THE PROBLEM
At first glace, reality TV shows seem harmless. To those who don’t have media literacy, watching these shows is just a way to relax and find enjoyment. But when you take a closer look at the messages media producers of reality series are sending, you see that these messages can have a detrimental impact on their audience. Reality TV shows portray women as thin, gorgeous, rich, and all around show glamorous lives, when really, that's not what real women's lives consist of. The media shows us only what they want us to see. These shows have set unrealistic standards for women leading them to believe they must act like a Real Housewife of Beverly Hills, look like a Kardashian and live like the Rich Kids of Beverly Hills to be “successful” in life or to be accepted by others. In order to avoid these messages, the auidence of reality TV must learn how to analyze the show they are watching so they are able to recognize the negative messages media producers are sending with each reality TV show.
WHY IS THIS A CONCERN
When audiences watch these shows they’re minds are usually in an automatic state in which they unconsciously process media messages. Because we are unaware of these messages entering our mind, we do not realize that what “those girls” on TV have is not real. They don’t look beautiful all the time; when they are on TV it is after hours of hair and makeup. The girls on these shows also have money for expensive personal trainers and the food you need for strict diets to stay thin. The characters on reality TV shows aren’t like the average girl and we should not compare ourselves to them, but the audience often does not realize that. The consequence of girls getting these messages can range anywhere from having a negative self worth to having a life-threatening eating disorder. Web MD states that "since the boom of reality televisions in 2000, eating disorders in tenage girls have nearly tripled". Because of these shows girls feel constant pressure from every angle of their lives as they strive to be perfect. We cannot sit back and let media keep feeding society with these messages. We must learn to be more media literate to keep media from planting negative messages in our heads.
"Since the boom of reality televisions in 2000, eating disorders in teenage girls (ages 13-19) have nearly tripled"
CAPTURED ATTENTION
Reality TV shows often allure girls and women into watching their shows frequently. They try to convince us that we are just like the Kardashians with our crazy family problems or have the overbearing parents from Chrisley Knows Best. This causes a connection with the shows that gives women and girls a sense of familiarity. Reality TV shows nowadays try to promote that even more to keep their audience and to gain more viewers. Due to that connection, girls and women feel that they then need to have what the celebrities have, to have that type of lifestyle. These types of messages slowly start to creep into our minds. We first started watching reality TV shows because of entertainment, then familiarity, and now we watch it because we have embedded ourselves into the TV show. Because we believe we are in the reality TV show, we start to act/behave and look that way as well. These are the few ways reality TV shows try to allure us into believing to be just like them otherwise we won’t be successful in life.
THE TARGET OF THESE MESSAGES
Reality shows such as Keeping up With the Kardashians, Chrisley Knows Best and Real Housewives are targeted towards girls from their early teen years all the way into their late twenties. This is the age when girls are figuring out who they really are, but they have media whispering in their ears about who they should be. Women tend to be extremely conscious about their body image and how they look in everyone else’s eyes which makes them more vulnerable to the negative messages sent by the media. When they watch these reality TV shows they are being taught that: you’re not good enough; to be successful in life you need to look like these girls, you need to act like these girls and you need to have all the material things these girls have. The producers of these TV shows have an easy audience to influence. Most of the time when girls watch reality TV, they are doing so to realx, so their minds aren't thinking about what is really going on. The media takes advantage of this and slips in messages while girls aren't even aware.
TAKING CONTROL
It is up to the women and girls of today's society to take a stand against the influence of these messages. No longer watching these shows would be difficult because, lets face it, every girl loves to relax by watching reality TV. But when we do watch these shows we need to be more conscious of what the media is telling us. We must remember that the girls on these TV shows are not like you and I so we should not compare ourselves to them.
EXAMPLES
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