Reality TV

Paper Summary:

This paper describes the reality TV show "Big Brother" as a twenty-four hour display of humanity living in a social group environment The author stresses that this show is not reality because the participants are in an elimination contest to win $500,000. The emotional baggage the contestants bring to the group living environment, combined with the range of personalities, tends to make human beings look very bad. The paper traces the history of reality TV and concludes that these shows present a society that has surrendered its right to privacy altogether.

From the Paper:

"Anyone who thought that reality TV was a phase that television viewers were going through, and one that would fade as quickly as it debuted, is no doubt sadly disappointed these many years later following the debut of the first reality show, "Survivor", which demonstrated how shallow and nasty cold human nature could be. Still, that show, like "Big Brother", it, too, has survived since 2000, and audiences show no sign of growing tired of the increasing number of reality shows ranging being the object of Donald Trump's abuse, to a group of young women competing for some cow herder's affections."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Hill, Annette. Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television. New York: Routledge, 2005. Questia. 24 Sept. 2008 <http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=108649609>.
• Mcgrath, John E. Loving Big Brother: Performance, Privacy, and Surveillance Space. New York: Routledge, 2004. Questia. 24 Sept. 2008 <http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=107511717>.

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