REALITY SHOWS AS A REFLECTION OF A CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY

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REALITY SHOWS AS A REFLECTION OF A CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY

Summary

The aim of this work is to understand the phenomenon of the new television program - reality shows, in the other words, the TV program that is based on a real life. A post-modern society and their way of thinking changed dramatically in the past few decades, with the appearance of the Internet and other communication services to become known and famous, became easier than ever. Because of all these alterations, the concept of fame changed and being famous just for being famous is something new now. Notably, it is very important to understand the real meaning behind the “new” type of fame and why it is the one of the main influences for the participants. As a result, I will try to find out what kind of people want to be a part of this creation and for what reason most of them will be identified as narcissists Essentially, do reality shows reflect the realism of humanity or is it just a new way of entertainment? This and the rest of the issues will be analyzed along the article.

Key words: reality shows, narcissism, fame, post-modern culture, entertainment

        There have been many deep changes in the realms of culture, media, and related technologies, as well as a change in their social meaning in the past few decades. In the first half of the 20th century, in an age before television, cinema was a form of entertainment that most of the people enjoyed as it was a distraction from a daily life. In the second half of the 20th century, when television appeared, cinema started competing, which made a film theatre become less interesting. The rise of television gave a possibility to the consumer to choose films and different types of shows, according to their taste and their own identity.  The needs and desires of the consumers made the world think and the reality television have been invented.  With that said, reality television has been around more than a decade, but just recently with the explosion of the Internet it has reshaped the meaning of fame and entertainment. Andy Warhol’s prophetic prediction, more than forty years ago, that everyone would have their fifteen minutes of fame, is now being played out on television, as ordinary people put themselves in front of the cameras so that millions of other people could watch them live out their lives. Being famous seems like a game, that everyone can play. The participants, who are full of narcissistic characteristics, enter this new fame-searching world with their outrageous behaviours, which seems to be the only needed quality in this mass media production. Most of these changes mentioned above have impacted all aspects and outlets of the cultural production and have in many cases also had an effect upon society and social organization. In spite of these many changes the concept of the culture industry continues both as a useful theoretical concept and as an analytical tool[1].

        The term “cultural industries” has many definitions because it can be understood in many different ways. Raymond Williams once described culture as a “whole way of life”; while some thinkers understood that this definition in the broadest anthropological sense can be also applied to cultural industries. However, cultural industries has tented to be used in a much more restricted way than this and nowadays it is usually understood as a combination of creation, production and distribution of goods. These goods are known as television, radio, cinema, newspaper, publishing industries etc. The aim of all of these artefacts is to communicate with an audience and to let them to interpret it.

The Culture Industry is a concept created by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer and it is related to the Marxist philosophy. It suggests that popular culture is a factory and through this factory standardized goods are mass manufactured to pacify the population and behind it stands the interests of monopoly capitalism. These created goods don’t represent real creativity or real art, but it is a satisfactory form of imagination that is mass-produced.

Films and radio no longer need to present themselves as art. The truth that they are nothing but business is used as an ideology to legitimize the trash they intentionally produce. They call themselves industries; and when their directors’ incomes are published, any doubt about the social utility of the finished products is removed. [2]

In their way of thinking, all the cultural goods have just one purpose – to be best sellers and to make money. All the products seem to be identical, adapted for big audiences; some kind of innovation is excluded, because it might require some risk and that is something that is not necessary. Individuals do not need to think or choose, the industry already chose for them. All mass production produced by entertainment manufactures will be consumed with attentiveness even when the consumer is distraught. Adorno argued in his book Dialectic of Enlightenment that the more the cultural industry implants itself into society the more choices it can make for the consumers by controlling and disciplining them (Adorno, 2002).  This means that by accepting the ideologies told to us through the media it makes those social institutions more powerful and the audience more submissive/passive. For him Culture Industry is the “entertainment business” that deceives the audience into thinking that it represents everyday life and promises an escape from every day troubles. Reality television is a new form of culture industry. It is an entertainment program, that attracts millions of people and it is as popular as ever.

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 It’s Friday night and I’m watching the finale of Teen Big Brother. It’s an emotional experience. The participants explain why they should win. They go around the group, each one speaking with tightness in their throat. Everyone says the same thing: “I should win because I’ve been myself – what you see is what you get”. The competitor cries. Everyone cries. Everyone votes.[3]

This citation exemplifies the concept what do people think when they hear the name: reality show. However, the history of the reality TV begins with Allen Funt’s show called Candid Camera, which aired in 1948. ...

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