Reality Television Shows - Essay Example

Your full full January 03, Reality Television Shows Introduction Before going into the discussion regarding reality television shows and the representation of real life, let us first get to know what reality television shows are in order to get a better understanding of the issue. A reality television show is a type of entertainment program in which participants are asked to perform in various funny and dramatic situations. Those situations do not occur naturally rather they are created for the participants in order to make the program close to the real life. The purpose behind these tasks is to judge the participants’ abilities to perform in difficult and humorous real life situations. Reality shows are usually produced in the form of series, which include a bundle of events and dramatic situations. Some reality shows feature celebrities whereas some shows consist of ordinary people. The prize for the winners of the reality shows is usually very astonishing and attractive, which makes celebrities and ordinary people participate in the shows. Reality television shows in the UK have a mass appeal (Hill 2). The reality shows such as Big Brother, Wife Swap, and The Biggest Loser have been able to mark great success in the television industry. Reality television shows have become a real source of entertainment for the people and a source of generating high profits for the organizers. Thesis Statement The thesis statement for this essay is, “Does reality television represent ‘real life’?” Let us now discuss this statement in order to know whether reality television shows are close to real life or not. Discussion In my view, the reality television shows do not represent a real life. I think reality television shows focus more on providing entertainment to the viewers rather than focusing on the essence of real life. Real life is very different from what is usually presented in the reality shows. Although the actions of a person in a reality show are based on different experiences of real life, yet the actions deviate from what that person does in his real life. “A reality show is not to be confused with a documentary, in which the subjects are asked to ignore the cameras and behave naturally” (Pollick). Real life is a mixture of different experiences and situations. Real life, as the name suggests, refers to reality in life rather than brining in some unnatural events in the life. In reality shows, people try to achieve things differently as compared to what they do in real life. The acts of a person are influenced by the artificial environment, which is created by the show organizers. In artificial environments, people behave and act differently because they have in their minds that the cameras and viewers are observing them closely. Therefore, they have to act in a different manner in order to be admired by the viewers. The sense of close supervision and observation makes a person bring a change in his actions whereas in real life, a person is not under observation in most of the cases. Another point is that real life does not consist of a series of events without any break between them whereas reality shows consist of a bundle of events and dramatic situations coming one after another without any considerable break between the two successive events. The occurrence of successive events also influences the behavior and actions of the participants. For any specific event, a fresh person performs differently as compared to a person who is made to participate in a number of distinguishing events. Another reason, which makes the reality shows different from the real life, is that in reality shows, the participants do not show what they actually are rather they try to show their more acceptable nature to the public. Let us take an example of a reality television show, Wife Swap, which was a UK based reality show. This show started in 2003 and ended in 2009. The show was based on the concept of swapping of wives and families. Various celebrities also participated in the show and obeyed the rules and regulation of the show. The reason why I think wife swap reality show did not represent the real life was that wife swapping is not a widespread activity. We can hardly find any place where wife swapping takes place so much openly. A reality show can only represent real life if it shows something real and authentic. I do not say that wife swapping does not take place anywhere in the world. It does take place but it is not very common. Moreover, even if it takes place in some parts of the world, there are no specific rules for it. Couples who are involved in wife swapping do not bound themselves to some rules. However, in wife swap reality show, there were specific rules regarding the activity. For example, in the first week of the new relationship, a swapped wife was asked to adhere to the lifestyle of the replaced wife. She had to wear same kind of clothes and had to do all things in the same manner as the actual wife used to do. From this example, it is clear that the show used to apply some rules and regulations on the swapped couples, which is not the case in real life. In real life, the couples involved in wife swapping, have different feelings and emotions for each other but in case of reality shows, the couples have to maintain a decent and acceptable behavior because a large number of people watch them constantly. Wife swap reality show represented a very small part of the society leaving behind the social norms and values of major parts of the societies. Even the part it represented, does not apply any sort of rules in wife swapping. These rules and regulations in any kind of reality show make the show’s segments different from the real life. Analyzing the example of wife swap reality show, I conclude that reality television shows do not represent real life; rather they show the altered and unnatural behaviors of the participants of the shows. Work Cited Hill, Annette. Reality TV: Audiences and popular Factual Television. New York: Routledge, 2005. Print. Pollick, Michael. “What is a Reality Show?.” Wisegeek.com, 21 Dec. 2010. Web. 03 Jan. 2011. . Read More