Term Paper on "Reality Television"

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There are several reasons that reality television has become popular today.

The concepts of money, instant fame, and the guilty pleasure are cited as the common reasons. Today's shows offer huge sums of money to people who do not necessarily possess the career skills that would make them a productive enough member of society. However, acting in reality television and putting their most vulnerable and private moments in front of the cameras provide them enough money that they were hardly earn through honest work.

Let us take the example of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. This show offered up to a million dollars to people answering a set of questions. The questions, however, differed from related shows in that they were usually trivia oriented. The audience was involved, as well as calling a friend and so on, which added to the drama aspect. The lighting, music, and editing all were contrived to produce the maximum possible suspense surrounding rather innocuous pop culture subjects one might find in any game of Trivial Pursuit for Children. The promise of money and the vicarious joy at someone winning lots of money, or more commonly spectacularly losing said money, is what draws millions of viewers. The second reason of reality television has become popular because people want to get instant fame (Glynn, 23-25). Reality television takes ordinary people, sets them up in extraordinary situations on a world stage with other similarly commonplace individuals, and makes them the focus of a nation's attention on,. This kind of concept offers a chance of vicarious living through which audience is hooked on the TV programming. The third reason that reality television is popular today is that it offers guilty pleasure syndrome. It shows that many people vicariously are delighted with the fortunes or… READ MORE