February 11th, 2011 / 10:04 am
Random
Christopher Higgs
Random
Research Questionnaire: On Reality TV
Reggie Bush and Kim Kardashian - "Keeping up with the Kardashians"
1. Do you watch reality TV?
–If yes, which shows and why?
–If no, how come?
2. Why do you think reality TV is so popular today?
3. What do you think reality TV reflects about our society?
4. Are there connections between realism in contemporary literature
and realism on TV?
5. Does realism on TV seem “more real” or “less real” or “different real”
than realism in contemporary literature?
ok.
1) who hasn’t seen at least a commercial for one? that’ll be the day, though, when these things are literally a dime a dozen and you get 24 ‘shows’ in one-hour blocks, each one 2.5 minutes long. would save a lot of time for some people. maybe they’d be forced to go outside for a change and see if all those guppies are still there in that creek nearby where you live.
2) these shows’ ubiquity has a lot more to do with how cheap they are to produce more so than them being a superior form of entertainment. this question is also kind of like asking: why is the circus so popular today? entertainment has its purposes, and reality tv nakedly plays into what people are looking for when they want to be entertained.
3) that you can make money (a LOT of money) off of mostpeople’s insatiable, innate and nearly reptilian need to cast judgment on others; in other words: that it’s possible to monetize hating. who the hell watches these shows to appreciate the finer things of what they’re watching? people watching these things in large groups do so to point and laugh.
these last two questions seem vague, so please excuse my vaguely rambling replies:
4) what exactly is ‘realism on tv’? you mean, like, shows that aren’t cartoons? or have talking cars in them? or is this an reference to how 100% of the narratives found in reality shows are the result of a highly selective editing process? if there is a difference, it’s that novel are constantly bleeding through and breaking genres, due to production budgets, tv has to stuff all the drama in only a few locations.
5) again, not sure what this question is about. but it seems you’re comparing the preferences people have for one form over the other? this is literally an apples and oranges question. so… different real? though i’d claim that it’s a bit of a dangerously slippery slope to ask anyone to buy into differing tiers of ‘reality’. seems… Orwellian. also you’re going to have to be much more specific than ‘contemporary literature’ if you want a more meaningful answer. maybe commercials for reality tv shows can compare to the work of contemporary poets, though, who knows…?
my random final thought, which I guess would go under ‘other comments?’ in a questionnaire:
to partake in the appreciation of a visual medium is an inherently vicarious endeavor. reading can be the same way, but tv/film/etc. lacks the same proactive pull on the imagination.
I watch HGTV. That’s reality tv, right? Not like Survivor or American Idol or Kardashians, but it’s about real life.
Of course, How I Met Your Mother is also about real life.
Maybe the difference between realist books and reality tv is that realist books are more like How I Met Your Mother = scripted. Reality TV is more like memoir or nonfiction. Memoir is supposedly “real” while novels are not real but pretend to be real.
But reality tv pretends to be real, too. I mean, it’s also scripted.
Better question: What is the difference between How I met Your Mother and the Kim Karadashian show. Answer: one has actors, the other doesn’t? Or, one has real people pretending to be imaginary characters? But then, isn’t Kim Kardashian pretending to be a character? She’s not “really” the person on the tv show irl, is she?
Both have actors and both have scripts. Both pretend to be real.
1. Do you watch reality TV? not much
–If yes, which shows and why? if any, they tend to be the ones that revolve around an occupation like deadliest catch or ace of cakes. i think because i prefer seeing the kind of camaraderie that happens with co-workers, as opposed to family or friends.
–If no, how come? i dont watch most regular ones because every time they are on i feel like people are shouting too loud at something not worth shouting at.
2. Why do you think reality TV is so popular today? because it creates a different kind of celebrity who may be a little more like who they are as opposed to like unreachable celebrities like Prince. I think people mostly watch them antagonistically, as in they laugh at them without them necessarily intending to be laughed at. it makes people feel better about themselves to ridicule other people, basically, and celebrities are kind of like a safe person to ridicule without worrying about them showing up at your door.
3. What do you think reality TV reflects about our society? its extremes.
4. Are there connections between realism in contemporary literature
and realism on TV? probably
5. Does realism on TV seem “more real” or “less real” or “different real”
than realism in contemporary literature? different real
1. there are a lot of different types of shows that could qualify as reality tv – i don’t watch any competition types except for the japanese iron chef which i obsess over because it is so grandiose and the fictional mythology of the show is awesome, and then with the documentary types, i will watch Lockup if it’s on because the jail system is one that is (and hopefully will remain) entirely foreign to me, and it’s interesting to learn about that whole ‘scene.’ i guess shows like anthony bourdain’s no reservations and bizarre foods would count too? i watch those because they go to neat places. I remember when I was a teenager, I would watch Wild On… on E! because they went to exotic places and they focused on the boobs most of the time and I was 14 years old.
2. i think many shows become popular to audiences because they take a look at a world that the audience is not privileged to, be it fashion, or crazy/expensive food, or prison, or a really nice looking house/part of a house (like HGTV’s remodeling shows), or people who are crazy in some way (like Hoarders or the OCD show), or ozzy osbourne’s family, or the kitchen/bakery, or whatever they would find interesting. And they keep getting made because they’re cheap to make and people watch them, so it’s a cycle that will continue until they run out of appealing ideas.
3. I think it shows that we are either easy to fool about, or don’t care to distinguish, what is taken as “reality.” many of these shows are so clearly scripted, often terribly so, but people think that since these aren’t actors who are in Us Weekly (yet – that comes after the season’s over), this is going to be more “real” than a scripted show. I guess you’d have to be omniscient to know how real these shows are and how they compare to scripted shows that “feel real” like The Wire.
i don’t feel qualified to answer the last two
1. Every summer I watch Big Brother with my mom. My mom likes it a lot, and I like my mom.
2. No idea.
3. That people have a lot of free time. That people feel good if they see other people failing/failing too.
4. Probably not.
5. Different real.
1. Every summer I watch Big Brother with my mom. My mom likes it a lot, and I like my mom.
2. No idea.
3. That people have a lot of free time. That people feel good if they see other people failing/failing too.
4. Probably not.
5. Different real.
1. Every summer I watch Big Brother with my mom. My mom likes it a lot, and I like my mom.
2. No idea.
3. That people have a lot of free time. That people feel good if they see other people failing/failing too.
4. Probably not.
5. Different real.
1) No, but I have.
2) It is less popular than a lot of people probably think. Reality TV is popular with studio executives because it FAR FAR cheaper to produce a reality TV show five times a week than it is to produce a scripted drama or comedy. American Idol is one of the most popular shows around, but most of the other most popular shows are scripted.
3) Capitalism.
4) Not much other than both seem like they have lived beyond their usefulness.
5) The vast majority of “reality TV” doesn’t strive for “realism” in the same way that realist literature does. You would be conflating terms to call them both that. Most realist literature is trying to pretend it is something that could happen naturally in the real world, even though it is invented. Reality TV is only “realist” in the sense that it (supposedly) literally happened in the real world, even though the very premise of the shows are “here is what would happen if, instead of normal life, people were put into these wacky constructed situations.” (CEO becomes a regular employee for a day, normal guy somehow gets to date 100 women in a few weeks and pick his favorite, etc. etc.) They are almost inversions of each other, in that way.
Or perhaps by “realism in TV” you don’t mean “reality TV” despite the first few questions, and instead mean… I dunno? Some domestic dramas on TV? In which case ignore my last two answers.
Kim Kardashian’s breasts.
what ‘reality tv’ actually represents reality?
Of course, there are also some reality TV shows that don’t have much of an invented scenario and instead just follow around some wacky family or something. But even in those scenarios the “reality” is coming from the fact the people exist in the real world, even though we know they are acting in a scripted and unauthentic way.
ive always thought the show closest to reality was the first season of the real world in new york. it was kind of dull, and the people were very average and not ridiculous and it was just kind of calm the whole time.
(update) for anyone who wants real reality tv: http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/
mubarak just resigned.
What about NFL Hard Knocks..?
Zusya, surely you acknowledge the ideological function of ‘news’?
Turkish dams, and arms manufacturers and political corruption but what if the peasants run you out of town? People do not respond to news, they do not act on ideas or facts, what they do do in relation to information is respond according to the force that is applied through the information in their lives. Someone sends me a red bill, I must act, it is not the bill that makes me pay but the force behind it. People are not rational in the sense that they weigh up arguments and make decisions on the best ideas but they are rational in the way animals are rational, they act in their own best interest as they perceive it at the time and with the limited powers of their abilities. They respond to the orchestration of news, they cry when this royal dies, they cheer when that team wins but it is not the news that moves them it is the force behind the news, you could say they respond to the amount of capital that has been invested in a message. Imbeciles and anarchists say knowledge is power, but Freud and us say, knowing you’re repressed doesn’t stop you being repressed.
i remember that cast. not really entertaining, but def the closest thing to reality.
i guess ‘reality TV’ is popular because ‘reality’ is so boring.
i miss joe millionaire.
1. Do you watch reality TV?
duh, like, I don’t live in the stone age. holly’s world, keeping up w/ the kardashians, teen mom 2, jersey shore, cupcake wars
2. Why do you think reality TV is so popular today?
because everyone is really vain
3. What do you think reality TV reflects about our society?
our vanity
4. Are there connections between realism in contemporary literature
and realism on TV?
our vanity
5. Does realism on TV seem “more real” or “less real” or “different real”
than realism in contemporary literature?
what? sorry…kim kardashian is throwing a really distracting b*tch fit…
1. I watch reality TV religiously. I enjoy Amazing Race, Survivor, The Bachelor/ette, Tabatha’s Salon Takeover, Real Housewives of Whatever City, Shear Genius, Project Runway, Top Chef, Intervention, Hoarders, the entire Celebreality oeuvre and on and on and on.
2. Reality TV is popular because it is easy, because it allows us to be vicarious in a different way than regular TV and it allows us to gawk and judge and revel in the lives of others or the false presentation of the lives of others. It’s also fun and relaxing.
3. I don’t think reality reflects anything about our society that other forms of entertainment aren’t reflecting.
4. None whatsoever
5. Less real.
1. Yes.
-The Bachelor(ette) because I started flipping to it during commercials while watching..probably Gossip Girl?…and got hooked the way I get hooked to any show that I watch enough. TV dramas are like an addictive drug to me, in a good way that I need, like a pain medication that is prescribed to me, and if I watch any of them enough, reality or not, I almost never stop watching them (with the exception of The Shield and Jake’s season of the Bachelor because I heard spoilers. Didn’t watch Ali’s season because I don’t like her but I watched Bachelor Pad and am watching this season)
-Top Chef because it was the best-looking thing on a JetBlue flight. Got similarly hooked. Also I love food but I can’t stand anything on the food network.
2. I think there is a bit of supply-side economics at work here. Reality shows are cheap to make so there is more trial and error possible.
3. We have learned to self-medicate. But most scripted dramas say the same thing. Comedies are different, as are the “good” scripted dramas like The Wire, FNL, to some degree The Good Wife, in that I believe these can promote thought. The others inhibit thought which is why I need them. I can only guess that other people are watching them for the same reason. But maybe it’s just me. I almost always have horrible dreams when I sleep so watching tv is the only way I can relax mentally.
4. Is there such a thing as realism on tv? When I think of realism in literature, I’m thinking Flaubert, Zola, writers who practiced that style. I don’t think any tv show reality or not is doing that style, of detail for detail’s sake etc.
5. Realism in literature is a style, not a degree of reality. So is reality tv. But those styles don’t seem similar to me at all.
last night i was home for a rare visit and my mother came into the kitchen from the other room and said to me ‘im watching that jersey shore show. these people are awful! i like it.’ i think, if anyone gets it, my mother gets it.
that’s my jersey shore story.
r.i.p. Marshall Mc Luhan; r.i.p. Neil Postman.
1. Do you watch reality TV?
No. I don’t have cable, but I don’t stream these shows either. About a year ago I watched a couple episodes of Big Brother. Back in high school I liked the RR/RR Challenge show, because of all the games they played. I always imagined I would be very good at those challenges, and so I imagine I watched it back then for that, to sort of escape into that world, where I could be winning challenges and making money. Big Brother offers that to some extent, but after a couple episodes the pettiness of their coexistence, and the contrived nature of their disputes, became too much for me to handle.
2. Why do you think reality TV is so popular today?
I wish I knew. I settle for the easy answer: It’s the same reason McDonald’s, Meth, and Porn are so popular. It gives you what you want without any hard work. Though, with RTV, what is it giving us? It doesn’t give me anything. I think for some people it gives them drama, which even when it’s unbelievable, and ridiculous, and probably unhealthy (not unlike second-hand smoke), is still something we enjoy. The same reason gossip, or adultery, or theft, or whatever, is popular. Again, though, that’s an easy answer. The other easy answer is that it’s actually good, that by some standard it is quality programming. That answer seems wrong.
3. What do you think reality TV reflects about our society?
Though I haven’t watched any recently, I think that reality TV is becoming increasingly self-parodying. Like, people know it’s a joke, so they allow it to be as such. I actually remember a couple years ago there was a show about an aging playboy bunny and her daughters, and one of the daughters went to jail, and then when she was getting out they made this big fuss over all the paparazzi; funny thing was, there were only about 3 camera-men out there. Now, seriously? I think it’s popular because it’s cheap entertainment. You don’t have to get involved, really, to enjoy it, because it’s giving you the most basic reward for your time–an escape into someone’s life. It’s not a character, it’s a real person, and what they’re doing, even if they aren’t doing anything, has to matter. Add to that the fact that reality stars are either rich or doing something crazy, and you’ve got people interested, because people want to be Rich, and Unique. I still haven’t answered the question, but I don’t think it reflects anything in our society so much as speaks to our obsession with uniqueness and with fame. It doesn’t matter at what cost those two things come, and that’s why you see Teenage Moms and I Pierced My Own Brain and I Will Marry You In A Month, Maybe? And stuff like that. We want to escape, we want to be entertained, and we want to be known. We settle for doing the first two while we’re experiencing someone who already has the third.
4. Are there connections between realism in contemporary literature
and realism on TV?
There might be. The biggest difference is that literature, at least for me, speaks to something beyond itself, beyond the words on the page. Reality TV rarely does that. I don’t know if it’s even possible for it to. It would probably have to be orchestrated to some extent to do it.
5. Does realism on TV seem “more real” or “less real” or “different real”
than realism in contemporary literature?
I don’t know. Probably different. There’s a real quality to it, but I actually think people like realityTV for the surreal quality, for the fact that they can forget their lives for the time they’re in it. There’s a surreal element to contemporary lit, but I think it takes a lot more work to read a book than watch television, and I think it’s harder to lose oneself, and I think books are a lot more enjoyable, and will give you a much greater reward. And this is coming from someone, as I said, who watched reality tv in high school, and didn’t give a shit about books back then.
1. Do you watch reality TV?
I work in a subgenre of reality TV (what the Emmys categorize as “nonfiction programming”), so I watch it up to 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, depending.
–If yes, which shows and why?
Only the ones I work on or are of interest to me professionally, but I tend to honestly enjoy those shows.
2. Why do you think reality TV is so popular today?
Lincoln Michel and others are right in pointing out that unscripted TV is much cheaper to produce than scripted TV, but it also has to get good ratings to survive, and that said, the programming is obviously speaking to people (or at least, people with nothing better to do are settling for it).
There are a lot of choices and subgenres within the genre so it’s difficult to make a blanket generalization. “American Idol,” “Deadliest Catch,” and “Jersey Shore” are as different as any three shows in any genre, but all of them find a substantial audience.
3. What do you think reality TV reflects about our society?
To oversimplify, entertainment companies want to make a profit and people want to be entertained. Same as it ever was. The twain shall meet in this genre, in spades, for the time being.
In terms of content, I suppose it reflects a broadening view of what audiences are willing to consider as “entertainment,” but inroads have been made here for decades (among other things, the PBS series “An American Family”). The evolution of digital video, the simplification of off- and online editing systems, and non-union status have made production of unscripted TV a relative walk in the park compared to where it was even 20 years ago.
4. Are there connections between realism in contemporary literature
and realism on TV?
I suppose you mean “realism” in a more general sense, i.e., “the quality or fact of representing a person, thing, or situation accurately or in a way that is true to life” as opposed to the literary realism of Zola, et al, as described above.
In that case: I know this a dumb answer, but sure, if that’s what you want to see. To note an extreme example, some viewers of WWE programs don’t know that it isn’t “real.” A good number know and don’t care. The viewer makes up his/her mind about the extent of their emotional involvement with the narratives; on some level, they decide it’s “real enough.” Emotional truth always trumps hard facts; ask anyone who makes political ads.
5. Does realism on TV seem “more real” or “less real” or “different real”
than realism in contemporary literature?
As above — this is, obviously, completely subjective.
maybe a more important question is, To what extent does watching reality television actually make someone a horrible human being? It’s a tough one.
In my case: Christ, I hope not. But making hamburgers is different than eating them, and in my case, I happen to be one of those assholes who works in TV but doesn’t own one — despite the fact that I enjoy the hell out of what I do.
I think your 3. is just right, except that many/most people will make time “[to] see other people failing”.
Your “3. to monetize hating; to point and laugh” seem exactly right for that %age of their audiences they need to stay on-air.
Is that too cynical?
Okay; what does “reality TV” reflect about our society that other forms of entertainment also reflect?
2. definitely cascade-upward economics
I think unfixed-sports shows are “reality TV”, because they traffic in vicarious experience of “the thrill of victory . . . and the agony of defeat”, and those thrills and agonies the ‘actors’ experience as everyday life, rather than in a performed life entered into from, and from which return is made to, everyday life.
Great comment.
I watch NO reality shows.
I’m addicted to sports.
It doesn’t make you a horrible human if you ask yourself WHY you are even watching this shit. It actually just triggered an opening to reflection. But you have to ask.
I thought that post-game appearance by Fuckmesberger was actually actual.
He wasn’t eating fake shit to escape eating real shit.
He was grief-stricken to lose. I didn’t revel (for a minute); I felt bad (and, because of their previous two Bowls, I can’t stand the fucking Steelers).
“fuck reggie bush” ~ everybody in nola
news = the communal narrative? i’m not sure what you’re getting at, but it sure sounds intricate.
re-reading what i wrote, i’m not sure ‘hating’ is the right word, but maybe ‘h8ting’ would be.. i mean it more along the lines of ‘hate’ as in ‘he hate me’ kinda hate.
so, no, not too cynical.
i’d recommend the morgan spurlock reality series ’30 days’ for the antithesis of such a h8ter friendly reality style (whatever the hell that is), though while interesting and rather educational, is not entirely entertaining and tends to force viewers to shake up their world view, an all-too-uncommon and rather unpopular quality in television programming.
1. Do you watch reality TV?
No. I don’t own a television, so any programming I decide to watch I have to go out of my way to look for on the internet, and there’s the question of what’s worth going out of what your way to look for.
2. Why do you think reality TV is so popular today?
There are the usual reasons, several of which have been touched on here, but mostly I just think people are curious about people.
3. What do you think reality TV reflects about our society?
We are both fed up with irreality and still not very interested in reality itself.
4. Are there connections between realism in contemporary literature
and realism on TV?
This question is ridiculous.
5. Does realism on TV seem “more real” or “less real” or “different real”
than realism in contemporary literature?
This question is ridiculous.
black cock, white cunt
3. ha ha – ‘fed up with and not very interested in’ lots of stuphph
hysteria + saturation = . . . saturated with hysteria