Temptation Island And Big Brother

People have long been fascinated by celebrities. We crave to see individuals rise from humble beginnings to public notoriety. We see something within ourselves and latch our dreams onto these larger than life figures and propel them into international icons. We see them as brave, honest, intelligent, caring or just downright sexy.

Fame at one point was only reserved for Hollywood actors. Lines such as “Im ready for my close up” from Sunset Boulevard defined the golden age of illusion and fantasy. However with the advent of reality television, suddenly everyone can be a celebrity with a platform. Shows such as Temptation Island and Big Brother brought together a competitive personality driven show with racy storylines. The genre then evolved

Though reality TV seems like a fairly new concept, reality shows were first introduced in 1948 when Allen Funt then debuted “Candid Camera.” A hidden camera show that saw people be the centre of gags, often at their expense and in 1973 a documentary series called “An American Family” which gave birth to one of the earliest examples of personality driven TV. (Siocum)

Because of the term “reality,” reality television has begun diluting peoples perceptions of what is real and truthful. “Frankenbiting” as its dubbed is a technique in which producers would fabricate responses to situations by splicing and editing responses asked at a previous time. (Poniewozik,McDowell) This is done to create a reaction and outcome, popular with the audience so that shows stay the course of what the audience and the producers demand.

The extent of media delusion and popularity has in recent times become so high, a CBS Evening News report highlighted how “More people watched American Idol on FOX than saw President Bush’s State of the Union speech on ABC, NBC and CBS combined” (Pozner, Jennifer

The audience often lives in a fantasy world along side celebrity lives. We are a culture obsessed with idolizing “the perfect person.” and feel that by being fans of a certain individual they suddenly become them, or at least, have a taste of what it feels like to be them for a day. We become so enamored by that craving, we forget that these people are individuals and that we are only feeding into something that will inevitably disappoint us. Suzanne Collins shows how society wants fantasy, even if someone such as Katniss is unable to truthfully believe her own