Reality Television Matthew Comandante, Period 4

“Art may imitate life, but life imitates TV.

- Ani Difranco (American Singer from the 1970s)

Definition of Reality Television-Real people being document in actual or real events

-Cheaply produced entertainment made to connect to its viewers

THESIS

• Reality Television in the last decade has progressively changed our perception of entertainment and has affected society’s

behavior.

Example: Survivor

-Created by Mark Burnett

-Put people together in fake situations and presented them with physical “challenges

-Became very popular in early 2000s

-People related their lives to the antics players went through

-Led to the rise of what TIME magazine named voyeur television

2nd Example: Jersey Shore

• MTV reality television series

• Follows group of young people that spend their summer together at a small beach house

• Debuted in December 2009

• Favored by young people

Causes for Reality T.V. - Cheaper form of entertainment than sitcoms

-Economic reasons were primarily the reason

-Though many types of shows to relate to different types of people; “relatable”

-Ex: Wife Swap aims to remake the appearances and lives of middle class families

- Also created because it’s what’s popular at the moment

- About $950,000 per episode for a reality television show on a major broadcast network

- This can vary of course according to the show

Influence on its Viewers-Leaves it viewers with a distorted picture of what “reality” is

-Shows a glamorization of sex and violence

-Makes youth believe they could attain “celebrity” status

-Makes viewers believe stereotyping people is good

-Ex: Guidos in Jersey Shore

-People worried about its influence on their children

-Afraid of them acting out of control like people on diff. shows

-Swearing, fighting, etc.

Shows Americans like Sitcoms over Reality TV

-Post WWII many of the first reality TV shows appeared

-Ted Mack’s “Original Amateur Hour”

-Beat the Clock (a quiz show that loosely could compare to Wipeout)

-Queen for A Day (women told their heart-breaking stories in order to get a prize)

-Cinema Verité Movement -Genre of documentary film meant to be very minimalistic

-Location shooting and handheld cameras made practitioners feel they achieved greater realism

-Famous example was Robert Drew's Primary focused on Hubert v. Kennedy

-

• Both cinema verité and reality television today use minimalistic methods for filming

• Provide a sense of realism that scripted television does not

• Cheaper than scripted television or movies

• Show real people portrayed in certain situations

How do they relate?

How are they different?

-Cinema Verité was more documentary of real people -Opposed to reality TV which is a television show

-Cinema Verité was more for political and educational use -Reality TV is more for entertainment

Do Americans prefer watching reality T.V. over sitcoms?

A: Americans prefer watching sitcoms (23% more)

How much does it cost to produce

Reality TV?

A: $950,000 roughly per episode

What were the causes of Reality TV?

It was a cheaper form of entertainment than sitcoms, and it was what was popular at the time. In order to obtain the most viewers, television production companies like ABC made reality shows.

How do you believe Reality TV is affecting our society?

• I believe that Reality TV is affecting our society for the worse. Many of the youth today in the society are having a change of behavior because of what they see. Shows like Jersey Shore make things like sex and violence to be okay, but there actually not. As a result, I believe that these shows distort many people’s perception of reality. Even if they are entertaining, these shows don’t really portray much morality within them.

Thanks for watching!

Works Cited 1. "Jersey Shore (TV, 2009)." Pop Culture Universe: Icons, Idols, Ideas. ABC-CLIO, 2011.

Web. 17 May 2011.2. Batchelor, Bob. "Reality Television (Overview)." Pop Culture Universe: Icons, Idols,

Ideas. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 17 May 2011. 3. Roman, James. "Reality Television: Need To Know." Pop Culture Universe: Icons, Idols,

Ideas. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 18 May 2011. 4. Abbott, Alan. "Cinema Verite." Pop Culture Universe: Icons, Idols, Ideas. ABC-CLIO,

2011. Web. 18 May 2011. 5. Batchelor, Bob. "Television Industry in the 1950s." Pop Culture Universe: Icons, Idols,

Ideas. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 18 May 2011. 6. http://www.personal.psu.edu/edb5020/tv.html

7. http://www.nyu.edu/classes/stephens/History%20of%20Television%20page.htm 8. Haggerty, M. (2010, August 27). Reality tv. CQ Researcher, 20, 677-700. Retrieved

from http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearch9) http://blog.nola.com/tvfilm/2009/04/more_reality_tv_coming_to_you.html

10. http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/spotlighthealth/2002-10-23-proval-teen-sex_x.htm11. http://thinkexist.com/quotation/art_may_imitate_life-but_life_imitates_tv/221198.html

12. http://clearinghouse.missouriwestern.edu/manuscripts/409.php13. Pictures from: Flickr.com

Triplett, W. (2004, April 16). Broadcast indecency. CQ Researcher, 14, 321-344. Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/