Reality television is an exposure of the voyeur in all of us—the sensation-seeking human. We take pleasure and satisfaction in peeking into others' lives, and the reality of reality television is that the characters are real people. It is unscripted, and the experienced failure or success comes with real emotions. The camera captures all features of being a human.
Reality TV presents the viewers with small aspects of real-life because the conflicts and emotions are true.
But we have to keep in mind that reality TV's goal, like any other show, is to obtain and keep viewers. The cameras run for hours and hours to make maybe a one-hour show. Therefore it is highly edited and storylines and parts are cut out.
The result is: We are never told the whole (- real -) story. Which may not come as a surprise,
but we seem to be convinced a lot of times anyway.
It is reasonable to question the reflection of the reality in reality shows. Just because it is not scripted, and there is no interference in the discussions, it doesn't mean that it is spontaneous or fails to send out an intended message or point of view.
For example: If a character is disliked, and this somehow is gaining viewers, the reality programme will only show you footage that makes the character seem bad, to make more publicity.
This among other factors, we can expect that we are deliberately neglected parts of the situation, and because of that, we are not receiving the whole story.
Does it then matter if there is a script? Is it not possible to send out exactly what message you would like with that kind of manipulation? Are we receiving reality at all?
One could also question if that even is possible.
Very likely we would be bored to death by the reality of reality TV. Usually the life in a reality show is not very substantial, so there is not much to show. Therefore the contestants are consistently presented with tasks and challenges. Th
...