Television

Reality Television as Entertainment

Miriam being wooed by a contestant in a still ...

Is real life really so entertaining? It used to be that entertainment required complete scripts, rehearsals and all of the elements that capture the audience’s attention through premeditated thought, planning and staging. With the introduction of reality television, those elements seem no longer to be a requirement. Or is there another side to the story?

The Unreal Aspects of Reality TV

While the average viewer may not realize it, reality television does involve a large degree of viewer manipulation. Each time reality TV contestants are interviewed after their experiences they state that they did, in fact, say and do the things that viewers saw. This gives the impression that viewers were presented with reality.

The fact is that directors and producers set up extraordinary circumstances to which reality TV contestants must react. For example, nowhere in real life does a man get to choose the love of his life from 25 doting female contestants who are trapped inside a house together and disallowed access to television, their cell phones and the Internet. The surreal circumstances bring out extraordinary and unusual behaviors in the contestants who suddenly cry or become enraged in ways that may be out of line with their regular personalities and character.

The Appeal of Reality TV

The combination of real and surreal is what appeals to viewers who see themselves in the contestants or are exposed to outrageous behaviors that inspire utter disbelief. While real life can be monotonous and dull, the life lived on reality television arouses the feeling that possibilities exist for romance, athleticism, extreme weight loss and other exciting endeavors.

Imagining a New Type of Television Entertainment

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For decades, television has consisted of sitcoms, soap operas, prime time dramas and late-night talk shows. In recent times, television viewers have been exposed to reality TV shows that help people find love, lose weight, find new careers and seek new adventures. How would television look under a whole new paradigm that values honesty, service, health and societal harmony?

The Attraction to Television

Viewers come to their television sets with a variety of expectations. Some are exhausted following work stress and just want to numb out. Others may have little to do and finding something funny, shocking or inspiring is exactly what they need. Television producers try to appeal to the core of television watchers. Viewer ratings shape the trajectory of television dynamics.

A Societal Transformation

For television entertainment to change, a wide-scale transformation would be required of the actual viewers. If viewers are interested in watching crime on prime time and news of betrayals and wars, those are the shows that will be perpetuated. It’s a vicious cycle that the images people are presented with while growing up are the same ones they will seek out as adults.

A New Paradigm

Removing the negative, crime-filled and superficial or stereotypical images from television requires a conscious effort on the part of adults. Television images with derogatory themes will cease to exist if there are no viewers to watch them. Replacing these shows with wholesome ones that focus on family values, healthy topics and inspiring achievements will help to change the face of television entertainment.

Filed Under: Entertainment Tagged With: Prime time, Reality television, Television

The Role of the News in Perpetuating Racial and Cultural Stereotypes

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The news is usually considered the most reality-based programming on television. People tune into the news to learn about the current events and stay on top of global occurrences. Inherent in this dynamic is trust. Viewers trust newscasters and journalists to portray reality in a truthful way. The reality, however, is that newscasters are storytellers and stories can be told in many different ways.

The Newscaster as the Storyteller

The perpetuation of racial and cultural stereotypes is often carried out unconsciously. A newscaster or journalist who interviews people after a traumatic event or during a newsworthy activity will portray reality through his or her own view. Along with this reality is that no human being is without prejudices or weaknesses. The journalist is no different. The questions asked and interpretations of situations will be directly related to how that journalist was brought up and his or her own personal beliefs about people as a whole.

Stereotypical Images in the News

Stereotypical images on television often present a minority racial group as perpetrators of crime, women as helpless creatures and particular cultures as being backwards or possessing undesirable traits such as being smelly or uncivilized. These images are often selected subconsciously beginning as fundamental beliefs on the parts of journalists who haven’t yet taken the opportunity to challenge their own ways of seeing the world.

Challenging Stereotypes

As humanity grows and transforms, individuals will be forced to challenge their personal beliefs about the inferiority of particular societal groups. Only as this process occurs will the television news also reflect this change and represent the true potential of each individual and group.

Filed Under: General, News Tagged With: Journalist, Stereotype, Television

News-An All-Encompassing Series of Events

The news has been a great source of information for many years in order to gain knowledge about what is going on in the world. The news in recent years has also surprisingly been a great source of entertainment. With the development of what is known as “reality shows” that are broadcasted in many news stations, entertainment and news sometimes go hand in hand.

Because of the demand of what wants to be is seen on TV, many entertainment shows such as ‘Dancing with the Stars” and “American Idol” are a part of many news segments on major news stations. It is not uncommon for a news broadcaster to give accounts of some horrible accident that occurred, tell about what is happening on Capital Hill, then spill into the latest fashion trends worn my celebrities or tell what happen on a popular night time soap opera.

This type of reporting is a sort of “News on Demand” where what is popular is talked about. Entertainment is huge in this country and when a particular news broadcast, or station receives a good reception from viewers, it stays on the air. It is all about ratings, and because our society constantly changes, the level, and quality of news changes. These factors are neither good nor bad but are just a clear reality of where we are as a society. News can be all-encompassing and serve as a great way to learn about sports, educate ourselves and children about current events, and but also learn about what is going on with our favorite celebrities in the area of achievements, crime, marriage and more.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Broadcast News, Entertainment, Events, Television

Entertainment On Television

Television has been one of the traditional methods of providing entertainment to the people. This is because of the fact that many people have had a television set for many years. The availability of many channels also give an opportunity for the viewer to choose the program that they would like to watch. As there are many different channels all providing either entertainment or news, the viewer seems to get an overdose of entertainment.

The availability of various kinds of entertainment choices these days has made the television to take a back seat in providing entertainment to the masses. Today, the internet is available as a means of entertainment. Other than the internet, the availability of many hand held devices have also made it possible for the people to have a lot of choice as far as the entertainment is concerned. The advantage of these devices is that the person using them will have them even while traveling and this helps the devices to provide entertainment on the move, which is not available with the television.

There has been a lot of changes that have been happening in the recent years as far as the television industry is concerned. The producers and the sponsors have been moving to different methods of providing entertainment, so that their viewers rating is high and there are more viewers for their channel. This has caused the birth of reality shows. The recent trend in increasing the entertainment is to have a reality show running. It remains to be seen if there is further metamorphosis in the television entertainment industry to attract more viewers and to increase the entertainment that is provided to the viewers on television.

Filed Under: Entertainment, General Tagged With: Entertainment, Reality television, Television

Advantages Of News On The Internet

News these days is not only available in the newspaper or on television, but also in the internet. There was a survey done in some countries on the use of the internet and many of the people in many developing nations told that they will be able to live without a television, but they cannot live without an internet connection. There are many reasons for this. The main reason is that the internet has started playing a major role in the search for information.

Many people not only search for information, but they also search for the news on the internet. There are many advantages of the news that is available on the internet and this is the reason for many people to look to the internet for the news.

The main advantage of searching for information or news on the internet is that when the news is provided on the television or on the newspaper, the person who gets the news will only be able to get the information that is provided. The internet can be used to get the news that the reader is interested in.

The internet also has both video as well as audio for the news that is provided. The internet has different versions of the same news that is available from different channels. This is another of the advantages of the news on the internet. As there are different versions, any discrepancy in the news can be easily identified. There are some news channels that may change the news to suit their needs. This is not the case on the internet.

Another advantage of the internet is that the news is regularly updated. The news on the papers can be read once a day or twice a day. The news on television channels may also not be updated as regularly as the news on the internet.

Filed Under: Entertainment, News Tagged With: Information, IPTV, News broadcasting, Newspaper, Television