English 110
B. Ruff
3 Feb. 2011
Deceptive Reality Television
Unfortunately, today’s popular culture highly regards reality shows that are far from being real. Richard Huff’s title “Real or Not, It Doesn’t Matter” clearly states this fact; the public enjoys watching these shows, even though it knows that they are deceitful. Reality shows are fallacies, the work of the producers and editors, who work hard to make people believe that they are watching truthful situations. The impact of reality television on Americans is negative, due to the false situations it portrays, provoked situations, and because of its attempt to deceive the audience. Reality shows do not come out perfect the first time; producers and editors strategically make them look perfect. Therefore, producers recur to the rudimentary, reshooting and editing. When producers do not like what they see they go to the editors; they spice up the show. According to Huff, in the show Wife Swap one of the participating moms said that when the producers did not like what she said or did, they had the editors add or modify her lines. Reality is spontaneous and natural, it is not planned, but people desire these shows because of these tactical approaches. …show more content…
A true television program would be a boxing match, a sports game, or a presidential election, not Big Brother! Everyone already knows or more likely expects to see certain roles. Richard Huff expressed the fact that producers intentionally set up situations and everything in the show. In Big Brother there is always someone who is very problematic, flirty, or one that remains in low profile. Also, the producers fabricate fights in between the contestants in order to attract the audience and get them to continue watching. All of this is redundant, but Americans seem to enjoy