Twenge states, “To many older people, it’s funny. But too many younger people the main consumers of the reality shows on, say, MTV it shapes their views of the world” (pg 7). Narcissism is shown often, and without hesitation on reality TV younger viewers are being conditioned by the depiction of narcissism. Slowly, the excess amount of narcissism seems normal. For instance, on “America’s Next Top Model” young viewers wish to be thin, tall, and overall a model, but go about it in the wrong ways.
They aren't concerned about the issues, just the most views. "All of us in commercial television are confronted by a difficult choice that commercialism imposes. Do we deliberately aim for the lowest common denominator, thereby assuring ourselves of the largest possible audience but producing nothing but cotton candy for the mind, or do we tackle the difficult subjects as creatively as we can, knowing that we may lose much of the mass audience?" (source F) TV producers know that their audience isn't going to watch a boring debate, so they take out the important issues to get the highest rating. This is just another example of how TV has had a negative impact on Presidential elections.
The younger generation think that is what they should do since that is what they see on TV and the internet. Divinecaroline.com state “Reality shows have become very popular and teens have begun to realize that you can become famous just by being a bad girl, teen mom, or a crazy party animal who likes to do nothing but drink and “smush,” like the cast members on Jersey Shore.” Shows like this are giving teens the wrong idea. Why should the cast be paid so much for setting a bad example? This country is supposed to be looked up to as a great clean country. With shows like this on air for the world to see it is a disgrace.
Thus, democracy and a fair voting group become tainted. I would definitely say that Comedy Central's Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report are part of the "media" that affects people’s opinion. These television shows are a way to provide comedic relief to the issues our economy faces; however, these shows still have an impact of how the viewer will understand an issue at hand. It is very difficult for anyone to be completely unbiased and with constantly hearing other people’s opinion through the media. We cannot make a decision of how “we” feel about the topic.
(600) YouTube may produce the occasional stars, but those are few and very far in-between. Many more people are becoming what Lushing calls “anti-stars”. They don’t quite hold the same mystique as real life stars because you can’t translate what makes a true star, things like charisma, at a low resolution. It is not to be misinterpreted that by being an anti-star you are consequentially uncharismatic; you are just a normal person, one who could be described as familiar and approachable. If stars have gained fame by just being famous, then anti-stars really are only famous for the fact that they entertain you for such a short amount of time.
Steven Reiss’s article, “why America loves reality TV”, explains that Americans fantasize about being famous. Many Americans believe that if others can achieve fame, so can they. Reiss clarified that contestants from different television shows compete everyday to get the highest ratings out of viewers. Reiss stated: “what seems real about reality TV is that it allows Americans to fantasize about gaining status through instant fame”. According to Reiss reality TV educates viewers its shameless behaviors that are shown by the contestants.
How absurd is that? Therefore, in order to live up to our high expectations of reality TV, I think we’d all agree that it needs to be more realistic. Why doesn’t Brucie watch ‘I’m a Celebrity’ tonight and learn a few tips… Firstly, ‘I’m a Celebrity’ is not scripted and is way funnier than ‘Strictly’. Secondly, ‘I’m a celebrity’ consists of a pair of presenters less than half his age, who actually know the world has evolved since the 19th
No matter the topic; history, sports, politics, media, sexuality, etc., The Boondocks will be very truthful and blunt about it. I’ve been watching The Boondocks since it started in 2005 and this show defines me because of its comedic way of telling the truth about society. With my views about the media I really don’t like to believe “the hype” or any of the publicity stunts that go on too often. Sometimes I think the government is full of conspiracies and I find it easy to point out irony, and hypocrisy like Huey. He even took a stand against B.E.T.
(289~291) I agree with Johnson’s claim of, Sleeper Curve makes the viewers improve so they Liu 2 can and will want to watch more TV shows. However, watching TV have more factors that make you more stupid than make you smarter. This skill ends up letting people watch more and more TVs, which already is a bad thing, and they become more stupid. First of all, TV shows’ content also is a great factor of being smart which Johnson never talks about. In “Watching TV Makes You Smarter” when he talked about the show 24, he ignored the content of the show like the torture scenes, and go straight to the Sleeper Curve.
“Faking is inevitable in television. In fact, all television is fake, and audiences are happy for it to be so.” With ever increasing competition, television channels have to find different tricks to increase their viewership and to fill up timeslots. “Faking” is one of the most common tricks. I have focused mainly on reality shows, live telecast and news telecast for this discussion. I have excluded soap operas or fiction because fiction can have the liberty to divert from reality.