Feb 22, 2011 Richard Mccaa
Reality television has dominated the television industry. There are educational reality shows and noneducational reality shows. They both have their entertainment values. The difference is one is productive television, and one is counterproductive. "There is good and bad in everything." This is a very true statement. Everything is good in moderation as well. The argument being raised is that counterproductive t.v. is taking over productive t.v. The time slots to watch educational reality shows are generally later in the evening. It is almost as if t.v. is trying to "dumb down America." As it is the powers that be who control prime time television are the ones who control the time slots for which shows go in. These people that control what we watch have target audiences. They have targeted the youth to display these noneducational reality shows.
When I refer to noneducational reality t.v. I am referring to shows like Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Teen pregnancy, and My Sweet Sixteen. These shows are put in a time slot on prime time t.v. that targets the youth of today. These shows do not teach lessons, in fact they proven to do the opposite. Now the youth thinks it is o.k. to emulate these reality show stars. The facts are all of these shows are scripted and provoked. The Jersey Shore is actually filmed on a set 80% of the time. Yet these shows are passed off as reality. These shows promote drinking and heavy sexual content. They are still on the time slot that targets youth. Kids are growing up at a much faster rate than just 20 years ago. This can be widely attributed to television. The youth only knows what they are continually shown. Now we see much of the youth today acting very disrespectful towards the older generation. The youth of today is overly aggressive. They have continually been shown to disregard other peoples feelings by watching ordinary people get put in a house and continually disrespect, and fight with each other. Instead of fighting and being rude to each other these shows could reflect how 10 ordinary people come into a house and work together to make the quality of life better for everyone. They could show the reality of working together to pay the bills and keep food on the table. They could teach how to step in when something bad happens to someone else and help them get back on their feet in one way or another. Instead they have went the direction of survival of the fittest. Is this really the image that should be shown and taught to our future leaders? If we look at where our country has come to in the past 20 years it is apparent that survival of the fittest is not working. This is nothing new however it has hit the public spot light now that television has become one of the largest parts of our day to day life. When it comes to prime television that is directed at our youth we should be promoting working together as that is the philosophy that will insure a productive future.
Reality T.V. does have positive things to offer. There are many educational reality shows on. Some of which include: Dirty Jobs, Cake Boss, and Do You know Who You Are. These type shows depict the reality of America. They show what truly makes America run. These shows teach true morals and genuine respect towards others while still being professional. True these shows are scripted as well, but they are geared toward education and not violence, or the promotion of teen pregnancy, and spousal abuse. These shows do not promote alcohol abuse or who is having sex with who. However these shows are targeted toward adults, as they are on at a later time slot, and much of our youth are not interested in watching the real realities of life. The having to get up and go to work everyday parts of life. Educational reality t.v. has so much to offer our youth, such as real job related skills. They show the youth a future in America that is reality, in a very productive way.
Prime time television is to blame for this. They have taken the ratings ball instead of the morals ball and are running with it. It all comes down to ratings. Ratings is where the money is i television. I think that they could produce productive t.v. and could get better ratings than in the past 10 or 20 years. We must take some responsibility though. They control what we watch but we control what our kids watch. We have the option to set the parental controls, and if the majority of the people ban those negative type shows in our homes then they will have no ratings to deal with. I would imagine they would completely restructure their programming. I believe they would do so very quickly. The bottom line is we are in control of our lives and our kids lives. We need to know what they are watching and control it because television is finding ways to push the envelope everyday. At this point in the game nothing is speculated on in television. The t.v. networks know exactly what ratings they will get before the show is ever even produced. There is no guess work anymore and they do not mind selling our youth down the river to make their mass profits. In closing keep in mind that we can not trust the people who control prime time television to control what we watch, and what our children watch.
Copyright Richard Mccaa. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.
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