When looking at "reality" television shows such as "Survivor" or "Big Brother" we have to understand or try to define what we think the word "reality" means. Webster defines reality as --Something that exists independently of ideas concerning it.
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. .
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.