Imagine being in the ancient Roman era. Life then was a lot like American life. The Roman era was tainted with bloody battles, bibulous gatherings, and women; alike the modern day wrestling, NASCAR, and prostitutes in which can easily be accessed. Entertainment, during the Roman era, included gladiators fighting to the finish. While thousands crowded around to watch, the intensity builds up. Like the Romans, Americans now sit in front of a television set and watch shows that contain random people fighting, because someone "cheated" on them. One factor that relates the Roman and American way of entertainment are people being used to entertain the public. The morality of people from the Roman era relates to the morals Americans stand by today. Many people shown on these television shows seem poor and in need of counseling. By stereotypically placing “trashy” people on shows like "Jerry Springer", people are dehumanized and placed on television only for the sheer enjoyment, like the Romans did with gladiators.…
Oprah Gail Winfrey (born January 29, 1954) is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her multi-award-winning talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show which was the highestrated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011. Transition to Reality Television Real Housewives of Atlanta Love & Hiphop…
When it comes to reality TV, "reality" becomes a problem, a story created by producers and editors. The media exploits people who grope for airtime, who will do anything for their five minutes of fame, and are willing to bare their souls, or their bodies, for that matter, on national television. Neal Gabler wrote a piece on "Grieving for the Camera" which discusses the problems with the news today. According to Gabler, when people are in a state of grief, they are vulnerable. They become an easy target to be manipulated into whoever the producers think will make a good story. In "Confessions of a TV Talk Show Shrink," a media psychologist named Stewart Fischoff reveals his relationship with TV talk shows and analyzes the effect that the media has on reality. He believes that the false portraying of reality is an immoral practice. When it comes to "reality" TV shows, Debra Seagal goes behind the scenes and shows the influence that editors have to rearrange "reality" in "Tales From the Cutting-Room Floor." This manipulation becomes a danger to the passive viewers for people become fodder for the recreation of reality. "Reality" TV is no more than a falsity of reality which creates a problem of fraudulence in society. How far will we let this go?…
In 2008 over 30 million people in the United States admitted to watching day time TV talk shows, and that number is progressively climbing. These talk shows range from cooking secrets, to bizarre life situations, to more serious national news stories such as interviews with the parents of Treyvon Martin. Two of these TV talk shows include: the serious psychologist, Dr. Phil McGraw and the syndicated tabloid talk show host, Maury Povich. Although, Dr. Phil and Maury are both national TV talk shows, they differ in content, targeted audience, and national news.…
The genre is sometimes described using the pejorative slang term "trash TV", particularly when the show hosts appear to purposely design their shows to create controversy or confrontation. One of the earliest of the post-Oprah shows was Geraldo, which was oriented toward controversial guests and theatricality. One of the early shows was titled "Men in Lace Panties and the Women Who Love Them". Host Geraldo Rivera broke his nose in a well-publicized brawl during a 1988 show, involving racist skinheads, anti-racist skinheads, and black and Jewish activists.[7] This incident led to Newsweek's characterization of his show as "Trash TV". The term Trash TV was applied to tabloid talk shows at their most extreme; some of the program hosts,…
In 1984, she hosted a half-hour morning programme, AM Chicago, and managed to turn it into the most popular show in town. Subsequently, the show was extended to an hour long and in 1985, was renamed to The Oprah Winfrey Show. In a year’s time, the show was broadcasted nationally and grew to become the highest rated talk show in national syndication. In its first year of eligibility in 1987, the show attained three Daytime Emmy Awards and an Emmy as Outstanding Talk/Service Programme in 1988. Simultaneously, Oprah also became the youngest person ever to receive the International Radio and Television Society’s “Broadcaster of the Year”…
Television brought many different and innovative programs, soap operas which have become the most popular over the years. These soap operas deal with a variety of different issues, but it was in the middle and late 1990’s when this programs started to disturb me. They started to deal with issues such as teenage pregnancy, affairs, divorce and homosexuality which I found offensive and very disturbing to watch and not only did they deal with these issues, they showed it in graphic proportion which I found a little distasteful…
The most influential woman in the world and the world’s most powerful women are just few titles that describe Oprah Winfrey. Oprah is known to the world as an American Television host, actress, producer, and philanthropist, and is best known for her multi-award winning and self-titled talk show. The Oprah Winfrey show has an audience of millions of people worldwide. In other words, when Oprah speaks, people listen, and that is why she has a huge impact on the world. Throughout the past decade, Oprah Winfrey has influenced the world by her charity work, her impact on sales, and her support for Barrack Obama.…
Television historian Tim Brooks and Lifetime executive says, "This is a reminder that as American TV hurtles toward ever more explicitness, there is a market of people who don't want any of that."…
Cited: Abt, V., & Mustazza, L. (1997). Coming after Oprah: cultural fallout in the age of the…
As a nation, we love television. People who don?t watch television seem to be the exception, not the norm. We also seem to love reality television, and the concept of reality TV has expanded beyond the simple drama. There are reality television shows that resemble game shows. In others, people win a prize or get to pursue their dreams such as becoming a fashion designer, chef, or interior decorator. Some of us have dreams in being part of a reality show. Others just love to watch reality television. What is it about this type of program that captivates people?…
Oprah Winfrey was once a follower of the trash TV format, but her long running popular TV talk show has since been reformed. Like Jerry Springer, the Oprah Winfrey show takes…
One of the most flawless communications is seen in Oprah Winfrey’s shows where she tries to have a very friendly, cherished and also frank conversation with her guests and also the audience watching her feel as though she is speaking directly to them. Whatever we see in her is positive and it makes her so charismatic and the creative person in her field.…
Some types of reality TV shows are more popular and accrue more ratings than fiction based or scripted television programs.…
Reality television began coming into our homes in 1948 with the introduction of Allen Funts’ Candid Camera followed by the show Truth or Consequences. According to Charles B Slocum, WGAW Assistant Director, “both of these two pioneering series created artificial realities to see how ordinary people would respond.” These shows introduced a new form of entertainment into our homes not knowing what a huge success they would be and the influence that it would have on todays’ society. Those shows are considered very tame by todays’ standards of reality television and the proof is what they are doing on the shows today. There are television series about contestants trying to win a recording contract through singing, redneck towing companies stopping at nothing to get that repossession, defendants and plaintiffs arguing their cases in front a real judge without a lawyer and strangers spending a summer together in a quiet, quaint fishing village behaving in a different…