This article consists of 9 pages and 2267 words. In order to have full access to this article, email us at thedocumentco@hotmail.co.uk

Ref No: 2012

Introduction

The essay discusses a popular genre of television i.e. the reality television shows in detail. The importance of the selected genre is analyzed in the view of both audiences and broadcasters.

It is generally agreed that each genre carries importance to each of these groups in a different manner and the audience of each genre also varies depending on the nature of individuals. The essay further discusses the features of television reality shows in a comprehensive manner and highlights how television reality shows are different from other television genres.

Lastly, the essay highlights how these television reality shows are used to attract the audience from different demographic and geographic groups.

The Reality Television Genre, Its Importance, Features and Ability to Attract the Audience

In accordance with Ernst (1986), the term genre is defined as the style or a broad / general category of music, literature, television or any type of other art. The art is divided into different categories to classify them according to the nature of art being presented to the audience. The television genres are much diversified;

these range from the action television shows to the comedy television and each of the genres has a different target market based on the taste of the individuals. The genre selected for this essay is the reality television genre; it is a genre of the television program which is based on unscripted and real-life situations.

It is widely believed that the roles played by actors in the reality television are as they are acting in real-life because these shows are not scripted and therefore, the acting is not pre-planned (Andrejevic, 2004).

It is further discussed that the reality television shows often do not cast the known / professional actors. Rather, the roles are played by common people or uncommon actors who depict their real-life capabilities in these shows. There is a wide difference between the reality television and documentary due to the fact that the purpose of these shows is entertainment and drama rather than educating the viewers (Andrejevic, 2004).

In the view of Poniewozik, Goehner and McDowell (2003), every television genre is important due to the fact that every genre has its own audience and sponsors and it carries importance to both groups. Conversely, the reality television genre is important to the audience because the television audience especially the younger audience restraints from watching the news as it is full of terrorism and fascination news. Every other day,

the news channels publish news which leads to fear for the common people and presents the bad picture of the world towards them.

In comparison, the reality shows are unscripted and are not linked to any sort of news prevailing around the globe; therefore, the audience is motivated to watch reality television shows solely for the purpose of entertainment. Furthermore, these shows carry importance for the audience because this genre carries a lot of suspense and the audience is not aware of what is going to happen next (Conlin, 2003).

Additionally, the reality television genre is important to the participants and the public in general because it sets the trends in a state or country. For example star academy Arab world was the first to show which promoted males and females living together and it somehow introduced trend in the Arab countries to let males and females live together.

Before this reality show, there was no such permission in the Arab countries depicting the importance of television reality genre in the life of common people (Cohen and Weimann, 2000). In the view of Murray and Ouellette (2004), the sponsors of television genres know that the majority of viewers of reality television genre are youth as 4 out of 10 viewers are aged below 17. Therefore, the reality television genre carries importance to the marketers and sponsors of products targeting those age groups in particular.

The sponsors need to highlight the fact that this genre is becoming popular instantly especially among the youth and therefore, they must be motivated to sponsor these shows considering their increasing importance in the years to come (Murray and Ouellette, 2004). In contrast, there is a school of thought which believes that the reality television genre is less important as compared to the other genres.

It is further believed by them that the reality television genre is not actually based on reality but it is well scripted and is delivered in the way to fool the people that it is reality based. However, the thinking of this school of thought remains controversial till date (Reiss and Wiltz, 2004). Further, it is believed by Conlin (2003) that these shows increase the self-esteem of viewers by simply showing the humiliation of other humans in the live show.  Conlin (2003) further added that the pin-point of all reality shows remains the same i.e. to take pleasure from the discomfort, pain or suffering of other people performing in the live show.

In accordance with Reiss and Wiltz (2004), the importance of reality television can be analysed from the ways it may impact the life of the viewers. The criticisers of the reality television state that there are negative effects of the reality television varying from increasing divorce rates to the low self-esteem of the viewers.

It is further stated that few of the reality television shows in America stated that the divorce rate in the country is at least 50%; statements like these motivate the married people to go for divorce. Similarly, other similar statements and programs have been run which lead to a wrong selection of the partner and ultimately divorce.

With respect to low self-esteem, it is stated by Murray and Ouellette (2004) that whether the effect of reality shows on the self-esteem is positive or negative but it is generally agreed by the experts in the industry that such impact exists….