thin is a feminist issue and they just use this as a headline grabber because 39.4 million of Americans suffer from obesity and the British NHS survey of Disordered Eating noted 620 hospital treatments for anorexia or bulimia (with some patients registered twice or more) for 2005 to 2006 as opposed to 17,458 for the same period for obesity. They also argue that more material is being saved when models are thinner and clothes look more elegant and drapes effortlessly on skinnier models. Most models and designers argue that models are not supposed to eat and they are meant to be skinny to sell more clothes or make them look more appealing.
“Girl fights” became an expectation on reality television (Isaac). Much like a child, adults learn from what they see. Television shows show successful, skinny, beautiful women fighting over unnecessary subjects. The women on television trigger drama and unfortunately, that is what keeps viewers entertained. Most women complain about having too much drama, but they religiously tune into their favorite reality television shows to keep up with their drama. Somewhere along the years "successful" turned from happy and healthy to skinny, popular, and rich, and "beauty" turned from genuine and kind to thin and fashionable. Ironically, these perspectives changed as the entertainment industry evolved to portray these norms.
The ideal image that the media has created is to be exceptionally thin and tall. This is what the media considers to be beautiful. This ideal image can be seen on a daily basis just about everywhere on advertisements, which promote this unattainable image constantly. Research has proven that women tend to feel more insecure about themselves when they look at a magazine or television, which makes them feel self conscious(Mackler 25). The irony in this is that not even the women in the advertisements are as flawless as they appear to be. In order for a woman to appear in the mass media her image must be enhanced in several ways. A women is often airbrushed to conceal their actual skin but it does not end there. Through various computerized programs a woman's actual features are distorted until a false unrealistic image is reached.
Cohen, Ilisa “Is Reality TV Messing With Your Head?’ Scholastic Choices November 2012: 12-7. Proquest. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.