REALITY TELEVISION: NO LONGER REALITY
When you open the television guide this week, you can be guaranteed to find at least half a dozen different reality television shows. There are shows about eighteen young people living in a house together with an aim of earning a million dollars, shows about celebrities surviving on a deserted island, shows about becoming an Australian princess, a world famous singer or the best ice-skater around and many more. However, these so-called ‘reality’ television shows really don’t live up to their name. The programs that we see on our screens while we are sitting in our lounges at night are a far cry from reality.
‘Reality’ is defined, according to the Microsoft dictionary, as “…actual existence, as opposed to an imaginary, idealised or fake nature. It requires a situation to be something that actually does or could exist or happen in real life...” Wikipedia defines ‘reality television’ as being “…a genre of television presenting unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documenting actual events and featuring ‘ordinary’ people…” Firstly, it is immediately obvious that reality television doesn’t match the definition of reality. Is putting a woman on television to find her perfect husband – think of Yasmin’s Getting Married – really an accurate representation of something that could happen in real life? No. How often do you get to date a few hundred males and pick a partner from them? Never.
Aside from not actually matching the definition of its namesake, reality television no longer even matches it’s own definition. Far from documenting actual events, reality television most often features famous and successful people teaming up with talent-less members of the general public and attempting to be the best dancing duo of the group. Has that ever happened to anyone you know? It’s not really an accurate documentation of something that happens in real life.
Even if you allow room for dramatic license and let the scenarios presented be a little less than realistic, they still miss the mark on reality television because of the inclusion of ‘ordinary’ people. Reality television producers don’t randomly select people from the population to participate. Instead, they pick a number of people who all have personality quirks, hidden secrets or are just so incredibly ‘Bogan’ that they are the exact opposite of a fair representation of the society that they claim to represent. Therefore, it not only goes against the definition of the word reality, but it no longer even matches the definition of reality television.
In reality, there are no cameras following us around, documenting our every move. In shows like Big Brother or Australian Idol, camera crews trail people in an attempt to capture the essence of their emotion and the day-to-day happenings of their life. This is in an effort to relay the situation in a manner that is realistic. However, in our lives there are no camera crews following us around, capturing our every mistake on film and then having it relayed to the nation on prime time television.
Should you place a camera in front of any one of us, our reactions, actions and emotions would be completely different. We would be constantly aware of our audience and we would act accordingly. This, therefore, removes the reality. So, all of the shows that pretend they are showing realistic situations and behaviour are, in fact, just presenting the work of actors, with bloopers included.
Again using the example of Big Brother, we can see another example of the fact that reality television is not reality at all. The show consists of people who partake in pointless tasks every day in an attempt to win money, while all the while following instructions from a body-less father-type figure, whose voice booms over strategically placed speakers. This does not happen in real life! People don’t play games like are shown on Big Brother. The entire concept is really just an overly dramatised portrayal of people’s reactions to competition, because in reality we don’t compete for millions of dollars. Therefore this situation isn’t realistic.
Overall, there don’t seem to be any aspects of reality television that remain true to reality. It doesn’t follow it’s own definition and its content in its various forms bear no resemblance to the reality in which most of us spend out lives. Therefore, there is actually no reason for reality television to continue to be defined as reality.
When you open the television guide this week, you can be guaranteed to find at least half a dozen different reality television shows. There are shows about eighteen young people living in a house together with an aim of earning a million dollars, shows about celebrities surviving on a deserted island, shows about becoming an Australian princess, a world famous singer or the best ice-skater around and many more. However, these so-called ‘reality’ television shows really don’t live up to their name. The programs that we see on our screens while we are sitting in our lounges at night are a far cry from reality.
‘Reality’ is defined, according to the Microsoft dictionary, as “…actual existence, as opposed to an imaginary, idealised or fake nature. It requires a situation to be something that actually does or could exist or happen in real life...” Wikipedia defines ‘reality television’ as being “…a genre of television presenting unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documenting actual events and featuring ‘ordinary’ people…” Firstly, it is immediately obvious that reality television doesn’t match the definition of reality. Is putting a woman on television to find her perfect husband – think of Yasmin’s Getting Married – really an accurate representation of something that could happen in real life? No. How often do you get to date a few hundred males and pick a partner from them? Never.
Aside from not actually matching the definition of its namesake, reality television no longer even matches it’s own definition. Far from documenting actual events, reality television most often features famous and successful people teaming up with talent-less members of the general public and attempting to be the best dancing duo of the group. Has that ever happened to anyone you know? It’s not really an accurate documentation of something that happens in real life.
Even if you allow room for dramatic license and let the scenarios presented be a little less than realistic, they still miss the mark on reality television because of the inclusion of ‘ordinary’ people. Reality television producers don’t randomly select people from the population to participate. Instead, they pick a number of people who all have personality quirks, hidden secrets or are just so incredibly ‘Bogan’ that they are the exact opposite of a fair representation of the society that they claim to represent. Therefore, it not only goes against the definition of the word reality, but it no longer even matches the definition of reality television.
In reality, there are no cameras following us around, documenting our every move. In shows like Big Brother or Australian Idol, camera crews trail people in an attempt to capture the essence of their emotion and the day-to-day happenings of their life. This is in an effort to relay the situation in a manner that is realistic. However, in our lives there are no camera crews following us around, capturing our every mistake on film and then having it relayed to the nation on prime time television.
Should you place a camera in front of any one of us, our reactions, actions and emotions would be completely different. We would be constantly aware of our audience and we would act accordingly. This, therefore, removes the reality. So, all of the shows that pretend they are showing realistic situations and behaviour are, in fact, just presenting the work of actors, with bloopers included.
Again using the example of Big Brother, we can see another example of the fact that reality television is not reality at all. The show consists of people who partake in pointless tasks every day in an attempt to win money, while all the while following instructions from a body-less father-type figure, whose voice booms over strategically placed speakers. This does not happen in real life! People don’t play games like are shown on Big Brother. The entire concept is really just an overly dramatised portrayal of people’s reactions to competition, because in reality we don’t compete for millions of dollars. Therefore this situation isn’t realistic.
Overall, there don’t seem to be any aspects of reality television that remain true to reality. It doesn’t follow it’s own definition and its content in its various forms bear no resemblance to the reality in which most of us spend out lives. Therefore, there is actually no reason for reality television to continue to be defined as reality.
Don'tcha just love my exposition from english? :P
Annie
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