Friday, February 5, 2010
Reality TV
So I am not the biggest fan of reality television but sometimes I do find myself watching it. I am curious to know how real some of these shows are and often wonder if they are staged. Last month I found that most of my facebook friends were obsessed with Jersey Shore, so I decided I had to watch an episode. After watching a few episodes I realized that it was not my type of show, but I also wondered if the shows were real or not and if they were people told what to say. I mean many of the situations seemed like situations that would never happen. Many reality shows seem to be like this these days. I mean, if they were really portraying what was happening in a house like that, would it even be exciting enough to watch? I would like to see if anyone has a true answer for this.
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We'll actually be reading a very interesting chapter on reality television & documentaries at the end of the semester.... To try to address your question, it seems to me there's a range of ways you can conceive of the notion of "scripting," from word-for-word scripts that are read on the news, to setting up a scenario like locking a half-dozen C-list stars in a rehab clinic with multiple camera crews... The literature on reality television is quite rich--running a search in our library will bring a result!
ReplyDeleteReality television humors me because most of the time it is "scripted", and you can tell it is from little things within the program. They often try and create drama when there is none, to get the audiences attention. I especially love when a a show cuts to commercial break, and the music builds up the program to gain the viewers attention.
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