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Essay on Reality Television Shows

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In 1968 American artist Andy Warhol said 'In the future, everybody will be famous for 15 minutes.’ The expression is normally linked to people in the entertainment industry and more recently related to those figures, involved in Reality TV.
There is no exact definition of Reality Television and people also have different opinions of what it is. But it tends be a combination of genres such as: documentary, drama and many other genre’s depending on the type show. It can also be described as ‘ a hybrid of non-fiction and entertainment elements’.
Charlie Parsons, creator of the television show, Survivor defines reality TV as
‘Shows containing producer created environments that control contestant behaviour'.
But this definition does not …show more content…

This deliberate manipulation begins to question the authenticity of reality TV. In almost every episode of MIC there is some sort of gathering where the majority of the cast get together and either resolve or worsen current issues.
Observation and surveillance is an element of documentaries, reality television is dependant on observation. The constant visuals, allows us into the peoples live and eventually lead us to form emotional connections with them. Professor of media studies Mark Andrejevic, this is a natural outcome of the culture of CCTV we live in now.
‘Reality television is suggesting that surveillance can be fun!’.
‘Voyeurism. A voyeur is a peeping tom. Many commentators believe that reality television has moved beyond surveillance into voyeurism. Audiences are positioned as peeping toms who gain pleasure from the exhibitionism of the participants. There is also voyeuristic pleasure to be gained from knowing the emotions displayed are real. If someone is crying, for instance, it means they are really upset.’
We enjoy the dramatization performed in each episode, this eventually hooks us and you feel as if you must continue watch to find out what happen in the next episode to fill a void created by not watching it.
A lot of the themes in Made In Chelsea are quite overt, money, power, materialism, love, relationships as well as other subjects. From a Marxist point of view underlying themes would include alienation. That

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