Reality Television is an Oxymoron
Television over the years has changed from innocent, family friendly shows like
“Parkinson” and “Match of the day” to sitcoms like Only Fools and Horses or Friends
but In the last 15 years a new genre of television has started to thrive in households all
around the world: reality television. Reality Television itself can be split up into
different groups, more family oriented game shows and contests like Family
Fortunes or the more adult and exploitative shows like “Big Brother” or
“The only way is Essex.” While some of these shows may seem harmless and merely
giving an inside view of others lives I would argue that these shows are heavily
exploitative, they unwittingly promote dysfunctional behaviour and they scrape the
bottom of the barrel when it comes to entertainment.
Many reality shows display the glamorous lifestyles of rich people and their
Luxuries and nowadays many young people have started to try and mimic their
behaviour and see them as role models, going as far as to alter their own bodies. Most
reality shows are based on celebrities or “normal” people who live everyday lives that
a television company deems the most shocking or interesting enough to promote and
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broadcast. The problem with reality TV lies within the shows themselves and what the
editors and creators of the show want you to see. Companies know that nowadays
controversy and the idea of Beauty sells incredibly well to a young, mainly female
and teenage audience. As a result of shows like “Keeping up with the Kardashians,”
a show where an almost literally plastic family with overly dramatised problems moan
to each other for half an hour) young women have begun to follow in the footsteps of
the show’s main star Kim Kardashian, famous for her looks and body, by undergoing
plastic surgeries. Medical experts in America have estimated over 9.2 million
cosmetic surgeries have taken place since the dawn of this and many other reality TV
shows. This statistic proves that television show like these effect women’s self
confidence and make them question their own looks to the point that they would pay
to change them.
In similar fashion, other shows like “America’s next top model” which involves
young aspiring supermodels with near stick-like figures competing to be the new face
of a clothing brand or make-up company. While the program itself is arguably
harmless and may entertain some people, the themes of the program have resonated
with young women resulting in eating disorders almost tripling among girls between
thirteen and nineteen years old since 2000. Studies show that in 2003 it was recorded
that over eight million people in America were suffering from disorders such as
bulimia and anorexia, the vast majority being women and teenage girls. Reality TV of
this sort has already convinced many young people that to be accepted or seen as
beautiful that you have to be almost unhealthily skinny and starve yourself to do so.
These shows over the years have unwittingly caused a major change in the lives of
teenagers and children that may have repercussions of a damaging kind.
Delving into more idiotic territory of reality TV would involve shows such as
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“Jackass” which entails a group of individuals performing incredibly dangerous
stunts such as riding a tiny motorbike over a lake or being chased by bulls in an
arena which will potentially encourage young people to think that it is acceptable
behaviour , for the sake of entertainment. The actions of the cast of this show, while
not directly harming anyone but themselves, has started to encourage many others to
try their luck at being a daredevil. Since “Jackass’s” rise to popularity when it started
in 2000, many other shows have popped up being of the same ilk such as
“Dirty Sanchez” and “Wildboyz,” both involving the same kind of reckless and stupid
antics that the original did. Unfortunately, one of the show’s members, Ryan Dunn,
had lived up to his critics’ expectations when in June, 2011 he died in a car
accident. It was discovered that he and a friend were driving at over 120 miles per
hour on a country road in Pennsylvania while intoxicated. This unfortunate incident is
a permanent reminder why reckless behaviour shown in shows like “Jackass” is more
likely to get someone hurt than provide any real entertainment.
Some may argue that certain reality TV shows serve a purpose and may well teach
people what to expect in later life, but I would say that they are almost completely
exaggerated or scripted. A show called “Newlyweds,” a show about newly married
couples adjusting to their new lives, shows that getting married may not always be a
dream come true afterwards. The argument that a show like this could be at least
slightly educational is reasonably valid but I would argue that shows that are anything
Like this, shows like “Jersey Shore” which are presented in a similar way, are heavily
scripted, involve unrealistic scenarios and some shows even involve paid actors.
Producers of reality shows aren’t necessarily interested in providing a realistic show
or demonstrating anything “real” by definition in their shows. They are simply
interested in making a show that will attract as many viewers as possible and most of
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the time the producers won’t care if it is exploitative or in poor taste, just as long as it
gets good ratings.
Reality television for a long time has been able to make good business off the back of
other people’s work or hardship and has even outright taken advantage of people’s
suffering to provide cheap and nasty entertainment that the public has become
hooked on because of the cheap thrills and “real” stories that are aired daily. It has
gotten to a point that young people have begun to question their own lives when they
see shows like “Jersey Shore” and they begin to wonder if they are behaving as they
should, they possibly might even start to mimic the actions of the stars of the show
“Jackass” because they think it looks fun or another young girl might start starving
herself because she thinks that she is “fat” due to what shows like “Next top Model”
have taught her. If reality TV is to get any better it has to stop sugar-coating the truth
when it comes to things like modelling and being a TV daredevil but for the near
future it doesn’t look like these things are going to change. The reality TV industry
for the most part seems like a dog eat dog business that in some ways can be very
predatory and for any TV company to thrive, they have to have the best ratings, this
leads to channels airing highly controversial or exploitative shows that make the TV
industry as a whole seem like a dark and self-destructive place.
