People turn to television to fill a gap that they are missing in their lives. However, our media only puts that gap there. Reality television has changed the way we watch TV forever. Stacey Lynn Koerneer, VP of broadcast research at True North Communications” TN Media, states that “It’s the one kin

So to some reality TV is nothing but a way not to live your life.

Survivor is not the only “reality” show that alters reality. Almost every single one does. When you click through the channels on your television you come across many different kinds of shows. However, I am not saying that all “reality” shows are fake. There are actual real “reality” shows out there. One good example is the show Cops. Cops allow a viewer to ride along with an officer and see them confront different criminal offenders. This show doesn’t need to be edited to get your excitement; it merely just plays the video that it takes. A show like this has advantages to its viewers. This show may spark someone’s interest in police work. It also can show what life is like when you go off track. Basically it discourages a criminal lifestyle. Other shows such as “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and “Animal Planet” are just real videos taken of funny situations. Many would not consider this “reality television” however. It seems that label is only slapped on the shows mentioned prior to these.

Survivor is a pioneer “reality” show. When this show was created it had viewers glued to their television sets. However, Marie-Laure Ryan says, “Survivor openly exploits its own power to create behaviors” (Ryan, 2001, p.9). What she means by this is that Survivor provokes behavior on their show. Jonathan Rauch says that “There is nothing real about putting a bunch of meticulously screen publicity hogs on an island, requiring them to engage in various contrived test, and asking them to vote on who can stay until next week” (Rauch, 2001, p.2). He goes on to say that the producers cause certain situations to happen by how they place certain people together. The contestants are chosen merely by how they will interact with each other. The producers do not want to select contestants that have things in common; this would not cause as much conflict on the show, thus altering reality. Marie goes on to state that “In a show of this type, the discrepancy between what Genette (creator of Survivor) calls narrated time and time of narration makes selective editing inevitable.” What this means is that the editors of this show are able to use the footage that is taken and mold it into something exciting and breath taking. Thus calling it reality, when really all it does is highlighting exciting parts of the show that were put there by the producers.

In conclusion, reality television is a cause for concern. We must take into consideration how “reality” television provokes our thoughts of true reality and influences our culture into unrealistic norms. Our Society seeks excitement and feeds on the lives of other people. But how do we decide what is real and what is not? There are still questions to be asked. When does a show stop being reality? What is your definition of reality? Katherine Hayles states “reality is merely a perception of how we see the world and how we choose to live our lives” (Hayes, 1999, p.12). These questions are ones that have many different answers, but society seems to have been taken over by what they think “reality” is all about. So the next time you sit down and watch a “so called Reality show” take into consideration how it is presented to you, and what aspects it promotes the most. You may find yourself seeing more then you thought was there, and maybe realizing that the picture in front of you is not reality.

or Something that exists independently of all other things and from which all other things derive. The quality possessed by something that is real. With these definitions ask yourself if what you see on television is actually real. By placing human subjects under the never-ending surveillance of cameras, and by labeling the results reality, these shows seem edited for a viewer’s enjoyment and merely adaptations of an unreal world.

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