Victims of Reality Television

In recent years there has been a surge in the popularity of reality television. Shows such as Teen Mom, The Jersey Shore, The Bachelor and Real World have dominated the broadcast airwaves. As these shows become increasingly popular; we must question their influence on the minds of our youth. The strong fascination that the young American culture has with reality television can negatively affect their lives by glorifying immoral behavior. In this research, I will use the combination method of qualitative and quantitative analysis to show how reality television is influencing our youth to accept immoral behavior. In addition, using these methods to explore the outcomes that result from watching reality television.

Since 1990s, reality television has made an impact in our culture with its unique style of programming. Reality television is a genre of television programming invented in the early 1990s with the first reality show, MTV’s The Real World. Reality television is a type of programming genre that documents life stories and situations that occur in the lives of a certain group. This genre also consists of different subgenres such as documentaries, dating, competition, renovation and hidden camera. Each unique subgenre is created to target all different types of viewers. Although each subgenre is unique, they all are similar such as displaying an unlimited amount of improper behavior.

There are key characteristics that define reality television. One of the key features is unscripted programming with unprofessional actors. According to a majority of reality shows producers, they claim their show is unscripted because participants are under surveillance twenty-four hours, seven days a week. Another characteristic is the ...

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...ter high school and college, they become exposed to parties that consist of alcohol, drugs and sex. Many began watching reality television to mimic the party antics they see because they consider it “cool”. It is also cool to them because the individuals on these shows are people their ages. Respondents from the survey explained that our youth learn how to drink and what to drink from watching reality television. They also learn how to develop bad behaviors such as rude manners, foul language, and out of control conduct. Lastly, a major concern pointed out by the respondents was teenagers and college students can learn sexual misconduct. This is dangerous because unsafe sex practices can result to sexual transmitted diseases. Overall, the temptation of our youth’s surroundings does not stay in control while they are exposed to improper behavior seen on reality shows.