Scripted Stereotypes In Reality TV

Diversity, or lack thereof, has always been an issue in both television and film for years. But another great issue that ties in with the lack of diversity is misrepresentation, or a substantial presence of stereotypes in media. While stereotypes often are commonplace in scripted television and film, the possibility of stereotypes appearing in a program that claims to be based on reality seems unfitting. It is commonly known that reality television is not completely “unscripted” and is actually molded by producers and editors. While reality television should not consist of stereotypes, they have curiously made their way onto the screen and into our homes. Through content analysis this thesis focuses on Latina/Hispanic-American and Asian-American contestants on ABCs’ The Bachelor and whether they present stereotypes typically found in scripted programming

Reality TV and the Entrapment of Predators

Dateline NBC’s “To Catch a Predator”(2006-08) involved NBC staff working with police and a watchdog group called “Perverted Justice” to televise “special intensity” arrests of men who were lured into meeting adult decoys posing as young children, presumably for a sexual encounter. As reality television, “To Catch a Predator” facilitates public shaming of those caught in front of the cameras, which distinguishes it from fictional representations. In one case, a Texas District Attorney, Louis Conradt, shot himself on film, unable to bear the public humiliation of cameras airing his arrest. The show engenders conflicting responses: Did the show fulfill a public service by informing the public about real dangers and deterring potential predators, or was it an insensitive effort to garner ratings by taking advantage of human weaknesses? Is the sort of public shaming it imposes an appropriate form of punishment given the legitimate purposes of punishment? Did the show portray justice, or did it entrap victims? How did NBC’s working relationship with local police bear on the answer to that question? This paper addresses these questions and develops three objections to the show: that NBC in effect metes out unjust punishment; that it invades privacy; and that it entraps

(Re)contextualising audience receptions of reality TV

This paper seeks to recontextualise key findings from recent studies of reality TV audiences in light of insights drawn from across the wider field. It suggests that modes of engagement and response adopted by different reality TV audiences appear broadly consistent with those identified in relation to a wide variety of genres viewed in diverse national contexts, as charted in the Composite Multi-dimensional Model of audience reception (Michelle 2007). To further illustrate these parallels, this paper analyses online audience responses to a specific event that occurred during the 2006 reality game show, Rock Star: Supernova, applying the Composite Multi-dimensional Model as its conceptual schema. In so doing, this paper seeks to demonstrate how we might move beyond the traditional focus on specificities of genre and format to recognise and begin to theorise broader continuities in the nature of audience engagement that may persist beyond the transition to new, hybrid, and increasingly interactive media formats

Predators at Large: Dateline NBC and Reality TV

In the age of digital media, entertainment is king, regardless of origin. One need not look very far to see the incredible impact digital trends have had on the media industry as a whole. While other television genres are skyrocketing, the realm of reality television outmatches nearly every other competitor. In 2013 alone, over fifty percent of primetime audiences were watching their favorite reality TV show (Webster). According to polls done at the turn of the twenty first century, over sixty-eight percent of the American population between the ages of eighteen and twenty-nine would say that they like or love to watch reality television shows on a consistent basis (Oregon). For many audience members, the draw is solely product-based, whereas the objective for a producer lies in the reality show’s profits. Certain reality shows run a price margin that is nearly a third of their dramatic or comedic peers. For comparison, “Friends—a scripted hit with actors who get more expensive with every contract—is the old-line antithesis of Survivor, a moneymaking machine with disposable stars and no writers” (Oregon). Reality programming seeks to sift through and capitalize on ideas that serve both ends well, satisfying the market and the television industry. To Catch a Predator, an NBC Dateline ‘reality’ show based around luring and arresting potential child predators, is one such show. For many, the show is harmless fun, perhaps even doing the public a favor by exposing ‘less-desirables’ in communities. For others, it raises some important, irreparable issues within ethic and legal systems

Dysfunctional eating behaviours, anxiety and depression in Italian boys and girls: the role of mass media

Objective: Extensive research has implicated identification with characters in mass media in the emergence of disordered eating behavior in adolescents. We explored the possible influence of the models offered by television (TV) on adolescents’ body image, body uneasiness, eating-disordered behavior, depression, and anxiety. Methods: Three hundred and one adolescents (aged 14-19) from southern Italy participated. They completed a questionnaire on media exposure and body dissatisfaction, the Eating Disorder Inventory-2, the Body Uneasiness Test, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory – Form Y. Results: The main factors contributing to females’ eating-disordered behaviors were their own desires to be similar to TV characters, the amount of reality and entertainment TV they watched, and the discrepancy between their perceptions of their bodies and those of TV characters. Friends’ desire to be similar to TV characters contributed most to depression, anxiety, body uneasiness, and eating disorders for both males and females. Conclusion: Our data confirm that extensive watching of reality and entertainment TV correlates with eating-disordered behavior among females. Moreover, the well-known negative effects of the media on adolescents’ eating-disordered behaviors may also be indirectly transmitted by friends who share identification with TV characters

Immaterial Labour and Reality TV: The Affective Surplus of Excess

Drawing on discussions of neoliberalism, immaterial labour and exploitation of reality television participants, this article argues that the patients on the British reality show ‘Embarrassing Bodies’ are exploited because they receive no monetary return for their performances and are frequently shamed on camera. It then seeks to theorize exploited labour on reality television through Debord’s notion of the Spectacle. The author argues that in contemporary reality television the Spectacle is amplified through shame and affect. This is particularly evident in programmes that are about health and the body. The spectacular labour depicted in such programmes may serve to attract audiences for entertainment purposes, as well as to discipline them so that they remain healthy and productive workers

Consuming the Reality TV Wedding

This article investigates the intersection of weddings, the wedding industry, consumption, and reality TV by considering the reality TV series, Trista and Ryan’s Wedding. This show featured the real-life wedding of Trista Rehn and Ryan Sutter, who met on the series The Bachelorette. The author argues that reality TV’s emphasis on the “real,” its narrative techniques (including product assimilation), and the wedding industry’s stress on having a “unique” wedding converge on this show to mobilize consumer fantasies and dreams of the traditional white wedding around specific consumer products. She concludes that examinations of weddings in North American culture must take into account not only the practices and rituals involved in these social and cultural events, but also consider the ways in which popular cultural forms such as reality TV work to produce particular kinds of images.Cet article enquête au carrefour des noces, de l’industrie du mariage, de la consommation et de la télé-réalité en considérant l’émission de télé-réalité Trista and Ryan’s Wedding. Cette émission montrait le mariage réel de Trista Rehn et Ryan Sutter, qui s’étaient rencontrés lors du tournage de The Bachelorette. L’auteure soutient que l’emphase mise par la télé-réalité sur le « réel », ses techniques narratives (y compris l’association à des biens de consommation) et le fait que l’industrie du mariage pousse à ce que l’on ait des noces « uniques » convergent dans cette émission pour mobiliser les visions et les rêves que suscite le mariage en blanc traditionnel afin d’attirer les consommateurs vers des biens de consommation spécifiques. Elle en conclut que l’étude des noces dans la culture nord-américaine doit prendre en compte non seulement les pratiques et les rituels mis en oeuvre dans ces évènements sociaux et culturels, mais aussi considérer les manières par lesquelles des formes culturelles populaires comme la télé-réalité travaillent à produire des types particuliers d’images