TV Show Essay

Nowadays the popularity of television is based largely on Hollywood production, news, sports, featured events and the “reality television”. Reality TV has gained popularity in the 2000s, and in 2001 the famous “Survivor” show won an Emmy award (Hill, p. 116). Since that time, more than 225 reality shows have been broadcasted, and the demand for these shows seems to grow with every new launch (Biressi and Heather, p. 40). However, these shows raise a lot of problems such as privacy concerns, ethical issues, the appeal to people’s instincts etc. In addition to this, it is highly questionable whether these shows really reflect the reality. The purpose of this essay is to consider the reality of these shows, the analyze the problems related to this kind of shows and to generate recommendations how these problems can be solved using the 6-step process of problem solving.
Definition and analysis of the problem
Generally speaking, reality television is a TV genre where the situations or characters are unscripted and the participants of these shows are filmed in the “real situations” (Holmes and Jermyn, p. 78). These participants may or may not be aware that they’re being filmed, but the main idea of reality TV is to show people acting on their own or sometimes even living part of their lives in the public. There are different variants of reality shows such as documentary shows, self-improvement, renovation, talk shows, hidden cameras, dating shows, supernatural shows etc.( Bignell, p. 81) Despite the popularity of these shows, their “reality” and impact on the audience are highly questionable.
In fact, reality television shows exaggerated sides of reality or people behaving too dramatically in order to gain popularity. Moreover, the producers of TV shows always tend to show the lives of their participants as special, and create an illusion that all routine problems are solved automatically. These visions distort the perception of reality, especially that of the teenagers and TV addicts, and appeal to darker sides of human nature. TV viewers tend to react to striking and outrageous events, and the cheapest way is to show violence, humiliation, play on human curiosity and willingness to become a “star” (Bell, p. 148). The main problem of the reality TV shows is that they perpetuate existing problems and commonly focus on the worst sides of human nature (Bell, p. 150). The impact of television is impressive, and such destructive messages to the public might result in destabilization of the society and its degradation. This is the problem which should be addressed.
Criteria
The main problems related to reality TV shows are the following ones:
High level of dramatization and scripting is involved
The focus of these shows is on interpersonal, surviving or other extreme sides of life
“Reality” TV does not reflect everyday things, but exaggerates existing problems instead
Participants of “reality” shows are placed in such conditions which hardly relate to reality (e.g. when renovation is done in 2 days or when someone can date 10 people at once)
Participants do not act like they normally do because of public attention
As a result, the reality shows do not reflect the reality, but instead exploit human instincts and appeal to the darker sides of TV viewers. This influence should be eliminated or replaced with positive messages expressed through reality TV shows. Criteria for future solutions should then include: practicability of implementation, reaction of the public, vitality of the solution and its estimated effectiveness with regard to improving the situation (Kavoori, p. 36). The solutions will be evaluated using a scale from 1 to 5 for every criteria, where 1 is “inappropriate” and 5 is ‘very appropriate”.
Brainstorming of solution options
Through brainstorming, it is possible to develop several solution options. The main of them are (Peccei et al, p. 203):
Initiate governmental control over the quality of reality television
Allow the audience to vote for the best shows and to focus on preferred shows
Ban reality television (or certain kinds of reality shows, which violate personal privacy or demonstrate violence)
Control the reality shows and ensure that these shows reflect the true reality
Implement additional fees for the producers of aggressive, violent or socially destabilizing shows
Educate producers and related TV employees regarding their potential effect on the society
Provide financial support for reality TV shows carrying positive or educational messages
Evaluation of solution options
The solution options generated by brainstorming are different in effectiveness. Table 1 represents the evaluation of each of the solutions according to the criteria.
Solution
Practi-cability
Public reaction
Vitality
Effective-ness
Total

Initiate governmental control over the quality of reality television
3
2
2
2
8

Allow the audience to vote for the best shows and to focus on preferred shows
2
5
1
1
9

Ban reality television (or certain kinds of reality shows, which violate personal privacy or demonstrate violence)
4
1
4
4
13

Control the reality shows and ensure that these shows reflect the true reality
3
4
2
2
11

Implement additional fees for the producers of aggressive, violent or socially destabilizing shows
5
3
4
5
17

Educate producers and related TV employees regarding their potential effect on the society
2
4
2
2
10

Provide financial support for reality TV shows carrying positive or educational messages
4
5
4
4
17

Table 1. Evaluation of solutions
Table 1 shows that the most effective solutions are financial: introducing additional fees for reality shows violating certain predefined rules or exceeding the level of aggression or humiliation is an effective solution, especially if it can be combined with governmental / financial support for TV shows carrying positive messages and useful information. The idea of banning certain kinds of TV shows also has a high rating, so it can be considered as an additional method in those cases when previous solutions appear to be ineffective.
Discussion of implementation
Television is one of the most promising profit-making industries, and it is natural that the most effective solutions are related to financial gains. The most effective solutions involve financial support of game-changing and positive projects; for example, renovation projects are mostly informative and useful, if they do not create the illusion of “magic transformation”. Another set of effective solutions is based on implementing additional fees for TV shows violating the rules. Financial regulations should be based on legal documents. It is necessary to develop definitions and criteria for “positive” and “negative” messages carried by reality shows, and to create appropriate legislation. Then it will be possible to add the above-mentioned solutions to the procedures of licensing and broadcasting TV production.
Conclusion
In my opinion, mass media and television in particular play a very significant role in the life of our society. Reality television does not depict reality, but rather distorts it, shows exaggerated problems and appeals to human instincts instead of developing consciousness. However, film makers and TV show producers do not only entertain people, but also carry a certain message with their production. These messages to a large extent determine the world where all of us will be living in several years, and the people engaged in producing these messages carry a social responsibility. The role of the government and of other social institutions is to transform television from a profit-making industry into a game-changing industry, and to make all professional involved in production and broadcasting of TV shows realize that their effect on human perception of the reality is changing the environment and the whole world. The solutions regarding the reality shows should be only part of the global campaign calling for the responsibility of television and all TV-men.