Taking the Real out of Reality

My Monday night television experience was certainly an interesting one. Filled with reality TV, I was easily exposed to many situations that I have not been around before. First, would be the Roloff family in TLC’s Little People, Big World. This show follows a family for 6 months, 10 hours a day and shows what it is like to survive as a little person. The parents, Matt and Amy, who are both little people, work very hard to be successful in their jobs and raise their children well. Of the four children, only Zach is a little person, and it’s interesting to see the dynamics of the entire family. Never having really known what life is like for little people, it was fascinating to get that look into their lives. Additionally, the family lives on and owns a farm. Now, although I do live in the ‘country’ by some definitions, I have not ever experienced what it is like to run one! This experience also is one that I would not have seen except for on television.

ABC’s popular reality show, Dancing with the Stars, was my next Monday night foray into TV. Now, I consider myself a cultured person, but I do not typically run into ballroom dancing in the area joints that my friends and I choose to frequent. That in itself sets this show apart, but this season especially adds another interesting element. Heather Mills, the contestant most well known for having formerly been married to Paul McCartney, provides another atypical experience. Having a prosthetic limb, Mills works hard to do the things that all the contestants are required to perform on stage. In competing, Mills undoubtedly inspires many others with prosthetics to push themselves and do more.

Finally, the end of the night was filled with The Bachelor: Officer and a Gentleman. Now, never in my life have I experienced one man dating sixteen women. I don’t know about you, but this just isn’t something you run into everyday. The drama involved between the women might be easily seen on a sorority suite, but the fact that they’re all fighting for the same man is one that is definitely not part of my reality.

Now, when framing this discussion between Joshua Meyrowitz and Jean Baudrillard, I believe that it is necessary to find a happy medium. Without intending to, I viewed three reality television shows. When looking at the three shows I discussed, it is easy to see how Baudrillard’s theory relates. Each of these reality shows has many contrived elements, some more than others. In choosing participants for each, the producers are looking for what will get more attention and viewers, not which person will really represent the ‘reality.’ Media continues to represent a version of the truth in many reality shows, creating what he would call a “simulacrum” of what these people’s lives are. Additionally, I can also see where Meyrowitz comes into play. In watching these shows, I am no longer separated from little people, a person with a prosthetic limb, or even a rich navy doctor. Although Meyrowitz’s theory comes more into play with the news and more factual based television, walls are still being broken with reality television and what the world can see.

In terms of our Mass Communications class, I think it is very easy to tie in two theories. Cultivation theory argues that television will change people’s outlook on the world which may dictate their actions. Baudrillard argues that we can no longer distinguish between fantasy and reality, especially in television, and I believe that Cultivation theory ties into this. Additionally, Meyrowitz can be discussed in relation to ‘The Gatekeepers.’ Although Meyrowitz argues that television brings down boundaries of place, he is doing it relative to television. Although these walls are broken, the means of breaking them come through the gatekeepers known as the media. Both perspectives are arguing that television has a great impact on people’s lives today, and I am not disagreeing with them. However, we, the viewers still have a choice on what we pay attention to and assimilate into our daily lives.