Why is Reality TV so Popular - Research Paper Example

WHY IS REALITY TV SO POPULAR? Introduction As the new millennium came, there were expectations from many people in the world that there were several changes that were going to take place in the world. There was great expectation of the impending changes that had been anticipated as the last millennium clocked to a halt. One of the changes that were expected to occur in the world was the evolution of the media and especially the TV. There was a sudden explosion of Reality TV shows. Reality TV shows is a kind or a genre of TV programs which shows the fortunes of real life people as opposed to the earlier notion where this happened to actors or fictitious characters which were used in TV shows. Though there have been programs which could be put under the same classification, it was only in the last two years or appropriately since the turn of the millennium that we have been able to develop programs that have really fitted into this definition. Programs like survivor series, Temptation Island, Big Brother, Fear facto and others have been the leading programs which could be associated to the evolution of the reality programs. This was a marked revolution in the media as live transmission of live event became the next stage of attraction in the world in 2000 there were two shows which are aired for the fist time in USA which turned to be a cultural phenomenon for the whole world. These shown were “who want to be a millionaire” and “survivor”. Although the first program could not sustain its success, it was a good start in the world as it opened a new chapter in the world of reality TV. The survivor show has continued to grow each day and has attracted a large number of viewers from all parts of the world. It has been an inspiration for other new reality shows which have created that same premise to the whole world. (Rowan, 2000) The appeal of reality TV has been evident to all people who have watched the shows. Several others have become tired of listening and watching recycled jokes and sitcoms and dram shows. Reality TV shows have been able to create a new dimensions in the entertainment industry which has given life to the culture of TV watching. They have yielded a premise that play out in unpredictable ways. They have been able to appeal to people because there has been an easy way to relate the audience with the one who are shown on the shows. The elements of real life and reality of the actions that are performed in the shows have been the main eye-catching events in the shows. Reality TV shows have been gaining popularity day by day and therefore many people have expressed their desire to have more and more shows. Many have been dreaming of going and participial in the shows and reap the benefit in monetary and fame that comes with actual participation in the shows. The benefit including money, home, and fame or new faces have been the main attraction for the desire by many people who wants to participate in the reality TV shows. Why have reality TV show grown so big? Each day when you turn on the TV you are likely to see a reality TV shows on all the channels that you tune to. This shows that these shows have become the recent attractions in the entertainment world. But why have they become so much famous for a short period of time since the first reality TV show was aired in 2000? There are several reasons that can be attributed to the increased fame of the shows. The first reason that can be used to explain the sudden rise to fame of the Reality TV shows has been the lure of fame and fortunes which are attached to this fame. The fact these program are watched by many people in the world has been one of the leading factor that has made them famous and that continue to attract many participants in the shows. Those who have participated in the show have been turned not only to a moment icon but they have also been turned to life time theories and famous people. Many of these who participated in these shows have been given an international recognition and have been turned to celebrities by the status of participating in the show. Reality shows have been able to create a loyal base of followers and watchers who don’t mind using a little bit of there phone credit or their time to participate in making decision about the shows. For example in the series like Big Brother where the audience were asked to vote for the candidate that would remain in the show and those who would be eliminated. Such kind of decision requires the involvement of the viewers since they are also a target of the show. In most case viewer will use their own money to vote in such cases bearing in mind that some of those charges are higher than the normal charges that are charged by the operators of the phone services. (Reality TV On-line.com, 2007) It is having this kind of loyal following that keeps on attracting people to the big shows. It is the reality that comes with the fame and the in which that audience are involved in the whole process that keeps on attracting more and more viewers to the shows. The more viewers the shows attract the higher the probability of keeping the show afloat and the more famous it becomes. Many of the participants are those who are parlaying for just fifteen minutes of fame in the television career. It is taken as a golden moment where one can make an appeal and change their fortune in life forever. For example Kelly Clarkson who was the winner of the first American Idol has been able to successful bank on her fame at the shows and has now started a somewhat successful and respectable music career. Just for a short instinct that she was able to interact with the audience and the exposure that she was given by the show, she has been able to come up with a constructive music career which may turn here fortunes round and turn her to a millionaire unlike other singers who had to spent much of their time in the unknown side of music life until their morning star appeared and moved them to the main life of music career. The ways the televisions takes ordinary people set them up to focus on the attention of the nations for example the focus that thy may be given by a nation for one hour or two on a week, is a major cause of their attention and instant fame. Although it is clear to the whole population that they have a very minor chance of once being selected to participate in the shows they are likely to identify with the participants in order for them to feel as part of the show. Member of het show are left satisfied each day as individuals for fans to willfully suspend all there beliefs. There is a concept of vicarious living that keeps the audience hooked to the show for more hours. This has been described as the main reason that keeps 35,000 twenty year olds auditioning each year to have a chance to participate in MTV’s The Real World which offers no monetary reward but the only thing that drive participants to the auditions is the reward that thy will get as instant celebrity. (Hill, 2005) The second reason that can be attaches to the reality TV show is the reward the participants are able to get from staging that show. In this regard the participants do not only gain in fame, but they also gain in monetary inputs. These shows can lure anyone from there humdrum live with offers of get money couple by adoration by the viewers. They have been able to make millionaires out of poor lives and anyone tuning of participation in a reality shown in order to get the monetary gains. The fact that the shows happens to real people and not actors motivates more people to participate in the shows. In the today shows there are millions of money that are put forward for grab by all those who are wiling to and who are able to achieve the status that is needed in order to get the money. Therefore it is not the career ability of the participant that will guarantee them the money but it is the way that they are able to appeal to the audience and the judge that will give them the millions that are for grab in the program. The shows as structured today give a huge amount of money to people how many not necessarily poses the needed career skills but which are enough to make them productive members of the society in a way that they can amass wealth through honest way of working. In simple fact it is the dumb people who get cash. Some of the shows have been shown to have pseudo-intellectual premise. For example “who want to be a millionaire” offered millions of dollars to people who could answer their questions. Most of the question however differed from the related shows and most of them were trivia oriented. There was editing of the programme which was men to bring out the reality though there could have some premise that were not real in the process. Therefore it is the promise of money and the vicarious joy that follows when someone win the money that act to attract viewers to the show. The way those who lose the money calls for consolation from the viewers is also another reason why the shows just call for a large group of viewers who sympathize with those who lose the money. The reality shows as designed as supposed to appear as real as possible and therefore help the viewers to identify with the shows and like to participate in the shows. (Murray and Laurie, 2004) The third reason that has made Reality TV shows that much population in the modern world has been what we can call the guilty pleasure syndrome. According to socialist Mark Fishman of Brooklyn College, “the Germans have a world for it, the appeal of some of these shows”. He further adds that “it is called ‘schadenfreude’ which means taking delight in the misfortunes of others. This is a guilty pleasure. You feel you shouldn’t be watching. It has always been in good taste not to look at these things. It is a moral envelope that is being pushed. We seem to be in a new age of public what we used to thing should not be seen”. (Murray and Laurie, 2004) There have been many evolutions in the world that has changed the way we perceive things. The increased use of technology, the revolution of the internet and the advance in the concept of free speech has revolutionized the way we lived and many people are find premise more entertainment than it was few years ago. What we found as obsolete in those days is what we have found to be entertaining in our modern life. But the main question that can be advanced against the above is the reason why we seems to draw pleasure at the suffering of other people there are some faction that are involved that makes us feel good when we see other being humiliated. This has been question of ethics that has surround many reality TV shows with many people criticizing them and calling them fictions instead of portraying the real character of reality. It has been shown that there are some catharses which are involved but which are also achieved through some kind of fiction. This is because we don’t need to see the real person suffering in order to have the cathartic experience. We seem to draw some kind of happiness that some of these things are not happening to us. (Soong, 2003) The fourth reason why reality TV shows have become very common and popular is that they have been seen as substitute for the drama script. Since the evolution of mass media, individual have been addicted to watching of dream series where some of them have been long and boring and without end. As such the rise of realty TV shows which are instant and which don’t take long time with a lot of suspicion has been great sigh of relief to many viewers. The viewer have considered them to be an alternative to the long boring dramas which once watched though knowing that there is a lot of fiction that it attached to the show. Seeing real people acting in a natural way is one of the most expected events that are likely to pull people to their screens. This is because they are able to relate their natural life with what is happening in the screens and what is being said in the show. They expect the use of natural body language in the shows in a way that surplus what even the most talented actor is able to do in their screen. Reality TV shows have been able to bring the essence of naturalness in the acting world and have given us a break from the fictions that has been the main shows in the televisions. This has been a sigh of relief considering the number of years that people have spent watching fiction movies and dramas. Reality TV has also been linked with the increasing space of freedom in the world. They have been linked to political impact in the sense that in the eyes of some of the analyst they have been seen as an important political phenomenon. In some of the countries which are still under authoritarian rules, the voting in a realty show represent the fist time in the history of these countries when citizen have been given the opportunity to vote in a free and fair election. The frankness that dictates the setting in which these shows happens has been shown as a situation in which some of the of the formerly unacceptable culture practices in the world like in orthodox culture of Pan-Arab version of Big Brother which show men and women sting and eating together has helped people to identify with what they have been struggling to achieve in the years. (Godard, 2004) Conclusion Realty TV shows has been the recent sensation in the world of entertainment. They have been able to revolutionize the way we are entertained in our television and that way we participate in the program that are shown in the television. Reality TV shows have become an attracting due to the factor of fame, monetary reward, substitute entertainment, the concept of guilty pleasure and the fact that they have been a way in which oppressed people who are tied by their political, cultural and religious practice have been able to identity with what is happening in the rest of the world. References Godard, E. (2004). Reel Life: The social geometry of reality shows. N.C: McFarland & Company Inc. Hill, A. (2005). Reality TV: Audience and popular factual television. Rutledge Murray, S. & Laurie, O. (2004): Reality TV: Remaking television culture. New York University Press Reality TV On-line.com, (2007). Why is Reality TV so big? Retrieved from http://www.reality-tv-online.com/articles/why-is-reality-tv-so-big.html on 7th May 2008 Rowan, B. (2000): Reality TV hold. Journal of Mass Media, Vol. 3(2) Soong, R. (2003). Reality Television; Retrieved from http://www.zonalatina.com/Zldata302.htm on 7th May 2008 Read More