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Victoria Horn

March 18, 2014

Assignment Two

Introduction/Background:

Reality television has always been portrayed as everyday life of everyday people, (but

cameras around of course to capture it all). My experience of observing reality television is doing

observations on the reality television show, “The Real World”. The real World, as I will mention

more, later in my paper, is a MTV television show that I supposed to be real people living in real

situations in down town San Francisco. This television show revolves around partying, alcohol,

and drama, and in my case, does not show what real life is all about. I observed the real world

and saw just how much it was in fact, not like the real world itself. This show, like many others

is showing its viewers that life in the real world is like a party, and that everything is handed to

you, which makes it’s a misnomer. Further, I will explain what will make an ideal reality

television show, what not to do to keep away from the pitfalls of reality television, and what my

standards are when I think of what makes reality programming, reality. This paper and this

research is all conducted around reality television and my views on the “reality” aspect of it

Literature Review:

Throughout this literature review I have conducted from many different sources,

feedback from reality television. The backbone of my paper comes from the television show and

series “The Real World” and my observations on it. My whole point in creating this review is to

show how reality television is a misnomer and the basis on how and why it is. I will be

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specifically focusing on marketing techniques, film editing, and actual reality vs. reality

television itself. Reality television is very tricky considering most of their techniques are

supposed to be hidden rather than thrown into the public that defeats the whole purpose of

reality. Because once the viewers see that reality TV isn’t really reality as they know it, it

becomes less interesting. What I found most interesting in my literature review was shown by

Levey(2010). This particular article about the children and reality television shows just how far

producers will go to try to make a “good” show and to get the viewers; most of all, MONEY.

Reality VS. Reality TV

Starting off with Killborn(2012), the conversation gets started on how the general

population is getting so hooked to reality television, rather than other shows that are out there for

enjoyment. The new television times of reality programming is being placed over on top of the

usual produced shows due to the spark of interest. And also according to Rose and Wood(2005)

they say a valid point on why these shows are coming up on such a fast up rise, because people

expect for their own lives to play out as such. Also views are comparing their own lives to what

is on reality television, they are trying to live their adventurous lives through the television. This

shows obviously how reality programing is not like reality because people are more invested in

TV than their own lives. This has to give on suspicions on how and why this “real” television is

more interesting than our own lives, so what really happens behind the scenes? The “blurring of

boundaries in real life and entertainment” is too mentioned in this article. And by the blurring of

boundaries I mean depicting the difference between what is real and what is not. Our normal

lives and lives shown on national television have big differences comparing all of the drama that

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keeps us toned in every week. In Saye(2004) we see how society is so interested, nosey, and

invested in other people’s lives but our own so this is why reality TV is taking over the industry.

In Survey(2006) we see how there has to be an extensive amount of drama added to reality

television aside from our own reality for it to become popular and for it to hit high on the charts

in the first place.

In Grazian(2010) it is said that reasoning behind the start of reality television is to try to

save money because there is no need for scripts, producing, etc., they would just pick the

contestants and put them in a reality situation and film how they react to it. But now in today’s

reality television programming we see it getting more expensive because to please the viewers

they are now adding scripts, editing, and producing going on behind the scenes. But portrayed to

the public this is all reality and random selecting as you would think of it to be. A good example

explained by Levey(2010), is when producers created a reality TV show where they rounded up

40 children from ages of 8-15 to come together and create their own society on national

television. This created a huge uproar on what the lengths the TV industry goes to get viewers

and to make their money. These children were getting injured cooking while on camera and this

were being filmed during the year when school was going on, so they were missing out on their

education. This right here shows how reality television is not real! In what world are 40 children

getting together to make their own society and live on their own before the age of sixteen? This

just simply cannot be compared to reality.

Techniques in Reality TV

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In Andrejevi(2004), we start the conversation about how reality television shows such as

the popular Big Brother, The Real World, and others are being “slickly produced” behind the

scenes and cameras. They do their best to hide things from the viewers like scripts and producers

telling them actions to do, to make it as real and dramatized as we can possibly get. Saye(2004)

bring up the subject of a “created cast”, purposely picking people to be on certain shows so we

know there will be conflict arising, because the difference in personalities. And also to make it

seem more real to all of the viewers, the producers create a type of “family cast” with

relationships such as mother/daughter, parent/children so that the viewers can relate more easily

and get the audience involved.

And a topic kind of foreshadowed earlier, mentioned by Bagley(2001), the reality

programming industry relies heavily on what the audience likes and what they do not like. If the

viewer are not happy, no one’s happy, and happiness can’t be created without immediate drama

and scandals. And with Denham and Jones(2008) add a lot to the conversation on random

selection. Producers instead of randomly selecting contestants they go off of stereotypes and

choose white females, and contestants of color because they know that they have a different

background and culture, most of them do. There is a process to picking the people they put on

national television, and it’s not the process that we think of when we imagine “reality

television”.

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Entering the Conversation:

When it comes to reality programming, there are many standards that I think need to be

meet in order for it to classify as “reality”. Reality television in my point of view needs to

actually be able to compare to a normal lifestyle but still be interesting enough to watch. Any day

of the week you can take real circumstances, from real life, and make a TV show that will

entertain anyone but still be relatable. And when I say relatable, this everyday life needs to be

things that happen to actually more than one person on a normal basis. One major standard that I

would expect to happen would be no scripting and behind the scenes “fluff”. To meet my

expectations of a REAL television show, of course there would be camera men, but nothing

more to influence the people that they are recording. Major implications that we run into when

looking at “bad” reality television we see little mistakes such as left over scripts laying around,

we see them hiring and picking only certain people with specific stereotypes to make the show

more interesting, producers called on set, etc. Real TV needs to be all real and no fluff added in

to make the viewing rates just go up. Producers need to stay out of the way of reality television

shows and let the contestants play out what it would be like in real life, hence the word “reality”

in reality television.

So in terms of what not to do, the following shows how you would avoid the pitfalls of

reality programming as we know it. One thing “not to do” is to avoid the stereotypes in random

selection as I mentioned earlier. When the producers pick the contestants for a reality TV show,

they make sure to pick people who are basically opposites of each other so that the opposites

don’t get along and go well together. Something also that would benefit them to avoid would be

making those little mistakes as I also mentioned earlier of leaving scripts around or having

producers show up on the television show trying to solve conflicts that need to be shown and

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settled on their own. I believe that just over time reality television has gotten worse in terms of

“fakeness” by trying to please the viewers and to make their television show the best and better

than others. Something else no to do in when trying to avoid the pitfalls of reality television is to

cut out the thought of scripting and editing period, this needs to be real, not scripted. The

contestants are supposed to be contestants, not actors preforming a show. And if that is what they

are aiming for then create a drama show or sitcom and stop portraying reality television as

something that it’s not. Another major thing that I think that is important not to do is putting

people in unrealistic settings with everything handed to them. And when I say everything handed

to them I’m saying all the food, all the alcohol and money to go shopping every once in a while

like as seen in the “The Real World”. One needs to own their own money and their own way of

living instead of getting everything handed to them, I mean is that how it is in real reality?

Absolutely not.

I would now like to start off with explaining my vision of an almost perfect reality

television show, which in that applies to then real world and how things are done in every day

life. First of all, the title for my realistic television show, the title of the show would be “Life on

the Real, No Bull”. I think that the title kind of gives away the thought of it actually being a

REAL television show and it foreshadows where the setting will be of my reality show. This

show will be staged in southern Georgia on a farm with many farm animals to care and tend to.

This goes back to my setting in where I said what not to do which was place them in a unrealistic

setting where everything was handed to them and they are waited on hand and foot. The farm

would give the contestants a chance to experience what it would be like to take care of not only

themselves but animals that determined how they made money for the next three months. The

farming of these animals would be their source of income from selling chickens, eggs, cows and

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their milk to make a living for themselves and the other nine people that are living with them.

Now speaking of the people that they are going to be living with, the selection of the contestants

will be completely random picking out of a pool ranging from ages fifteen to thirty five. I think

that is this a very goof range of people because it creates almost a realistic range of ages, not

discriminating just toward getting young people but being fair about the selection and picking at

random. This selection process also creates a variety of ages that many viewers or people

watching will be able to relate too and maybe even compare it to their own family lives. The

only “producer” is the producer that puts together the films that will be shown on television and

to make sure that everything is appropriate and such. This producer will not be creating scripts

and editing the shows to where is makes it unrealistic just so it will be more appealing for the

viewers. Also the camera men will be there 24/7, not to only get the “good stuff” but to get

everyday life that they are going through. And I am sure that you are probably thinking well how

in the world are there people going to all of a sudden learn how to raise a farm and take care of

all of these poop animals? Well my idea to at least give them a little input is to give them an

experienced farmer for three days to teach them all that there is to know about farming and

tending to animals. In these three days they will get the skills that they will need to know about

raising a farm and their resources for selling their products for making a living and surviving on

the farm. And I believe by not only adding these details it will make it will add realism, but it

will add to the program and make it more interesting and relatable. I believe that this would be a

wonderful example of a television show because it is literally what real people go through and

you have to do things on your own without things being handed over to you, (hence REALITY).

Conclusion/So What?:

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So why does all of this matter, and why does it involve any of us? This subject matters

because reality programming as a whole are lying to us, and society is expecting for their lives to

play out from what they see on television and reality TV. In terms of how I feel about what I

have found, I think it is astonishing to see the lengths that’s producers go to. Overall they are

lying about what they are producing in the first place. From what I added to the conversation and

what was said in my literature review, you can see clearly that reality programming is a

misnomer and causes the wrong ideas about reality. My paper does not only suggest ways that

reality television is a misnomer but it will help for reality programmers in the near future to think

again on how they conduct their shows while also giving tips on how to make it more realistic

for the viewer’s sake. From what I have learned in my research, I have found just how far the

television show industry will go to make a couple extra dollars, and to be honest, it’s disturbing.

In all, I hope that this information will add on to the research that is already out there and for

what is yet to come. In addition, I hope that people will realize what they are watching is not

always what it seems and what it is promised to be.

Citations:

Killborn, R. K. (2012). `how real can you get?': Recent developments in `reality’ television. Thomson Reuters, 9(4 421-439), Retrieved from http://ejc.sagepub.com/content/9/4/421.short

Andrejevi, M. A. (2004). The work of being watched. Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, INC, 1(1), 16-17. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=RcYdAAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR3&dq=editing reality tv&ots=b1c9hhkUrl&sig=juty0CjWVSUWNjPUP6_iqLbUS14

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Rose, R. L. R., & Wood, S. L. W. (2005). Paradox and the consumption of authenticity through reality television. Journal of Consumer Research , 32(2), 284-296. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.librarylink.uncc.edu/stable/10.1086/432238

Saye, N. S. (2004). No "survivors," no "american idol," no "road rules" in "the real world" of "big brother": Consumer/reality, hyper/reality, and post/reality in "reality" tv. Studies in Popular Culture , 27(2), 9-15. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.librarylink.uncc.edu/stable/23414952

Grazian , D. G. (2010). Neoliberalism and the realities of reality television. Contexts, 9(2), 68-71. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41960112

Bagley, G. A. (2001). A mixed bag: Negotiating claims in mtv's the real world. Journal of Film and Video , 53(2/3), 61-76. Retrieved from : http://www.jstor.org/stable/20688357

Denham, B. E. D., & Jones, R. N. J. (2008). Survival of the stereotypical:a study of personal characteristics and order of elimination on reality television. Studies in Popular Culture , 30(2), 79-99. Retrieved from : http://www.jstor.org/stable/23416126

Bottinelli , J. J. B. (2005). This is reality. right now, right here. so be real": Reality television and the amish "other". Western Folklore , 64(3/4), 305-322. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.librarylink.uncc.edu/stable/25474754

balloon boy "plus ei8ht?" children and reality televisionhilary levey Contexts , Vol. 9, No. 2, sociology for the masses (SPRING 2010) , pp. 72-75 Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. on behalf of the American Sociological Association Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org.librarylink.uncc.edu/stable/41960113

'Emotional Blood on the Undusted Carpets':¹ The Citizen as Subject in "Wife Swap"JAMES WALTERS Critical Survey , Vol. 18, No. 3, SUBJECT AND CITIZENS (2006) , pp. 51-64 Published by: Berghahn Books Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org.librarylink.uncc.edu/stable/41556181

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Picture examples of MY ideal Reality Show:

Feeding and caring to the animals everyday like sheep and cows.

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Learning how to use the equipment properly and tend to the farm.