Reed's D Band Media Log

Reality T.V: Shaping our lives?

Reality T.V., is a successful T.V. genre that has been thought to positively and negatively influence the lives of many people. Unlike in the other T.V. shows such as dramas and sitcoms, any ordinary person could take part in a reality T.V. show. Many reality T.V. shows are basically game shows in which the participant's would recieve a prize at the end. One example of such a reality show would be Survivor, in which sixteen people are stranded on an unfamiliar island for a month and the one person who survive's up to the end recieves a million dollar prize. There are many benefits and drawbacks to the genre.

Reality T.V. is very popular today due to it's ability to make the audience relate to the events that occur. It is very unique from all the other shows on T.V. because it is unscripted and represents our everyday life and activities. One reason why many people take interest in the shows, is beause of the fact that one does not necessarily have to be a celebrity to take part in it. As a matter of fact, you can become a celebrity and obtain a position on MTV just by winning in that one show. Although this may seem like a very good way of helping people achieve their dreams and become someone, there are still some drawbacks to it. For instance, one may argue that the fact that some of these participant's have now found themselves a job, leaves other's who actually worked hard to get it out of jobs. Not only that, but because of the fact that Reality T.V. shows are cheaper to make, many more are being produced over time, and are therefore, overlapping with other T.V. shows such as sitcoms and dramas. This leads the producers of such shows empty handed, with not much to create, due to the fact that their time of casting their shows on T.V. has been reduced or cut.
Many people also believe that these reality shows are shaping our lives. For instance, by viewing some of the behavior's of the people on T.V., some people may later on reiterate their actions. This may not necessarily be bad, however, it leads to many questions. It leads to questions such as "Does reality T.V. reflect where we are in society/in our lives?" or "Is reality T.V. responsible for shaping our lives?" It may seem like our lives are supposed to be what is responsible shaping the shows, however, it is actually going the other way around.