Reality Check!

    One of the biggest topics concerning the vast, everyday-impacting world of pop culture is the theme of TV shows, specifically reality TV. Most if not everybody has seen one, if not it is impossible not to hear about them, as reality show make the story headlines and are hitting up the news feeds frequently. Many people that are faithful viewers of these dramas are not aware of the types of communications signals and messages being flashed at them, because of this many educators of the pop culture genre and scholarly experts like to point out the negative implications of these couch loafing shows. As many people will agree a lot of these shows are blown out of proportion, depicting stereotypes and focusing on lifestyles that aren't common or "real" as their title of reality indicates. In class we analyzed and dissected a few of these shows to see what types of setbacks they are causing or will eventually cause if they are exposed with the same stylistic approaches (stereotypes) in large showings to audiences. As much criticism or even culture jamming that reality TV programs have endured, could there be any positive things to take from them? In my option I think we can take a 180 degree turn and say YES, lets look at the POSITIVE side of things for a change. Currently I am not a big TV person nor do I watch as much reality TV as I use to. My peak for reality TV shows was right around 12 years old, I remember watching random shows on random networks including; VH1(Survivor and celebrity gossip), HLN (anti-crime/prison related Stuff), Spike (anti-crime/prison related stuff), CW (drama mix with relationships) and Discovery (how to fix random stuff), ... yes pretty normal 12 year old shows right? I would say that that those shows didn't necessarily have a"negative" impact, specifically in terms on my out look on reality, if anything it taught me what I should be avoiding when making decision in life. Back at that time I was pretty limited when it came to hobbies so reality shows rescued me from boredom and I'll tell you some of those show I get a kick out of watching (as bad as it might sound, seeing two people going at it for ridicules reasons made my day). I also believe reality TV can be educational teaching people about new ideas (although not the best ideas) and a glimpses into other cultures. so to reiterate, positives of reality tv include,

1. Teaches you how not to do things in life/ promotes lessons and morals by means of plots.
2. Strives towards discovery of many cultures and education about diverse ideas.
3.  ....  "There's nothing wrong with pure entertainment" - (TV Guide)