AI Reality TV INT 10/7/03 11:47 AM Page 1 Reality TV AI Reality TV INT 10/7/03 11:47 AM Page 2 AI Reality TV INT 10/7/03 11:47 AM Page 3 Reality TV AI Reality TV INT 10/7/03 11:47 AM Page 4 Other books in the At Issue series: AIDS in Developing Countries Alcohol Abuse The Attack on America: September 11, 2001 Bilingual Education Biological and Chemical Weapons Bulimia The Central Intelligence Agency Cloning Creationism vs. Evolution Date Rape Does Capital Punishment Deter Crime? Drunk Driving The Ethics of Genetic Engineering Genetically Engineered Foods Guns and Crime Homeland Security Home Schooling How Can Gun Violence Be Reduced? Human Embryo Experimentation Is Global Warming a Threat? Islamic Fundamentalism Is Media Violence a Problem? Is Military Action Justified Against Nations That Support Terrorism? Missile Defense National Security Nuclear Security Organ Transplants Performance-Enhancing Drugs Physician-Assisted Suicide Police Corruption Professional Wrestling Reparations for American Slavery Satanism School Shootings Should Abortion Rights Be Restricted? Should There Be Limits to Free Speech? Slavery Today Teen Sex Teen Smoking Video Games What Encourages Gang Behavior? What Is a Hate Crime? White Supremacy Groups AI Reality TV INT 10/7/03 11:47 AM Page 5 Reality TV Karen F. Balkin, Book Editor Daniel Leone, President Bonnie Szumski, Publisher Scott Barbour, Managing Editor Helen Cothran, Senior Editor San Diego • Detroit • New York • San Francisco • Cleveland New Haven, Conn. • Waterville, Maine • London • Munich AI Reality TV INT 10/7/03 11:47 AM Page 6 © 2004 by Greenhaven Press. Greenhaven Press is an imprint of The Gale Group, Inc., a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Greenhaven® and Thomson Learning™ are trademarks used herein under license. For more information, contact Greenhaven Press 27500 Drake Rd. Farmington Hills, MI 48331-3535 Or you can visit our Internet site at http://www.gale.com ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means—graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, Web distribution or information storage retrieval systems—without the written permission of the publisher. Every effort has been made to trace the owners of copyrighted material. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Reality TV / Karen F. Balkin, book editor. p. cm. — (At issue) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7377-2254-1 (lib. : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-7377-2255-X (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Reality television programs. 2. Reality television programs—Social aspects. I. Title: Reality television. II. Balkin, Karen F., 1949– . III. At issue (San Diego, Calif.) PN1992.8.R43R44 2004 791.45'6—dc21 2003055108 Printed in the United States of America AI Reality TV INT 10/7/03 11:47 AM Page 7 Contents Page Introduction 9 1. Reality TV Has a Positive Influence on Society 12 James Poniewozik 2. Reality TV Is More than a Fad 17 Tom Long 3. The Terrorist Attacks on America Diminished the 20 Popularity of Reality TV Kim Campbell 4. The Ultimate Reality TV Show: Coverage on the War 22 in Iraq Michiko Kakutani 5. Fascination with Fame Attracts Reality TV Viewers 25 Steven Reiss and James Wiltz 6. Reality TV Exploits Fame Seekers 28 Rochelle Riley 7. Reality TV Participants Enjoy Fame and Success After 30 the Show Is Over Jonathan Storm 8. Reality TV Can Offer a Positive Religious Message 34 Jill Terreri 9. Some Reality TV Shows Encourage Cooperation 37 John Kiesewetter 10. Reality TV Encourages Racial Stereotyping 40 Cary Darling 11. Reality TV Is a Dangerous Art Form 44 Ben Alexander 12. Reality TV Violates the Public Trust 48 John C. Dvorak 13. Reality TV Helps Young People Learn About Life 52 Kimberly Shearer Palmer AI Reality TV INT 10/7/03 11:47 AM Page 8 14. Teenagers Identify with the Issues Presented in Reality 54 TV Shows David Hiltbrand 15. Reality TV Encourages Young People to Develop Eating 58 Disorders Sid Kirchheimer 16. Young Women Learn Harmful Gender Stereotypes from 61 Reality TV Susan J. Douglas 17. Korea Takes a Dim View of Reality TV 64 Korea Herald Organizations to Contact 67 Bibliography 69 Index 73 AI Reality TV INT 10/7/03 11:47 AM Page 9 Introduction Present almost at the creation of television broadcasting in the late 1940s, reality TV has developed along with the medium and has changed as the nation changed. From the surprised Americans caught in their most em- barrassing moments by Allen Funt’s Candid Camera in 1948, to the down- to-earth Loud family of An American Family in 1973, to the rat-eating com- petitors of Survivor in 2002, reality, or unscripted, TV has amused, surprised, and mortified millions of viewers through the years. The changes in pro- gram content reflect the changing times: What viewers want to know about the participants as well as what participants allow to be known about them has increased over the years. For example, post–World War II Americans—new to the nightly en- tertainment that network television could provide—found the vulnerabil- ity of Candid Camera participants caught in just a few minutes of embar- rassing film to be sufficiently amusing. Different situations with different participants, often in different cities, were aired each week—the audience had no way of knowing what would be shown or who would be on the show. Participants stumbled into embarrassing situations rigged by pro- ducers; for example, an unwitting victim might struggle to get a faulty gas pump working, all while the cameras are rolling. Candid Camera was good- natured humor, because as Funt said, “[it] caught people in the act of be- ing themselves.” While participants might be momentarily embarrassed, their privacy and dignity were protected and no one was hurt. Candid Camera competed with half-hour sitcoms and variety programs reminis- cent of old vaudeville shows. The country was just getting used to televi- sion, and Americans wanted the entertainment that came into their homes to be pleasant, uncomplicated, and not at all controversial. The relative quiet of the 1950s, with its emphasis on shared conser- vative values and the sense of moral superiority that came with making the world safe for democracy, came to an abrupt halt when the decade ended. The sexual revolution, the civil rights movement, the antiwar movement, feminism, and drug use were the hallmarks of the 1960s. It was a time of protest against just about everything. Baby boomers, the first generation born after World War II, were just coming of age, and their “tell it like it is” mantra encouraged people to hold nothing back— to debunk old myths and find new truths—in an effort to redefine Amer- ican culture. As Americans became more sexually open and violent in their behavior, television programs became more sexually explicit and vi- olent as well. By the end of the sixties, openness replaced modesty as a virtue, and independence was more important than privacy. By the early 1970s viewers who were used to watching Vietnam War footage on the six o’clock news as they ate dinner were ready for more from television—more reality, more invasiveness. An American Family, filmed in 1973 by noncommercial public television (PBS), brought TV 9 AI Reality TV INT 10/7/03 11:47 AM Page 10 10 At Issue cameras into the home of Bill and Pat Loud and their family and watched them for seven months as they went about their daily lives. Ten million viewers saw their marriage breakup and heard their son Lance announce for the first time that he was gay. Viewers were willing to accept (some even hoped) that they might be surprised or appalled by what they heard or saw—in part, that was why they were watching. Reality TV let the viewers get to know and identify with the Louds on a long-term basis. Moreover, the Louds had agreed to be filmed, indicating a willingness to be exposed in ways that participants of Candid Camera could not have imagined. An American Family—unscripted, unrehearsed reality TV—was broadcast as a documentary by a nonprofit network. When the Louds al- lowed An American Family Revisited to document their lives ten years later, it was broadcast on a cable network with millions in paid advertising at stake, and the new show garnered an even larger audience than the orig- inal American Family. “An American Family is widely recognized as the mother of all reality TV shows,” claims Jeffery Rouff, a media scholar at Dartmouth University and author of An American Family: A Televised Life, a book about the show. By the time a major network developed and pro- duced the Survivor series nearly thirty years later, reality TV shows were on almost every channel. During the first years of the twenty-first century, viewers by the mil- lions were tuning in to watch participants argue, struggle, eat bugs and rats, and reveal the most intimate details of their lives. Reality TV had changed again—this time into a contest where participants competed against each other to win love or money. Competitiveness and material- ism were the watchwords of this newest incarnation of reality TV. It re- flected, in part, the increased competitiveness in American society. As the new millennium began, it appeared that there was less of everything to go around—fewer good jobs, fewer affordable homes, and, especially, less lasting love. Against this backdrop, the struggles of contestants on reality TV shows to get the girl or win the money made perfect sense. Survivor participants secluded on an island were willing to do, say, or eat just about anything to win the one million dollar prize.