Jersey Shore Reality TV Analysis - Essay Example

Jersey Shore Reality TV Analysis Introduction Reality television is becoming a common phenomenon in the contemporary society. It is a category of programs aimed at being truthful and entertaining. According to Bignell, Reality TV are programs “where the unscripted behavior of ordinary people is the focus of interest” (141). The reality televisions shows are created in environments meant to control the behaviors of the contestants. The shows entail filming of the actions as well as the reactions of the participants in a controlled environment. In most cases, the situations involved are natural ones. However, some reality television shows involve contrived situations. This paper will analyze Jersey Shore, which is a reality television show revolving around the Italian culture. The paper will point out some of the interesting/important scholarly questions, issues, and scholarly debates surrounding realism reality TV. Additionally, the paper will predict Bignell, Fiske, and Banet-Weisers views regarding use of coding Jersey Shore as a reality show. Reality TV shows have become a controversial issue. Several scholars have raised questions regarding the deceitful realism depicted in several reality TV shows. The question on whether reality TV is a benefit or worst nightmare is still there. Most reality TV shows are characterized by stereotypes and unearned celebrity. To some scholar, using the term “reality TV” to refer to some shows is misleading since the shows are characterized by fabricated reactions accomplished in contrived situations. Bignell, Fiske, Barnet-Weiser, and Portwood-Stacer feel that reality TV programs should focus on how ordinary people behave without too much exaggeration. In their opinion, reality shows should focus more on passing an ideology and not on the individual taking part in the show. Jersey Shore is a reality T.V show that has been debated on my several scholars. Though considered a reality show, Jersey Shore demonstrates mischaracterizations, stereotyping and portrays many negative social aspects such as promiscuity, stereotyping, and abuse of alcohol. The shore pays more attention on the personal behaviors and opinions of the casts and not on ideologies. This has resulted in a lot of criticism from scholars who feel that the show is unrealistic since it dwells too much on negative aspects. One such negative aspect is the depiction of feminism in the twenty first Century. Nicole, who is one of the main casts being idolized by several American teenagers, considers herself a modern woman. However, she portrays feminism wrongly. She considers herself a good example of feminist but engages in endless clubbing, gets drunks often, and engages in sexual intercourse with any man. Additionally, she feels that clubbing at night with her male colleagues makes her equal with them. This is a distorted portrayal of equality and it depicts denigration of feminism. This kind of feminism is what Barnet-Weiser and Portwood-Stacer (259) refer as “as testimony for the collapse of identity with representation.” Although the Jersey shore tries to depict girls as strong and independent, the depiction is erroneous. Barnet-Weiser and Portwood-Stacer would have opposed and criticized such a depiction of feminism. This is because the two believe that such portrayal of feminism is “a symptom and effect of gender oppression.” In the shore, the male casts underrate the female cast. The female thus engage in activities such as clubbing in an attempt to prove the men wrong (Barnet-Weiser and Portwood-Stacer 260). According to Fiske (5), “It is by no means natural for television to represent reality in the way that it does, just as it is by no means natural for language to do so.” Fiske considers most reality Television to be unrealistic. He claims that all television shows relies on codes to construct reality. In case of Jersey shore, most happenings are idealistic. A good example is the pretense that the casts are of Italian American origin, yet they highly stereotype this culture. The culture is stereotyped since the cast rely on unproved beliefs about the Italian culture. I say unproved because several organizations have come up to oppose airing of this show. The kind of life that the casts engage in is only likely to cause lifetime regrets in the real world. Fiske would advocate for better structuring in the Jersey Shore to enable the program help the viewer understand the way the society works. Fiske feels that television programs should instill some sense of cultural meaning on the viewers. His theory on coding argues that ideology enable people to understand who they are. He explains this by stating that a “biological female can have masculine subjectivity by adopting a patriarchal ideology” (Fiske 9). Therefore, reality shows should code the idea they want to represent appropriately for the audience to understand it. Bignell and Fiske argue that television shows have direct effects on the audience. It is thus obvious that some viewers will take reality shows as reality. This would be injurious for viewers of Jersey Shore since they would have an untruthful understanding of Italian culture, since the Italians are portrayed as primitive since they encourage male domination in the society and immoral. The character, who identify themselves as Italian Americans engage in inappropriate swearing, alcoholism, promiscuity, and bar brawls, which are the negative stereotypes associated with Italians. Bignell claims that exaggeration during television coding results in loss of realism, which makes some reality TV shows fictional. Another debatable issue regarding reality TV is the depiction of behaviors. There is a scholarly question regarding the way reality television depict certain behaviors. Most reality television overemphasizes on behaviors considered immoral by the society. In most cases, the shows appear to be celebrating such behaviors coding them as appropriate. Jersey Shore dwells on extremely inappropriate behaviors but code them as something to be emulated by the teenagers. Since viewers consider reality shows to be, genuine they might be tempted to emulate the casts who engage in endless sex talks, frequent binge drinking, promiscuity, and skimpy dressing. Most scholars including Bignell have raised ethical questions regarding reality television shows. However, Barnet-Weiser and Portwood-Stacer (262) feel that reality television “presents us with a newly defined liberal feminine subject.” This is because females can participate in shows and are free to express themselves without fear of criticism. In Jersey Shore, the females disregard criticism from their male counterparts and act independently. Jersey Shore depicts reality shows as a form of escape from the reality. Though the characters assume to be celebrating their cultural identity, they end up consolidation the existing stereotypes about the culture. The shore makes use of ethnic stereotyping for entertainment purposes. Fiske argues that coding in reality television may lack, accuracy, be biased and objective if the empirical perceptions of reality are not realistic. The way the casts in the Jersey Shore deal with their adversities is delusional. In Fiske opinion, the realism in a reality show will depend on whether the biasness represented is fair. In case of Jersey Shore, the biasness is based on stereotype and is thus not true. Stereotypes judge people as a group and not as individuals and are thus inaccurate. Fiske (23) feels that casts should not be “representations of individuals but encodings of ideology.” By this, he means that the shores should aim at delivering a message to the audience. They should thus emphasize on the idea or opinion and not on the personalities of the individual delivering it. In Bignells opinion, reality television should “focus on the referent of what is represented: that actual scenes, places, and people are represented rather than imagined or fictional ones” (144). In case of Jersey Shore, the representation of people is fictional and impractical in the real world. The depiction of feminism is different from the contemporary understanding of feminism. Bignell would thus be opposed to categorization of Jersey Shore as a reality TV show. However, Fiske would consider the show realistic since it represents an ideology existing amongst many Americans. Another questionable issue in Jersey Shore is on the depiction of morality by reality television. There is exaggerating portrayal of immorality. The cast engage in uncontrolled sex. All the relationships are entirely based on sex, where characters engage in sex shortly after meeting even before they get to know each other. Nicole has sex with all the male casts and boasts about it. She views this as true feminism in that he can persuade any man to sleep with her. The show overemphasizes on immoralities and stereotypes with minimal promotion of good morals. Bignell, Fiske, Barnet-Weiser, and Portwood-Stacer would all agree that there is distortion of realism in Jersey Shore. Though the characters demonstrate events that happen in the real world, they over exaggerate the happening to an extent that they appear unrealistic and fabricated. The show thus causes ethical questions since attempts to emulate the cast results in devastating behaviors amongst the teenagers. Conclusion Jersey Shore, an example of a widely viewed reality shows in United States lacks the realism required in reality TV. The characters over exaggerate their behaviors which results in a fictitious show. The use of stereotype make the show unrealistic since the truthfulness of the stereotype cannot be established. Additionally, the show overemphasizes on immorality and fails to acknowledge other aspects that characterize teenage life. The depiction of feminism is different from that in the contemporary society. Works Cited Banet-Weiser, Sarah and Laura Portwood-Stacer. "‘I just want to be me again!’ Beauty pageants, reality television and." Feminist Theory, Vol. 7(2) (2006): 255-272. Bignell, Jonathan. An Introduction to Television Studies. New York: Routledge, 2012. Print. Fiske, John. Reading Television. New York: Routledge, 2004. Print. Read More