Reality television

Untitled Reality Television Thesis: A Documentary

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• published: 29 Apr 2013
• views: 5113

People have called it the modern freak show; they've compared it to the morbid curiosity of passing a car wreck; and other say it is just an affirmation that our lives are better than the people's we see on our screens. Regardless of the reason, reality television (more aptly termed: "non-fiction" programming) has captivated America. But "reality TV" is just that: it is TV. It abides by the same rules as everything else we watch, maintaining the four-wall convention seen in other types of programming. Once the "TV world" is created, producers are told not to "break" from this produced reality both physically (by erasing the production apparatus) and narratively (by abiding by the established "rules" of the series). But while this works for fiction programming (even on "unrealistic" science fiction series), reality television purports to represent the "real" (or "corporeal") world, which cannot be divorced from the reality created on screen. As a result, the fourth wall in reality television is harder to maintain throughout the entire run of a series. Over the last thirteen years, we see the concept of the fourth wall evolving once we begin bringing cast members back for multiple seasons of the same series. But how and when did we decide that these "ordinary" people should get more than "fifteen minutes of fame" without any recognizable talent? Why were these "ordinary celebrities" legitimized as such in the eyes of the public? And, what are the ramifications of this in our own society that now gives anyone with access to the internet the chance at achieving fame? With the walls between "ordinary" and "celebrity" constantly being blurred, it is no wonder that we see the same thing occurring on the series that purport to represent this "real world."