Reality TV and Morality Issues - Research Paper Example

Reality TV and morality issues The media is a very influential instrument of communication available today. It not only exposes the mass audience to the rights and wrongs but also gives the audience the opportunity to make informed decisions by showing all the sides of stories. Today, the media still plays a vital role in the society by acting as the mouthpiece to the different members of society. In this way, the media publicly airs the social issues that face society thus makes members f the society to be aware of life’s realities. Nonetheless, the subject of media morality is still a hot and debatable issue especially now that there are still no clear boundaries set on how far the media should go while playing their role in the society. Some of the television shows being aired today raise serious moral issues and questions on what the media is teaching its audience. Television shows today are filled with violent and explicit shows that leave many asking where media values and morality have disappeared to. This article will explore the issue of the media and morality focusing more on the morality of reality television shows. The morality of reality television shows. Much of what is considered Reality TV shows in the recent times are aired almost everywhere and at any time of the day. Apparently, these shows seem so lucid and perhaps, this is the reason they seem to attract huge audiences who are consciously aloof with the bitter and sweet realities of this world. Most of these shows are founded upon external shallow values with strong hypnotic effects that can influence even the strongest of minds. Reality TV may seem very harmless - just but a form of entertainment - but in the real sense, these shows have the potential to cause a lot of damage to their viewers’ ways of thinking. Among the main attractions of reality TV shows is its hypothetical “reality” in terms of unplanned situations and the subsequent reactions to these situations. But critically analyzing these shows, they are not really as “real” as they would want their audiences to believe. At least in soap operas, the audience understands that whatever they are watching on the television does not necessarily mirror the actors’ real lives. This however, cannot be said of the reality shows most of which contain contrived and heavily edited scenes. Reality TV flourishes on extreme situations, something that has led some of them to be banned from showing in some countries. A good example being the 2007 UK censure of some Dutch producers for their show in which a human kidney was to be offered as a prize. The Australian Big Brother show also faced the same censure for not letting one of the contestants know of her dad’s death. These among other situations raise numerous ethical questions among them being the circumstances that should warrant a show to be stopped. Some of the reality TV shows seem to take humiliation as a form of entertainment according to Andersen and Gray (45). They make comedies out of someone falling down and probably getting hurt, or even the collapsing of a company that one may dislike. The audience may be getting entertained from the shows thinking it is just some form of fiction, but going by the numerous law suits against reality TVs, the participants actually do get traumatized and hurt by some of the contents of these shows. The fact that we actually enjoy watching others suffer tells a lot about our morals as a society since most of these television shows are just but a mirror of what the society is - a society driven by materialistic things. The society today seems to adore vanity and give little regard for virtues. Furthermore, the adoration of money and power has left very little room for the adoration and respect of moral values. These shows reflect communities as entities that are devoid of firm and wholesome values, alienated from spiritual roots, and addicted to stimulation. It also seems like the reality TV’s main objective is to make the viewers feel good instead of making them be good - even those who contribute to the ever increasing moral problems within society. This is best illustrated by the shows that encourage the celebration of human weaknesses as opposed to celebration of human excellence. Reality shows that involve children offer a lot to be scrutinized in terms of ethics and morals. The UK for instance, has put in place regulations that demand the consent from parents or guardians before their children are allowed to participate in any program. Seemingly just the acquisition of parents’ or guardians’ consent is not enough a measure to ensure that the programs are morally and ethically correct for the children to participate in. Some studies in the UK have even recommended that in addition to the set government regulations, the producers should allow and have people who will ensure that the production keeps in mind the children’s welfare (Davies & Mosdell, 12). Examples of Reality Shows That Raise Ethical and Morality Issues In relation to modern reality shows, there are numerous examples of TV shows featuring children that warrant close ethical and moral scrutiny. For instance, Wife Swap is a reality social experiment that features two families having totally different values and lifestyles are living together for a fortnight. Most of the show’s episodes involve a lot of arguments especially between the adoptive mother and the children or husband. Some of these arguments have turned out quite nasty and racial as children openly throw abusive words to the adopted mother, and vice versus (DeMars, 15). Such episodes once aired to the general public, provide more than just entertainment and in fact, end up portraying the children and parents in negative light. While the adults in the program may find it easy to deal with the negative image that comes with such shows, the same cannot be said for the children. It would be important for the makers of such emotionally charged reality shows like Wife Swap to regularly monitor the ethical treatment accorded to children in the shows. The airing of such shows can also influence the viewer’s way of thinking in a negative way. Watching a child openly curse at an adult and get away with it on national TV can influence a young viewer’s mind to view the habit as acceptable. A young viewer may not necessarily view the show as just a game but take it as a real time experience, especially since it is christened a reality show. Another of the reality TV shows that not only raises moral issues but also lets the participants to engage in morally dubious behaviors while at the same time pushing them (the participants) to arrive at morally difficult decisions is The Bachelor TV show. The show involves a number of single women, actually 25, dating one eligible bachelor at the same time. As the show progresses, the bachelor is made to decide who to eliminate so as to eventually end up with the lady he is to wed. There are no limitations on what can happen during the show and in many of the shows, the bachelor ends up getting intimate with more than one woman while still dating the others. This raises numerous moral questions especially from a religious perspective. The show seems to approve the participation in premarital sex in the course of looking for the one to finally settle with. The 2003 The Bachelor show aired in the UK was one such show in which, towards the end, it came out clearly that the bachelor had engaged in sexual intimacy with a number of the contesting women. During the show, the bachelor was shown leading most of the women on and making them believe that they are special, only to vote them off like they meant little to him. There was even one of the contesting women, who on an interview after the show had stated that she had considered the bachelors’ advances towards her during the show unwelcome. She narrated an incident in which she had tried to resist the bachelor’s advances but he (the bachelor) still insisted on sharing a bed with her. By to do this, the show seems to be encouraging sexual harassment, which is a serious offence in many countries. The Bachelor TV show demonstrates the virtue ethics concept as applied to dating. The layout is based upon character vices and virtues including, trust and honesty, or sexual contest and conquest. Naturally, the bachelor is displayed as struggling with the task of making choices of who stays and who leaves the house and the ladies are shown making all attempts to grab the bachelor’s attention while trying to stand out from the crowd so as to maintain the bachelor’s attention in them. The Bachelor illustrates men as social predators and being the star of the show, the bachelor is encouraged to pursue his sexuality and is even rewarded for this immoral behavior, thus his vices are transformed into virtues. The women who choose to participate in the show are however classified differently. For agreeing to participate in the reality show, the women tend to be perceived by the viewers as possessing negative character traits. They are viewed as so desperate that they had to come to the show just to find a man who can love and marry them (Galician & Merskin, 315). Thus this show tends to promote the traditional social negative attitudes towards women who are portrayed as gold diggers. Even though its sister reality show, The Bachelorette may make some attempts at canceling this perception, the differing ways that the participants are represented in both shows, both the women and men, only served the purpose of underscoring the gendered application of ethical virtues in these types of reality settings. The Bachelor the other shows like it for instance Joe Millionaire, represent women as morally incorrect and make it seem like it is a man’s task to find that one honest woman among the numerous dishonest women. As pertaining to participation in TV reality shows like The Bachelor, the non-professional actors should and deserve to be regarded to in a more ethically informed manner. The Bachelor reality TV show illustrates just how unfairly women can be treated during the making of reality shows. The show raises many questions as to why women rights are not taken seriously by the producers of such shows. The contents of most of the reality TV shows provide very little in terms of what can be analyzed since most of them are based on shallow ideas. Some critics of reality programming state that the shows seem to be focused on rewarding show offs and greed, encouraging people to pursue quick fixes to life’s challenges, destroying community sentiments and advocating for shallow sexual and interpersonal relationships. An analysis of the reality TV shows, reveals that the issue of ethics has turned out to be a form of entertainment - now that television has found creative ways to entertain viewers. Realities like Neighbors from hell and television talk shows like The Jerry Springer Show are just but some of the shows that entertain their audiences based on ethical crises. The other realities like the Temptation Island or Big Brother seem to invite their viewers into a world full of ethical uncertainties. Temptation Island is an example of a reality that encourages its audience to derive pleasure in other’s miseries. As the name suggests, the show involves several couples agreeing to be separated and then live together with singles belonging to the opposite sex who provide some sort of temptation to them so as to test their relationships’ strength. The Temptation Island pushed morality boundaries even further in the form of providing temptation and seems to be selling sex and immorality (Arp, 42). During the fortnight that the couples are on the island, separated from each other, they are made to go on dates in which the flaring tempters push them to see how long they can hold off before committing adultery. It is almost like the couples are being encouraged to commit adultery. To add spice into the series, the producers send some recorded videos to the participants’ respective partners located in a different location within the island. This often provokes jealousy and rage on the part of the partners after observing the behavior of their partners. This show has of course received a lot of condemnation from religious groups, parents and organizations that are pro-family but that has not stopped the series from still being shot and shown to the society who are only too eager to watch. Whatever the intentions of this show, there is no doubt that it encourages promiscuity and seems to encourage couples to seek other partners outside their union. The show seems to legitimize ruining of relationships between couples based upon sex and portrays promiscuity as very exciting and fun. What the producers of this show may not have put into consideration is that whatever lessons one learns from this show may still be applied after the show by the individuals and this can easily break up a family. Conclusion This article has mostly focused on the negative parts of realities but this is not to say that realities offer no positive morality lessons to audiences. Some actually do, especially the ones based on competitions. Some like The Apprentice provide a lot of valuable lessons on successful ways to run businesses. Others like Survivor are based upon positive themes but also allow contestants to apply underhanded tactics in order to emerge as winners. Most of the situations in the Survivor however require contestants to possess positive characteristics, for instance cooperation and teamwork if they are to succeed. This article had mentioned earlier that the realities are just but mere reflections of us as a society and therefore, by just criticizing their negative side, we may be missing the opportunity to note the message being passed on by these realities to us. The realities would not be so successful if it was not for the many of their loyal viewers anxiously waiting to watch every episode. Reality TV shows are only symptoms of a much bigger problem that the society is faced with in terms of its (the society) gradual surrender into a human nature that is much darker. As the appetite for more intriguing shows grows, the reality TV shows will only grow to be more graphic, voyeuristic and more shocking morally. Some of the TV realities focus on a human nature perspective that many may find both difficult and uncomfortable to acknowledge. A human nature side that when restrained, can be turn out to be very voracious by always wanting more. When an individual yields to this nature and watches other individuals carrying out acts of selfishness and heartlessness, of which some may be immoral, the individual develops a sense of approval for these acts. It is therefore would be very helpful if regulations provided limits that television should not cross in programming. Living in a society that experiences so many divorce cases each and every day, the television industry should be pushed to spend more time in airing programs that can encourage families and the society as a whole to embrace ethical values instead of displaying shows that have little regard for morals. Works Cited Andersen, Robin and Gray, Jonathan Alan. Battleground: the media. Westport, CA: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2008. Arp, Robert. South Park and philosophy: you know, I learned something today. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2007. Davies, Maire Messenger and Mosdell, Nick. Practical research methods for media and cultural studies: making people count. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006. DeMars, Tony Russell. Modeling behavior from images of reality in television narratives: myth-information and socialization. NewYork: Edwin Mellen Press, 2000. Galician, Mary-Lou and Merskin, Debra. Critical thinking about Sex, love, and romance in the mass media: media literacy applications. New Jersey : Routledge, 2007. Read More