Criticism Of Reality Television
Criticism of reality television is rampant. In fact, it is the most criticized sub-genre of television programming. There are pundits, critics, and talking heads that all disparage it, and some do it for a living.
The first major criticism of reality television is that writers do not receive representation in a union or union-based pay to help them receive adequate compensation and representation for their work. Furthermore, corporations routinely finance reality television, and it is often driven by the profit motive with paid actors.
Another criticism of reality television is product placement whereby companies and corporations routinely place products throughout the show for programming and marketing purposes. Eight out of the ten shows with the most product placement are reality television shows.
Another criticism of reality television is that it’s not exactly reality. Some have gone on to say that most of it is scripted, and it’s not fair to inappropriately characterize it as reality television. Along this line is the criticism of an unreal environment. Any show like this like Big Brother, the Real World, and Survivor have completely fabricated environments where the competition then plays out. The producers carefully screen the participants and use the most careful scenarios, challenges, events, and settings to create the pretense of specific behaviors and conflicts. Even the creator of Survivor, Mark Burnett, disagrees with the assessment that his show is reality television. He went on to say that he tells good stories, that it’s not reality television, and that it’s unscripted drama.
Another criticism is misleading editing. Various tricks were played by reality television producers. For example, some reality television shows, notably Joe Millionaire, combined audio and video from different sections, or from different times, and this created an illusion of time chronology that didn’t occur, and it ended up as an inaccurate portrayal of contestant behaviors and actions. Selective editing can completely change the nature of events to alter the storyline in such a way that it fits producers taste of what they think audiences will like. For example, some contestants may be portrayed as good guys or bad guys, and this may guide the drama through a change in chronology or altered presentation of events.
A further criticism is the aspect or restaging. Sometimes events that really did occur were restaged because of improper filming of the event the first time.
Premeditated scripting and acting are a few of the other criticisms volleyed at reality television. Sometimes, the audience members allege that the participants are engaged in complete fake acting out of storylines that have been prepared in advance by producers. The Hills is an example of a show that has faced allegations for quite some time that the storylines were scripted in advance to be more appealing to viewers. Hell’s Kitchen was also the target of criticisms when audience members claimed that the people eating the food were actually paid actors. Some participants on reality television shows have even said that they altered their behavior to appear more needy, emotional, or crazy in order to attract more audience attention.
A misleading premise is often afoot with reality television. For example, the modeling contract with Revlon that was promised to the winner of America’s Next Top Model was actually much less than was told she would get. Furthermore, A Shot At Love With Tila Tequila was not exactly what it said it was. For example, there were allegations that Tila Tequila had a boyfriend, was heterosexual, and didn’t ever contact the winner after the show finished taping.
There is also the criticism of instant celebrity with several contestants on reality television shows going on to careers in media. These celebrities are often billed as nonebrities or Z-list celebrities that don’t merit the fame they have.
Reality television is pure entertainment, but delving a little deeper will find many of its criticisms are well-warranted.
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