Honey Boo Boo

        Recently we have discussed the problems with how the media portrays certain television shows. One television show that stands out in my mind is Honey Boo Boo. Honey Boo Boo is a child from the popular TLC television program, Toddlers and Tiaras. Living in their rural hometown of McIntyre, Georgia, the Thompson family is portrayed as dumb. The media uses many different types of strategies to frame how they want our society to view Honey Boo Boo and her family. An example of this would be how subtitles are placed at the bottom of the screen. The producers want the cast to look as stupid as possible. The fact there are words on the bottom of the screen sends the message that this Georgia family talks too messed up for anyone to understand it. They also use the strategy of taking them out of their normal, everyday environment and placing them in an unusual or unfamiliar place. This allows the audience to watch the family struggle even more while our judgment of their lack of intelligence is decreasing. Reality TV shows like to highlight on the weird and negative things of the cast. The producer will show clips of moments that are extremely odd to the “norms” of the American society. This ostracizes the family and makes them into outcasts. We often take the time to wonder why we even pay attention to shows like this to begin with. Which in turn is exactly what the producer’s want. They want the drama, even if it’s staged, in order to keep their audience. It’s sad that this is the normal pattern “reality” TV shows follow.