Analysis: Reality Television

This post will contain all of my assignments related to our Written Analysis assignment. It is all about reality television. In the post, I've removed all my references and double spacing to make it more readable. But, if anyone wants my references, I am happy to provide.

Reality TV:

The Worst in Human Behavior

Although Reality TV has been around for several generations, it has become increasingly popular in recent history. Reality TV shows of the past, such as the first recognized reality show Candid Camera, were more like game shows. However, today reality TV shows truly exhibit the worst in human character with shows like “Teen Mom” and “Jersey Shore”. With that being said, the stars of these shows have been raised to popular culture icon status.

The simple act of putting a reality TV star on the cover of a magazine will sell more magazines. This shows how people are impressed by these reality TV stars. “Keeping up with the Kardashian’s” is all about using these people to sell products. Everybody who watches the show wants the dress, the shoes, the cars, and the lifestyle of the individuals because they are famous. But their only fame is being on a reality TV show. The Kardashian family are simply rich people – who in truth are truly nobody – who got a TV show and now everybody knows who they are and wants to be like them or seen with them.

Reality TV stars, such as Kate Gosselin, must hire body guards to keep people away from them because of the obsession around them.

People hoard information about these stars. They are blasted across magazines such as “People”, “Us”, “InTouch”, “OK!”, and “Star”. Reality TV stars seemingly grace the covers of these magazines more than traditional movie stars at times. If the latest bachelor from “The Bachelor” dumps his choice – or worse, chooses the one that the viewers do not like – there is genuine outrage by the fans who are thoroughly engrossed in the drama of the show. Teenage girls are idolizing the “16 and Pregnant” or “Teen Mom” stars, believing that not only is the life of a teenage mother not too bad, but that they could get famous in the process. There is literally a fan club devoted to Teen Mom with a website (http://www.fanpop.com/spots/teen-mom) and a Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/AllTheTeenMoms). Additionally, people famous for other reasons aspire to be reality TV stars, such as Casey Anthony, the person who was acquitted of murdering her toddler daughter, as if this lifestyle will make their lives better. 

Applying the Icon theory to this topic provides perspective on how people can venerate such degenerative behavior. It does not make it less obscene, but it at least provides an explanation or insight as to how it can happen in a society.

 

Reality TV:

Stereotypes

There is a great deal of stereotyping that occurs in reality television. Shows like “Jersey Shore” and “Real Housewives of New Jersey” are overflowing in stereotypical characters. It is so profuse that one wonders if they characters are not truly acting. Apparently, people are fascinated by the Italian-American subculture of New Jersey, and the characters in these shows exaggerate the stereotypes that people have about this subculture.

In “Jersey Shore”, you have 20-something characters with strong New Jersey accents, dark tans, and gelled hair. They drink and party, fight and get into lots of trouble. On “Real Housewives of New Jersey”, you have more of the same, including hair pulling cat fights between the “ladies”. Viewers have apparently fallen in love with this subculture, though, and the characters from show are going on to have more lucrative jobs, along with the show. “Snooki” from Jersey shore has an abundance of Twitter followers and was being approached for selling tanning and diet products – before her pregnancy, of course. “The Situation” from the same show has deals for self-help books, as well as clothing and cosmetics. The show has also spawned other reality TV shows based out of New Jersey because of the fascination with this subculture, although these shows have not been as successful.

The behavior of these characters, and America’s fanatical fascination with them, continues to emphasize how reality TV perpetuates the worst characteristics in human behavior. Governor Christie of New Jersey is extremely irritated with these shows and others that “tarnish Jersey’s image” and continue the stereotyping of the state that makes it a long standing joke in some circles. Particularly in Italian-American groups, there is frustration that these shows depict all Italian-American’s as shallow individuals who make terrible decisions.

It is sad that these shows are responsible for people all over America and possibly the world thinking that New Jersey is made up of a bunch of drunk, ill-behaved adults with ridiculous tans and even worse hair. However, there are some at least that are trying to fight back against the way these shows are portraying their state and subculture. New Jersey insurance executive Gary Wilson has started a grass-roots public relations campaign that consists of websites, YouTube videos and billboards that show positive New Jersey features. This gives hope that not all American’s are falling for these awful shows.

Reality TV:

The Cult of the Celebrity

Reality TV stars certainly reach celebrity status. They do it almost instantly, as well. Their faces are plastered all over a television show, and due to often unpredictable behavior, they are often catapulted to celebrity status by entertainment news magazines, as well. However, their status is usually not sustainable, and they fall into the “15 minutes of fame” category. They are average people who have no reason to be famous. Nevertheless, they become famous because of their outrageous behavior. Reality TV stars are the epitome of a “15 minutes of fame” celebrity. They tend to be more contrived and lack any real talent. They are unremarkable, and it is only through media publicity that they are able to attain and keep their celebrity status.

The Reality TV phenomenon actually invites the average person, sitting in their household, to literally choose the person that they identify the most with, and encourages them to make an emotional investment in these people. This creates a fascination with the Reality TV star by the viewer, which helps to quickly elevate the person to that celebrity status. As the person on the show shares their deepest feelings, they connect with the audience and fuel the enthrallment. However, these shows also fuel the easy discarding of the celebrity by allowing the public this same ability. If the public does not connect with them, or does not believe they are sincere, they are tossed away and their status is quickly diluted.

The Reality TV star, though, will sometimes keep their celebrity status longer by ensuring their personal lives reach the scandalous level because the public interest with drama. This helps them to stay in the public eye so that people continue to know their name and continue to be interested.

Kim Kardashian is one example of a Reality TV star celebrity who surpassed her “15 minutes of fame” status. She was able to capitalize on her status and turn it into products to sell. Because she was famous, people buy her products because they consider it a status symbol.

Reality TV:

Formulas

Reality television has been popular since the 1990’s. Although they do not follow the conventional formulas from traditional art forms, they do have a formula that makes them appeal to mass audiences. Those that follow the formula seem to receive even larger audiences than popular fictional television shows.

There are different types of reality televisions show formats. They are game shows in which the people compete, like in a game, for some prize. People are eliminated from the competition over time until the winner is named. Examples of this type of show are “Survivor” and “Fear Factor”. There is the dating contest, where a single person (male or female) has a throng of people to choose from as a mate, and each of those are eliminated over time until finally the mate is chosen. The most famous of these shows is “The Bachelor”. There is the makeover program, where people or homes are improved in some way. “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” and “Pimp My Ride” are two examples of this type of show. The soap opera like shows called docusoap are where people live together and the audience observes their interactions and living together over time. “Jersey Shore” is a current popular example of this type of reality television show. Finally, there is the talent contest, like “American Idol”. This is not a finite list of the types of show, but is broad enough to show the variety.

All of these types of shows are very different; however, they all contain the same elements that make them appeal to the masses: unscripted, observational, video confessionals, and interactivity. Because the shows are unscripted, the participants seem to be real and the environment is uncontrolled. The observational style of the show makes the audience feel intimately involved in the participants’ lives and situations. Even though the shows are unscripted, there is a pattern of drama that always has a clear beginning, middle and end. Each show allows the participants to share their feelings with what is happening within the show through the form of a video confessional. This makes the audience feel as if the participant is speaking directly to them. Finally, every show promotes interactivity with the audience, making them feel very involved in the outcome of the participants.

Although this formula is not directly aligned to the classical formulas in historically popular art, it is a formula, none-the-less. This helps to understand why the shows seem to be so appealing to the audiences.

 

Reality TV:

Wrapping It All Up

Researching reality television has been a very interesting topic. There are a lot more reality television shows out there than was originally thought. They have also been around for much longer than I believe anyone realizes.

The best popular culture theory that relates to reality television is cultural or celebrity icons. This would be followed by a close second with stereotypes.

Getting a reality television show today means almost instant icon status. Some seemingly join the reality television show simply to get recognized, such as contestants on “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette”. Very few of these couples every really get married, even though the whole point to the show is for them to get married. They use this as a means of becoming famous even though the icon status generally lasts for a short period of time and they go back to being totally unrecognized.

Many of these stars are famous for no real reason except that people are fascinated by their lives. They have no real talent, except for living drama-filled lives or by acting foolish. But the American public loves it. They are drawn and attracted to their lives and form personal attachments to the characters.

There seem to be mixed feelings about the shows that portray dramatic stereotypes. While this does attract audiences, many who are lumped into the stereotype find it offensive.

I began this assignment with a preconceived notion that all reality television was for mindless people and that it portrays the worst kind of human behavior. I believed that by watching these shows, people are condoning this type of behavior. To a certain degree, I still believe that. However, I have also found that what drives someone to connect with characters of a show is much more complex that I originally believed. I also have found that there are a lot of really good shows out there, as well, such as “Extreme Home Makeover”. If this show prompts people to mimic that behavior, that would be a wonderful world!

I believe now that I will be less judgmental about what types of television shows people watch. I will try to be understanding when my husband wants to watch “Keeping Up With the Kardashian’s”.

Journal Analysis: Dexter

 

Journal Analysis:

Dexter

Tara Paider

Popular Culture, HUMN240-F3WW

Joseph Poston

July 26, 2012

Journal Analysis:

Dexter

The journal article reviewed is about the television show, Dexter, and how America is fascinated with the title character, Dexter Morgan, who is a serial killer. The article suggests that Americans like complex characters who challenge our notions of right and wrong. We like people who break rules for the benefit of others, and this is aligned with our traditional view of famous heroes. Audiences expect to clearly see right and wrong, good over evil, and law to prevail. We then reward the writers of the show by watching and the industry benefits financially from our validation that the show has met our needs. The article states that traditional gothic characters struggle with both good and evil parts of their personality. However, external culture puts pressure on the character to align to a specific moral ideology. This pressure on the character would force good to prevail over what the article calls “Other” (Donnelly, 2012). The character of Dexter establishes clear lines between normal and “Otherness”. What is abnormal to us is “Other”. Anything that deviates from normal is classified as “Other” and is prevalent in fiction and film. One of the main points the author attempts to make is that “Others”, including serial killers, are a manifestation of social anxieties (Donnelly, 2012). The article goes on to explain that in the 1980’s, serial killer characters became common in fiction. This was because American’s were conflicted by what was happening in their country and the world with what they were feeling inside themselves. America was out of the recession, the Cold War had ended, and there was this prevailing sense of everything being right. Yet, people still felt anxious and fearful, but had nothing external to which they could attribute that fear. People latched onto this serial killer character as a monster to which they could focus their fear and feel better about this “Otherness” they were feeling. It allowed them to refocus their fear from a foreign enemy to something that prowled closer. It became almost a political statement for the time (Donnelly, 2012). Then, there was the rise of the anti-hero. These are serial killers that we can understand and identify with who, the author feels, challenge our deeply flawed notion of right and wrong. However, based on my understanding of the author’s intent, it is important that we understand what makes a serial killer do what he does because it allows us to rationalize the behavior and clearly define the difference between them and us. Unlike monsters, serial killers look like us and this scares us. So, film makers will let the mask of the traditional serial killer slip every so often so that we can see the monster and reinforce that they are indeed “Other” (Donnelly, 2012). But, with anti-heroes, this never happens. Also, with early anti-heroes, it is never clear what causes their behavior, so the clear distinction between them and us is not there (Donnelly, 2012). Dexter meets all the criteria of an anti-hero and the show clearly articulates what causes his behavior. Dexter is not like us and we are not like him. The line is clear. Although Dexter’s behavior is amoral and does not conform to our sense of right and wrong, he lives by a strict code which is absolute. He has a clearly defined moral ideology, which makes him identifiable to the audience. Dexter is “Other” so he can kill. Dexter kills people who kill people like us, which makes him endearing to us. The article ends with hypothesizing that the American culture needed this and other vigilante type movies and games that were released around the same time because of the September 11 tragedy. America realized that not everyone loves us, and we needed to reconcile our behavior in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib with the ideal that America is righteous. This type of show allows us to revel in the idea of punishing those that have wronged us in whatever way possible (Donnelly, 2012).

The article appears to be geared towards a general audience, not a particular segment of the population. It definitely has a political slant, but does not use any subject specific language or terminology. It references other shows that show similar traits in proving various themes discussed. So, it might be nice to have a general understanding of popular television shows, but not required.

The article did not flow very well. The author jumped back and forth between points, and particular points were made multiple times, which made it difficult to organize the main points of the article. They could be identified, but they were not easily organized. For example, Dexter’s “code” and how that helps us identify with him from a moral perspective is stated multiple times throughout the article when it really only needed to be stated once. In some cases, it was stated in the middle of another thought. The section that talks about anti-heroes and what makes the old anti-heroes different than Dexter as an anti-hero is confusing, and it was difficult to interpret.

I do agree with most of the points raised by the author, particularly with our need to identify what is “Other” and justify why we are not “Other”. Tying the fascination with this type of character to political and world events is interesting. I cannot say that I agree or disagree, but it is interesting and could explain America’s general apathy with some of our military decisions. The author cites work that makes a similar conclusion, but this other article focuses on Neoconservatives and Neoliberals specifically. The author being analyzed her seems to attribute it to the general American population regardless of political affiliation. I honestly do not know enough of about trends in television show themes to be able to truly state whether there is a correlation between political and world events to what American’s prefer to watch on television. But, again, the article does make interesting points and it is something we should consider.

I think the article is important because it does raise a possible interesting correlation between what our culture finds popular in television characters with world and political events. It hints at the audience being fickle if their emotional attachment to a particular character can be broken or not exist at all based on the swaying of the political climate in the world.

References

Donnelly, A. M. (2012). The New American Hero: Dexter, Serial Killer for the Masses. Journal Of Popular Culture, 45(1), 15-26. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5931.2011.00908.x

Icon Analysis

An example of three contemporary icons is Snow White, Marilyn Monroe and Madonna. They are all women who are strong, yet fragile and beautiful in different ways. Snow White, from the original Grimm version, was a young princess who ran away to live with dwarfs after her evil step-mother tried to kill her for being more beautiful than her. Marilyn Monroe was an actress, model and singer from the 1940’s to the early 1960’s. Madonna is a singer and actress, who became famous in the 1980’s and is still successful today.

I chose these three icons because they are women I have always found fascinating – but for different reasons. I grew up reading a great deal, and my mother introduced me to the original Grimm tales. Each time a Disney version of them is released, I remember the original version of the stories. Snow White I found particularly enduring – and endearing. Although being threatened by death, she left her home as a princess and ran away into the woods, not knowing where or how she was going to live. She found friendship and shelter, but she took on an entirely different lifestyle in order to survive. She eventually regained her former life, as a queen. In her own way, she was a very strong woman and survived through dire circumstances.

Marilyn Monroe had such a terrible childhood. What she came out of was so sad, and she tried so hard to overcome her circumstances. As much as I have read about her, she seemed to be vulnerable to being used by people. She trusted so many people, and they took advantage of her, even after her death. She was very internally fragile and erratic. She seemed to be such a kind and warmhearted person, and even much more intelligent than people credited to her. She worked very hard to become a good actress and to be taken seriously. But, I believe her mental illness, which she likely inherited from her mother, was too much. She was a non-traditionally beautiful woman, which is what originally drew me to finding out more about her. She was more full-figured, yet projected a sensuality that people are still very much drawn to today.

 

I grew up in a very small, southern town where everybody listened to country music. I remember listening to Madonna and seeing pictures of her and thinking how different she was. She seemed to have this attitude that she didn’t care what people thought – she was going to wear what she wanted, sing what she wanted, and act like she wanted and nobody could stop her. I loved this about her, and took it to heart. I didn’t want to be like everybody else and I didn’t want to care so much about what people thought about me that I became someone that I wasn’t. People would make fun of me because I acted and dressed differently, but I never cared. In the end, it helped me be a stronger person. Today, though, I think Madonna has become somewhat desperate for attention as she grows older. It’s sad. But, I will remember her from her early career very fondly.

What is popular culture to me?

Popular culture reflects the products and activities that are commonly enjoyed by the majority of a particular population. It’s all the things that we see, hear, taste and do on nearly a daily basis in (particularly) American life. The general population is typically influenced by mass media, and so therefore, we see a great deal of advertisement of these mainstream commercial products through television ads and even pandered on TV shows themselves.

My job is analytics, and one area we use it heavily is in marketing. We build statistical models which will predict customer buying and attrition behavior. Therefore, understanding how people are influenced by marketing and advertising is extremely important. Even more important is understanding the emotional triggers for people and how those influence their loyalty to a particular brand. 

I think an example of a pop culture artifact would be Facebook.

I chose it because it seems to be an example of how people are becoming more connected electronically but less connected physically. People would rather communicate electronically or virtually than face-to-face. Kids text or message rather than even speak to each other on the phone, let alone be in the same room with each other. Even at work, people will join a conference call rather than go two floors up to join a meeting in person in a conference room. Understanding this helps to understand how people might rather purchase products or work with a representative from my company during a service call. It also shows that forming an emotional attachment with my customer base is more difficult because the human connection is lost.

I had to create this blog for my humanities class, but maybe it will turn into something... who knows?