Free Custom «Reality TV» Essay Paper

Reality TV has emerged as the fastest growing television programs in the contemporary times. All over the world, people have developed some interest in the reality TV. Therefore, producers and movie directors have taken up projects to produce reality TV shows, trying to satisfy the needs of the eager audience. The actors and actresses who take part in these reality shows are members of the society, and, thus, people at the screens identify themselves with these characters. People continue watching reality TV shows since they are distanced from fiction. Therefore, people feel a sense of attachment with the characters featured in these shows. Women share a lot of similarities with reality TV stars and actresses, because people who watch the shows place a celebrity status on the show characters. Therefore, they greatly influence the behaviors of the people in the society.

Censorship

Reality TV shows are often censored to ensure that inappropriate scenes do not feature in these programs. Therefore, women in reality shows are aware that they are not acting in fiction and tend to act normally. Therefore, they reflect the fears and appear more credible than characters in fiction. The women in these shows represent the social reality as it is; they do not exaggerate things as they are exaggerated in fiction. Thus, the audience forms a bond towards these characters. Women in reality TV also present heir issues in the real context of the society. They express their needs, desires, ambitions, challenges and strengths in a manner that is credible and convincing to the people (Andrejevic 153). Therefore, show stars have a lot of influence on the society. In all these instances, the content of these shows is closely monitored, and most of them do not contain sexual content. They are edited to hide the ideologies that may corrupt the mind of the young.

Contrary, the identity of most actresses is defined by their sexuality. In most TV programs, magazine covers, movies and other related media, the sexuality of the actresses is emphasized. Therefore, people usually associate actresses’ appearance with their own. People in the society believe that career of the actresses is made or broken by their bodies. The society refers to many actresses as “sexy”, and, therefore, people, especially young girls, seek to ape these actresses in attempts to become more perfect (Heller 77). However, many of these girls feel wasted once their fantasies do not materialize, which results into harmful behavior.

“Reality Check”

In “Reality Check”, the author says that people have a passion for peeping. Therefore, this reason has contributed to the growth of the reality TV. In this article, the author feels that the social status of women is raised by these reality shows. Therefore, women in reality shows play an important role to the empowerment of women. Probably, this is because these women participate in things that mostly attract men. Therefore, women feel that they can move from a low to a high social status. They can do this through a change of attitude. The title of this article says a lot, and it means that women who are participating in these shows are real. The lives they lead are also real, and so they should not be sidelined.

On the other hand, the actresses represent a world that is full of fiction. In fact, people feel that these actresses just do their thing for fun. Most of these actresses love to party a lot, and people claim that their lives on the screen reflect their lives in the society. In fact, actresses hide from the public, while reality TV women are part of the society (Hill 64).

In “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”, the author advances an argument that family is the main focus of the reality TV. Mostly, the audiences of these shows entail families, and the producers of these shows take family based themes. In contrast, actresses are used to advance themes such as violence, sex related themes, and other things that are based on entertainment. It usually makes the films artificial, and people can predict the next move of the characters. However, in the reality shows, women are decent, and they advance themes that are related to the challenges of the society. The characters in fiction are constructed to act in given manners, but characters in reality shows just act spontaneously (Petracca and Madeleine 133).

A matter of choice

People in the society can either choose to watch reality shows or fiction, and this will depend only on the preferences of each person. The two articles connect their ideas by offering scenarios that make people to think about the significance of reality shows. For instance, the author of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” provides examples of  reality TV actors and actresses. There are some distinctions between the two, and people tend to feel closer to the reality show actors than actresses; people feel that the reality TV star is authentic, while an actress usually represents fantasy.

The two articles show that the reality shows appeal to people more than fiction, because people feel attached to the characters in reality TV. For instance, the emotions of women in reality TV seem to be real, but emotions of women in fiction are faked. Therefore, people have more affinity to reality TV.