Compare And Contrast The 1950s And Reality Tv Shows

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Introduction This paper will compare and contrast the 1950’s quiz show scandal and 2016 reality TV shows. I will base the information of 2016 reality TV shows from my personal knowledge of watching The Bachelor and Big Brother Canada. It is evident that through the year’s viewers have become more ok with rigging of TV shows and are less bothered by lying, cheating and manipulation. It seems across that board that producers are confident in controlling their own shows in anyway that will keep viewing numbers up. The quiz shows and todays reality TV shows both seem to take a quest narrative of how they take this adventure to getting the money. These shows could possibly follow the narrative from rags to riches but I don’t completely agree with that because these shows do not follow show the contestants as extremely poor, the winnings are also are not usually a life changing …show more content…

In the 1950’s people had their eyes on the prize of achieving the American Dream. Now in the 21st Century everyone doesn’t want just the American Dream they just want more of everything and to achieve that they need more money. It also seems like more of a competition now to who has the most money and the most expensive materialized items. Big money for little effort is glorified and is seen in gambling and drug dealing movies and TV shows such as 21 and Breaking Bad. Many individuals thrive to be on shows with monetary reward because of the cultural myth that money make you happy. The 1950s quiz shows and 2016 reality TV shows both follow Sternheimer’s American Dream Theme of “Success Just for Being Yourself.” This theme focuses on that idea that “we are all in this together”, this was evident in the quiz show when a large number of contestants that were testifying stuck together and lied. An example of this in todays reality TV in the ‘Bachelor Nation” which includes contestants and

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