The Reality of Reality TV

Reality TV has been around for a few decades, with many people crediting MTV's "The Real World" as the driving forcve behind the reality TV movement. At the time, people praised the "authenticity" of the show, claiming it was an unparralleled and unprecedented look into how "normal"people act. Audiences loved it and the rest of the media took notice. While the original creation that was "The Real World" may have been a pure and honest look at what real life was like (I honestly have no idea if it was or not), reality television has morphed into a whole new monster all-together, and a lot of people have no idea. In today's world, the media would lead you to believe that everything is merely captured as it happens and that the produces take a hands-off approach to the whole medium. This couldn't be farther from the truth. Almost everything you see on TV is a construct of the people behind the camera, rather than simply a retransmission of events that happen in the lives of the people who are followed on these shows. From items being planted in "Storage Wars" to the members of "Duck Dynasty" being fabricated exaggerations of a stereotype to the show of Discovery, TLC, and the History Channel claiming to be a source of educational programming, what you see on TV is not real. Even the show that started it all, "The Real World", has suffered from this creative control problem, with producers openly admitting to supplying the cast members with boatloads of alcohol in an effort to get them to make dumb decisions and ultimately increase ratings. The point of this post is to highlight that people need to take reality TV with a grain of salt. While some things may be somewhat authentic, you have to realize that there is someone standing behind the scenes barking out orders about what they need to see on screen. Reality TV is just as scripted as your typical dramas, but people need to realize that its not exactly what it claims to be.