REALITY TV

REALITY TV

$1.25

Monday, December 1, 2015

Vol XCIII, No. 311

What Reality TV Promotes:

The Messages of Reality TV

What Messages do Reality TV

shows send their audience?

THE EFFECTS OF REALITY TV

- Three Categories:

- Appearance

- Agression

- Way of Life

Body Image, Aggression, and More

How to live your life

Makes girls think they need to look a certain way, and that appearance is the most important thing in life. Teaches men they need to be strong and fit. Results in body-image issues and insecurities. Can be one cause of eating disorders.

Reality TV isn't real. This is not always realized when watching reality TV. In teenagers especially, the effects of reality TV are great. The main messages being shown throughout reality TV shows can be divided into three categories: appearance, aggression, and way of life. By way of life I mean how you should be acting, what you should be doing, etc. So how does this affect us?

Appearance:

Aggression:

Way of Life:

Promotes aggresive ways; problems cn be solved with aggression. EFFECTS STUDY:After watching reality TV shows, viewers were proven to be more aggressive. Reality TV makes its' viewers more aggressive.

- We watch the lives of other people

(Reality TV)

- Reality TV impacts thoughts on

viewers (whether you realize it or not),

- What we are seeing is what/how the

creators want us (or intend for us) to be or

think a certain way.

Audience mirrors what's seen on Reality TV. Vaues promoted on TV transfer into real lives.

Reality TV Good or Bad?

Continued

Reality TV is harmful, especially to teenagers. These shows send messages to its viewers that are then received subconsciously. Messages of how your body should look and how you should act are what is most seen throughout the span of all reality TV shows. Along with this, reality TV shows promote aggression. How does this relate back to our lives?

When you watch a reality TV show it is most likely that you well find skinny girls, fit guys, partying, drinking, and more. Just looking at the picture on the right, which is the cast picture for Jersey Shore, you can see that the girls are all wearing very revealing dresses with heels and full out makeup. On many reality TV shows, such as The Real Housewives, they are constantly discussing the plastic surgery they've had to fix this and that. In many reality TV shows, girls are being downgraded by the men in the shows; the girls aren't viewed as smart or as strong (although there are natural and genetical reasons why girls may not be as strong) as men. What does this teach young girls? It teaches them that their body is their most important aspect, and that they need to look a certain way and act a certain way, they can't be smart or strong, in order to be considered beautiful, or even a step down from that, to be considered "normal".

Sex. Drugs. Partying. These three things are constantly discussed and seen on Reality TV shows. Reality TV shows promote values, and in many of the shows partying, alcohol, sex, and drugs are main focuses. In the shows it looks like this is what you need to have a good time. Young people mirror the actions they see on TV, so if bad values are being popularized and shown, how can expect teens to react?

Aggression is another major aspect of reality TV; reality TV is based essentially on agression because that is what makes it dramatic. Characters are constantly getting into fights with each other (both physical and vocal), many times over nothing. Studies show that after watching such shows with aggression, that the viewers were more aggressive after watching the shows. By seeing aggression on Reality TV, viewers themselves become more aggressive.