Pozner cites a significant drop in the number of university
students who are critical of reality television. What do you account for the shift away from
critical viewership? And how does Pozner
respond to the claim that reality TV is just “mindless entertainment”?
In the early 00’s, Pozner questioned large quantities of high school and college students about what they thought of the shows such as The Bachelor and Top Model. Their answers were predominantly critical, often stating that they can see right through the façade the shows put up, almost predicting the tired old, supposedly unscripted, tropes of ‘ I’m not on here to make friends, I’m here to win!’ or having the event described as ‘Every girl’s dream!’ Pozner states that “Most important, they saw right through the networks’ fairytale facades, ‘It’s like they want us to think feminism never happened.’ A Fordham student told [her]. ‘Do they think we’re stupid enough to believe this shit is real?’” Incredulous would be an apt word to describe American youth’s attitude towards Reality Television. Eight years later, conducting the same questionnaire but to a new generation of high school and college students, her findings would have to be the one classified as incredulous. The majority of answers were along the lines of ‘It’s mindless entertainment,’ or ‘It may be fake, but damn is it funny!’ or ‘it’s just TV, so what’s the big deal?’
ReplyDeleteMindless TV? Perhaps if they were describing their actions while watching it, all TV contains an ideology, and listening to it week after week, you start to lose touch with the fact that it’s a show, and not real life. It appeared that the majority of the young people who Pozner questioned that watched Reality TV started to identify with the characters; almost mindlessly believing what they saw on the TV was how they were living their lives like they normally do, rather than being thrown together and filmed. It seemed that people would now laugh at someone getting utterly humiliated on national TV, rather than at cheesy announcers or rampant, and quite frankly, obvious product placement. This Schadenfreude is as pervasive as a cancer, slowly seeping its way into our psyche through the exposure we get from Reality TV. There is undeniably something biological in taking pleasure in another’s misfortune, probably stemming from our time as unevolved primates when every day was a struggle for individual survival, but in this modern age, this democratic age, there is no real need to enjoy others misfortune. Rather than laugh at someone being torn down, let’s build them up, reinforce their strengths and shore up their weaknesses, not completely lay their faults to bear in a heavily doctored light for the whole world to ridicule them based on false premises. On a personal note, I don’t, as a rule, watch a lot of television. The shows I do watch, I watch because I am interested in the story, be it fictional or (actually) real life. This is probably one of the reasons why I do not watch Reality TV. So it should be noted that my observations are purely speculation from someone with almost no firsthand knowledge of the material, but it would seem to my, some would call naïve, perspective that if we spent more time enjoying the success of others rather than laughing at their misfortune, the women portrayed on Reality Television wouldn’t be considered as backstabbing, egotistical, or narcissistic as they seem, and we wouldn’t believe those traits about every person we see in our day-to-day lives.
Christopher D.
In Reality Bites Back, Pozner states when she began discussing reality TV with high school and college students in 2003 most of their responses to a reality TV clip reel were negative. She states the students saw the show premises to be ludicrous, vile, and completely unrealistic. Come more recent years when she talks with students today, their response is completely opposite. The common response she gets from most think that reality TV is hilarious, not a big deal because it is just TV, and realistic representations of those people’s lives.
ReplyDeleteThe account for the shift away from critical thinking is because reality TV has become normalized. It has normalized things like being over the top, drinking until you are senseless, and stepping on people to get what you want by using things such as money or your body. From shows such as Keeping Up with The Kardashians, Real World, and The Bachelor that has been on TV for years, millennials have grown up believing that is the norm and how things should be in everyday life. For those who believe it was vile, ludicrous, unrealistic they had something to refer to since they grew up watching shows they knew were fully scripted. As for millennials, in a day and age where technology is rapidly growing, most spend their time inside either on the internet or watching television. Especially when networks are constantly airing these reality TV shows over and over, people begin to have no choice but think it is fascinating and the norm. It also does not help that they are labeled “reality TV” because most people who senselessly watch think since it says reality it must be real.
As for myself I grew up watching MTV and E! News, some of the major networks for reality TV and I never thought about them being scripted until recent years. I thought Laguna Beach and The Hills were real until their final episode where they zoomed out on a filming lot. It was always something to think about but when watching TV, but it is easy to not think about and get wrapped up in the thought of it being real with its label. Since reality TV has flooded all the major networks it’s easy to see how much it influences Americans growing up today.
Pozner responds to the claim that reality TV is just “mindless entertainment” with her book Reality Bites Back. She states how influential it is in our day and age to not just younger generations but also to races. She explains how on reality TV most representations of Black, Latino, and Asian people are bigoted and edited to make them look bad. Her response shows how people who absorb these shows begin to look at the world the way they look at reality TV for race, body image, and everyday life.
- Sarah D.
Pozner’s witnessing of the shift in the mindsets of young people in regards to reality television is, while upsetting, no surprise. As technology has progressed, the types and amounts of media that we consume as a culture has shifted drastically. Media becomes a part of our lives at a very young age compared to past generations. In 2003, many high school and college students only had access to the internet primarily through desktop computers. Students of the same age today have been raised with access to smart phones from a much earlier age. The reality television industry definitely takes advantage of this shift in the way we consume media in order to reach young audiences.
ReplyDeleteReality TV stars are not only seen on television, but all over social media. The Kardashians are accessible at any time of the day through Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, etc. The people we are seeing on reality television seem much more “real” to us when we feel that we can access their entire lives through a screen that we store in our pocket. This does not change the fact that we are being presented with a highly contrived concept of a person, but it does give us much more content that can be convincing, especially to young minds.
Reality TV was also in existence for younger generations since early childhood. As a 22 year old in 2017, I grew up watching shows like Big Brother, Survivor, America’s Next Top Model, and American Idol weekly with my parents and friends. These shows were exposed to me when I was as young as six years old. In middle school, I moved on to shows like A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila and Rock of Love with Brett Michaels. These shows depict highly sexualized women, drugs, alcohol, and a very unrealistic picture of romance, but to my young mind it was highly entertaining. Pozner writes “today’s teens and young adults grew up watching reality shows as uncritically as their parents watched The Cosby Show in the ‘80s”. My experience was a prime example of that.
As a result of all of this, reality television has become highly normalized and accepted by many young people to be true reality. Growing up surrounded by these images and messages, combined with the instant access we are given by technology, has created a society that idolizes reality television and those who participate. Pozner’s observation of this shift in the mindsets of young people is a reminder that no matter what we are consuming, it is important to stay critical and not become complacent and accepting of whatever is handed to us. Or as Pozner puts it, “unless we keep our critical filters on high, we leave ourselves open to serious manipulation”.
-Sara D.
Through Pozner’s own studies, she noted that the young adults in the early 2000s had more negative comments toward reality television, but when she interviewed a new generation of young adults years later, they were less critical. I feel as though the shift away from critical viewership is a result of the kind of culture each generation was exposed to while growing up. The first group that was interviewed were exposed to television that was mainly scripted. Reality TV was introduced later on in their lives, so the concept of trashy new “reality” shows compared to the previously scripted ones was an unfavorable transition. Since the first group were exposed to watching news channels and scripted shows, they were able to easier identify the falsehood of the “reality” shows.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to the second group that Pozner interviewed years later, they were more keen accepting toward reality TV and less critical. This would be because new technology advances led to social media and a cultural shift of a desire to be famous or popular, the generation of the second group grew up with it as a norm. They grew up watching the reality stars on TV and keeping up with social trends. To the second group, reality TV is more acceptable because they were not exposed to a time before reality TV translated into actual reality. The newer generation is on the internet all the time or watching different variations of reality TV which changes their perspective on how reality really is.
Pozner responds to the claim that reality TV is just “mindless entertainment” by basically saying that people are so numb to the idea that what is considered “reality” TV is actually fabricated and scripted to look like a mirrored perception of reality. Pozner’s book tackles the idea of reality TV being a way for TV corporations to make money off of viewers who are idly watching the shows without realizing that the shows just create false drama that affects how people view themselves and the people around them.
-Katelyn T.
It is no surprise that the generation of teenagers and young adults from Pozner’s first talk about sexism in reality television be highly critical of it. Most new things such as new television shows, updates to technology, etc. are usually pulled apart and evaluated by it’s viewers, users. Years later the variety of reality t.v. has expanded immensely in its attempt to appeal to a variety of audiences. They have just about every human interest available as a reality television program. The viewers have began to identify with the “real” people they see on their television. It’s all about the human connection viewers have with characters in a book, film and the idea of authenticity in a reality housewife or contestant in a competition that will change their lives should they win. I’m guilty of finding the playmates of The Girls Next Door funny, interesting and pretty. I also adored America’s Next Top Model for all of my teenage years but eventually outgrew it and aimed to watch t.v. with more creative plots. Laguna Beach and The Hills were other series that I took part in viewing and admiring because I thought they showed a different type of people than my own, and naturally I admire those who are different from me. I am an artist so I analyze what I see and learn and do my best take a part of it into myself to be better at what I do.
ReplyDeleteI feel that the mindlessness Pozner refers to the viewers who watch these programs without critical thinking caps on. As viewers our only job should not just be to watch television and move on to the next program but to think about what we are seeing and analyze it. If we are not analyzing what we see then “we leave ourselves open to serious manipulation.” As a teenager I did not think much about the ads on tv or the females in the reality shows I had watched. I knew I felt like I knew the characters and that on some level I wanted to be pretty like them and buy all the products that would help me do that. Thankfully today naturally I analyze everything, it works for me and at times against me.
-Claudia S.