Media Criticizing Media

http://www.jobmonkey.com/realitytv/criticism.html




This article that I chose is entitled “Reality Television Criticism.” The author criticizes reality television for being something that it is not, real. It suggest that these so called reality shows use scripts in some cases and heighten the sense of drama to make the shows more appealing to audiences. This online article is critical to self because it is trying to unravel the facts that all reality television is anything but real. The author also draws on some criticism of not only held bythe site, but by others such as actors who criticize this form of media because it involves no real acting skill and programmers are basing show times more on reality series than on produced television series. This is in most part because according to the author, “drama sells”.

This article is criticizing reality television as a whole and not one particular program. I think that the article does not do a very good job at this considering that there is no supporting evidence included in the article for any of the claims that they make. The article however only list many widely held views by many Americans that are common sense to many educated people. It says that people are attracted to the drama but never mentions the idea of reality television to be purely entertainment or taken seriously by people. I think that if the argument went a little deeper into suggesting the reasons why people watched, or did not watch reality T.V., other than drama, the point that they are trying to make may come across better. The fact that the author mentioned that although there are criticisms about reality T.V., there are also people who love it makes the argument a bit more sound, although this does not come till the very end of the article. So although it may not be the epitome of reality, it is still a popular and growing industry.

Lastly I found it interesting that there were no suggestions for improvement. Although the article constantly criticized the form of media, it did not make any suggestions on how reality TV. could become better. There was only mention of why it was not truly reality and how people should not view it as such. The reading by Postman, ‘Media as Epistemology’, at least offered the suggestion that although reality television may be seen as “junk”, that is the reason people watch it; people can be amused by the “so-called reality” television. Even though it may not be the essence of reality, it is an over exaggerated version that many Americans watch to “unwind”, instead of playing a sport or having a craft hobby of some sort.