Reality TV
Overview?
- Effect of reality TV gives some examples . This is not a reliable source but may make a good starting point.
What is reality TV?
Who watches reality TV?
Why is it watched?
- The Appeal of Reality Television For Teen and Pre-Teen Audiences explains that teen viewers feel highly connected to the people they watch on reality TV, "posting on social networking sites, for instance, or buying products placed on the show" -
- This is supported in Reality TV and interpersonal relationship perceptions which states that "In all groups, there were several people who talked about the reality TV characters as if they were good friends. Some respondents reported actually going so far as to asking their favorite reality TV characters to be their friend on myspace.com and kept in touch by sending them comments and reading their blog. Other respondents reported using the phone to cast a vote, or several votes, so that their favorite contestant did not get eliminated on American Idol. Two respondents even discussed using the Internet to find out current information about past reality TV characters that they enjoyed watching. Therefore, the interviews indicated that some people are forming a connection with the characters they see on their favorite reality TV shows." (p.92)
- Reality Television and its effect on the academic achievement of inner city high school students suggests that "reality television doesn‘t appeal to students who attend private high school and/or those students who are academically motivated. Interestingly enough, inner-city high school students who are watching reality television are doing so for social reasons—to have something in common with their peers so that they can gather to discuss the shows."
- Reality TV and interpersonal relationship perceptions - gives motivations on pp 87-88, including "It is like a quick fix for a need to socialize". the entire discussion is fascinating reading but quite long, so I've highlighted the import points on this page.
What reality are we seeing through this lens?
violence, constant conflict
This is a narrative not reality - a narrative has to have conflict!
Purpose = entertainment not information - deliberately put characters in conflict situation provoke conflict create appearance of conflict through editing
- You're Watching It All Wrong: The Narrative Merits of Reality TV says "in terms of narrative value, engaging in pettiness is immensely productive in and of itself. The pettiness needs no aim, no payoff, no comeuppance, no reversal (AKA "a character arc") to transform into storytelling. " I suspect that this also has an effect on how we interpret and talk about our friends' behaviours, which is likely to increase conflict/"drama" in our real-life realationshiips. I haven't found evidence to link these behaviours to reality TV but I do know there's lots of research about these kinds of conflict in (girls') friendships [Ask me on Friday and I'll figure out ehich articles on the Friendship page are relevant]. This may also be good for significance.
- [Advanced english students only, if you have lots of time cause it's a tough read] The illusory everyday: Narratives of pleasure in Australian ‘reality TV’ goes through the process from a literary perspective.
Theories to use in your research:
- Social cognitive theory says that our behavior is framed by people, their environment and their observations of role models - they learn from what they see and the interactions that result. How might our behaviour change if we are learning from what we see on reality TV and putting these lessons into action in our own lives?
Effects - negative
A lot of articles see one of he worst effects of Reality TV as the fact that it normalises negative stereotypes of women, teaching girls that women are gossipy and catty toward one another and constantly engage in conflict over men - not exactly great role models
- Real to Me: Girls and Reality TV is a summary of findings by the Girl scout Association of America As well as giving you useful statistics it will also help to frame the questions in your survey.
- Is this reality? outlines some key concerns that might make good sub-sub-headings (but the source itself isn't reliable and doesn't cite reliable sources, so find other sources to confirm the points)
- Reality Television and its effect on the academic achievement of inner city high school students "Whether or not high school students watched reality television, they all held negative perceptions about the genre. It was shown that negative attitudes about reality television resulted in higher academic goals and higher academic achievement."
- Reality on MTV has wonderful graphs resulting from a content analysis of the way gender is portrayed on reality TV, leading to some pretty disturbing conclusions.
- Using TV as a Guide: Associations Between Television Viewing and Adolescents' Sexual Attitudes and Behavior looks at the relationship between teen sexuality and viewing habits (Note that their conclusions are correlations, not a cause-effect relationship).
- Reality TV and interpersonal relationship perceptions states that "watching reality TV was negatively related to believing in friendship love. Reality shows do not portray love in this way...However, another possibility could be that individuals who believe in, and value, friendship love, are spending less time in front of the television, and more time out making friends and enjoying their time with others." (p.94)
- The Effects of Appearance-Based Reality Shows on Body Image found a correlation be tween watching appearance based shows (like weight loss or dieting shows or plastic surgery shows) and decreased body image. From my research on body image and Instagram (see that page), I suspect that this is not the result of seeing the body but a result of the kinds of conversation that are part of the show which clearly state that everyone should be trying their best to reach the ideal shape. The abstract of this article on p. ix gives a good overview, then read he discuss on p. 46.
- The Mean World Effects of Reality Television: Perceptions of Antisocial Behaviors Resulting from Exposure to Competition-Based Reality Programming sates that "Findings indicated that increased consumption of competition-based reality programming was positively correlated with increased perceptions of lying and manipulation in society. "
Effects - positive
Reality TV may often be more diverse than other TV shows, especially when it comes to religion and sexuality. This exposes girls to different beliefs and perspectives on life.
- Why reality TV is good for kids includes quotes from 'experts' who give the positives as : encouraging kids to be fit nad lose weight, encouraging empathy, representation of diversity, facilitates conversations about difficult concepts (eg organ donation). This is not a reliable source and the 'expert' views can easily be critiqued.
- The girls scout survey, Real to Me: Girls and Reality TV supports some of hese positives.
solutions
Media Literacy