Post by danielleb690 on Feb 10, 2014 5:19:54 GMT -5
Television today has become over run with bug eating celebrities and screaming Newcastle natives filling our screens with anarchy and annoyance. Why do the public continue to feed the beast that is reality television.
Despite this, the number of people who watch these programmes suggest that there must be some appealing factors to them. ‘The Only Way is Essex’ has an average of 1.16 million people viewers and the ‘Xfactor’ had 15.5 million watching its 2011 final. This leads me to believe this vast amount of people must have valid reasons to watch these programmes and they may have some redeeming qualities such as entertainment value and the wide variety of sub genres reality television has. These include, cooking programmes, quiz shows, talent contests, survival shows and many more. This large number of choices -in theory- should mean that there will be a programme to meet the interests of each individual. This shows the public should enjoy at least one form of reality television even if they dislike the genre as a whole.
On the other hand its hard for users to avoid these programmes as they are reported about frequently in the media. The public are often ambushed by headline upon article upon news report on these programmes and the ‘stars’ they have produced stopping the public going one day without seeing or hearing about reality television. The tabloid newspaper The Sun (27/11/12) included thirteen stories involving reality television, taking up a large amount of the paper. These stories were shown throughout the paper, in two separate pull out sections dedicated to the genre and one was even as the main headline of the paper. They are filling our lives with these unnecessary stories day after day polluting every form the media not just our television sets.
Reality television invades our screens with vulgarity and inappropriate content on a daily basis. MTV hits such as ‘Geordie Shore’ and ‘The Valleys’ show all aspects of the cast member’s lives including full nudity and sexual encounters. This could very easily offend viewers and the wild cast are creating a bad impression of the regions in which these programmes are filmed. Local people have expressed their dislike of these programmes since their unwanted arrival in recent years. One review read’ “MTV soiled our reputation” and other used “ashamed” when talking about their opinion of the programme. Not only are these programmes offending the adult population they are also polluting our younger generations. Although shown after nine pm young people could still be watching this filth and emulating the behaviour they are being exposed to.
As well as being exposed to these vulgarities the public are also being lied to by these shows as it is known some reality shows are staged and faked, giving the audience false ideas. Many of these programmes show either ordinary people or celebrities being put in extreme situations or being filmed constantly but many have had allegations made against them claiming the programmes are not actually reality. For examples: the BBC television show ‘The Real Hustle’ is stated as being an educational programme in which unknowing members of the public are ‘scammed’ in order to show viewers how to recognise the cons. However several people have come forward claiming they were paid to act as victims of scams. Lucas Yashere told reporters he was paid £20 to use a fake cash point and Alexander Hathaway said he was paid £30 to pretend to be a car dealer who the cast then stole a car from. Although the BBC denied the allegations this shows the public may well be being lied to by these dishonest programmes.
These programmes aren’t just lying to the public they have also created many celebrites who surround us on a daily basis even though a large number of them don’t have the talents or qualities needed in order to their chosen celebrity career. An example of the ‘famous for being famous’ type of celebrity is Kim Kardashian who titles herself as a ’business woman’. The so called socialite daughter of a famous lawyer grew up with a silver spoon firmly in her mouth which resulted in her having her own fly on the wall documentary which is still running after nine series. Her name has been turned into a multimillion dollar brand and in 2012 she topped search engine Bing’s top searched celebrity list. Yet she has done this without having outstanding talents or qualities and as result of reality television now earns much more money than an average working person could ever earn.
Additionally, these types of programmes can divide the viewers with the power they hold over the public. An example of this is the 2001 Pop Idol final between Gareth Gates and Will Young, described as a ‘key event in the history of pop music’ which caused viewers to split into two groups almost like a football rivalry. It was written in the Telegraph newspaper that ‘the show took on a momentum of its own with the country captivated by the final showdown’. This can even go as far as encouraging violence as 2012 Xfactor contestant, Rylan Clark, received death threats when he progressed to the later stage of the competition. This proves how harmful and destructive these programmes can be.
Day to day, week to week, year to year reality television remain a constant in the modern world. For the new generation these programmes are now normalities rather than novelties and have become one of the biggest aspects of public life. Only the public have the power to take back television from this animal, only we can stop reality television once and for all.
Despite this, the number of people who watch these programmes suggest that there must be some appealing factors to them. ‘The Only Way is Essex’ has an average of 1.16 million people viewers and the ‘Xfactor’ had 15.5 million watching its 2011 final. This leads me to believe this vast amount of people must have valid reasons to watch these programmes and they may have some redeeming qualities such as entertainment value and the wide variety of sub genres reality television has. These include, cooking programmes, quiz shows, talent contests, survival shows and many more. This large number of choices -in theory- should mean that there will be a programme to meet the interests of each individual. This shows the public should enjoy at least one form of reality television even if they dislike the genre as a whole.
On the other hand its hard for users to avoid these programmes as they are reported about frequently in the media. The public are often ambushed by headline upon article upon news report on these programmes and the ‘stars’ they have produced stopping the public going one day without seeing or hearing about reality television. The tabloid newspaper The Sun (27/11/12) included thirteen stories involving reality television, taking up a large amount of the paper. These stories were shown throughout the paper, in two separate pull out sections dedicated to the genre and one was even as the main headline of the paper. They are filling our lives with these unnecessary stories day after day polluting every form the media not just our television sets.
Reality television invades our screens with vulgarity and inappropriate content on a daily basis. MTV hits such as ‘Geordie Shore’ and ‘The Valleys’ show all aspects of the cast member’s lives including full nudity and sexual encounters. This could very easily offend viewers and the wild cast are creating a bad impression of the regions in which these programmes are filmed. Local people have expressed their dislike of these programmes since their unwanted arrival in recent years. One review read’ “MTV soiled our reputation” and other used “ashamed” when talking about their opinion of the programme. Not only are these programmes offending the adult population they are also polluting our younger generations. Although shown after nine pm young people could still be watching this filth and emulating the behaviour they are being exposed to.
As well as being exposed to these vulgarities the public are also being lied to by these shows as it is known some reality shows are staged and faked, giving the audience false ideas. Many of these programmes show either ordinary people or celebrities being put in extreme situations or being filmed constantly but many have had allegations made against them claiming the programmes are not actually reality. For examples: the BBC television show ‘The Real Hustle’ is stated as being an educational programme in which unknowing members of the public are ‘scammed’ in order to show viewers how to recognise the cons. However several people have come forward claiming they were paid to act as victims of scams. Lucas Yashere told reporters he was paid £20 to use a fake cash point and Alexander Hathaway said he was paid £30 to pretend to be a car dealer who the cast then stole a car from. Although the BBC denied the allegations this shows the public may well be being lied to by these dishonest programmes.
These programmes aren’t just lying to the public they have also created many celebrites who surround us on a daily basis even though a large number of them don’t have the talents or qualities needed in order to their chosen celebrity career. An example of the ‘famous for being famous’ type of celebrity is Kim Kardashian who titles herself as a ’business woman’. The so called socialite daughter of a famous lawyer grew up with a silver spoon firmly in her mouth which resulted in her having her own fly on the wall documentary which is still running after nine series. Her name has been turned into a multimillion dollar brand and in 2012 she topped search engine Bing’s top searched celebrity list. Yet she has done this without having outstanding talents or qualities and as result of reality television now earns much more money than an average working person could ever earn.
Additionally, these types of programmes can divide the viewers with the power they hold over the public. An example of this is the 2001 Pop Idol final between Gareth Gates and Will Young, described as a ‘key event in the history of pop music’ which caused viewers to split into two groups almost like a football rivalry. It was written in the Telegraph newspaper that ‘the show took on a momentum of its own with the country captivated by the final showdown’. This can even go as far as encouraging violence as 2012 Xfactor contestant, Rylan Clark, received death threats when he progressed to the later stage of the competition. This proves how harmful and destructive these programmes can be.
Day to day, week to week, year to year reality television remain a constant in the modern world. For the new generation these programmes are now normalities rather than novelties and have become one of the biggest aspects of public life. Only the public have the power to take back television from this animal, only we can stop reality television once and for all.