Outline on the Effects of Reality Tv
Outline: Research Paper: Reality TV and its influence on the younger generation I. Introduction A. Media has a huge impact on how people truly see themselves, particularly in women and young female teens. Reality television has made the standards of beauty quite high these days and there is a definite change in society’s view on what is truly beautiful. Turning off the TV has simply become too hard when it comes to reality TV shows 1. Turning into their favorite movie star is becoming more normal than ever.
Skipping meals to look like the girl on the cover of the magazine keeps many people wandering what other lengths girls will go to to look like someone else. 2. These reality TV shows are gruesome and harmful to one when they say, “Reality television is a relatively new fad in America that is sweeping the networks’ ratings and redefining programming altogether. Viewers cannot seem to get enough of the torture, embarrassment, temptation, and above all, drama of other regular, everyday people being placed in unrealistic settings and manipulated for the world to see”(Pontius).
Leaving an everlasting affect, these shows do a lot of damage. B. Children consider makeup a necessity at a younger age. Reality TV has caused an obsession that is unavoidable. It is a crude form of entertainment, but so many people watch it and it becomes hard to turn it off. But why are people so interested? Somebody else’s lives and somebody else’s problems. 1. Women fighting over ‘their man’ 2. People trying to survive in the dessert 3. People suffering from drug addictions C. But they give off the wrong message to young girls.
Though some TV programs support healthy lifestyle choices, viewers do not realize that these shows can easily damage one’s self-esteem and body image. The female audience needs to recognize the false reality of television and realize that the women on reality TV are in fact, nothing close to real. 1. Reality TV is powerful and influential D. Reality TV is the main source for eating disorders. Media exposes girls to anorexia and eating disorders. Girls see themselves as overweight when some are not even close to being overweight. 1. Bulimia is regurgitating food after overeating to rid them of the food. . Anorexia is not eating at all or eating very small amounts such as a small pile of lettuce. They are starving themselves to lose weight II. Eliminating reality TV shows will keep children from partaking in unprotected sex. A. Since 2005 teenage pregnancy rates have increased significantly 3. 5 percent. 1. Shows such as “Teen Mom” were created to show the hardships of teenage pregnancy and deteriorate children from wanting to have kids. Instead it has showed them having children is not the worst thing to happen to a girl. Having a kid ensure your boyfriend stays with you. . While teen pregnancy would have been a major issue 20 or more years ago, in today’s day and age it has become more common. “The MTV show 16 and Pregnant and its spin-off Teen Mom have fetishized teenage motherhood and, bizarrely, made it glamorous. 16 and Pregnant, a reality series that began last year, purported to show the hardships endured by teen mothers but somehow evolved into a soap opera in which the central figures, with badass boyfriends and bewildered parents, became intriguing figures – even figures to be emulated” (Want be American R3).
Glamorizing pregnancy only intrigues young girls and makes it seem like something fun when it can change their life. B. Children are learning from what happens on TV. They learning it is okay to get pregnant before you complete high school 1. Kids learn from what they see when people say; “Therefore, the study of television fiction products specifically targeted at young audiences can contribute knowledge on what kind of images and portrayals of teenagers they will consume”(Munoz Fedele 133). When kids see something happens on TV they are most likely to reenact what they saw in their everyday lives.
C. As teens and young adults continue to feast their eyes upon these “real” teen pregnancy shows, the more the teen pregnancy rates increase. Kids also have mistaken this show for an excuse to experiment with sexual desires. While high school students are taught to abstain from sex in numerous health classes, they learn from MTV that a lot of teenagers participate in sexual intercourse. This gives them the idea that sex is normal for young teens and that they should join the bandwagon too III. Kids experiment with drugs and alcohol when they see other kids their age on TV doing the same things
IV. Young girl’s self-images are influenced by the reality TV shows they watch. A. Girls especially are influenced by what they see on TV. 1. Most girls will do whatever it takes to be skinny and look like the stars that weigh 100 pounds “… the media influence on the cultural phenomenon of dieting and the perfect body. “Commercials and reality TV shows make you feel bad about yourself so you buy into the fad,” Cohn said. The diet industry earns $50 billion each year on diet pills, and $8. 4 billion is spent every year on cosmetic surgery.
Women — and men, Cohn stressed — want to be thin, because large men and women are ridiculed” (Demmel). Eating disorders continues to be problem among young girls because of their role models. Girls on reality TV shows have that ‘perfect’ body and girls what to be everything like them. B. Influences girls to want to alter their bodies through plastic surgery 1. Plastic Surgery has expanded to more people than ever. Most of the people watch reality TV and strive to be like the person they see on TV. Plastic surgeon John Persing and his colleagues found that 57 percent of patients, whose average age was 36, regularly watched one or more reality shows” (Boodman E4). Since more people are watching Reality TV shows and the number of plastic surgery’s has increased, one can assume the people watching the shows are the people who are getting plastic surgery so they can look similar to people on TV. 2. Every little girl dreams of being a star and by watching these shows, most of them think they can only be one if they look like the girl on TV when said, “But in 2010, when Heidi Montag’s bloated lips plaster every agazine in town, when little girls lust after an airbrushed, unattainable body ideal, there’s a growing bundle of research to show that our bias against the unattractive–our “beauty bias,” as a new book calls it–is more pervasive than ever” (Bennett 46). Persuading little girls to want plastic surgery. C. Shows girls they can’t be comfortable in their own body’s unless they have a certain body type that is skinny 1. Many women don’t feel comfortable in their own bodies because of what they see on reality TV.
They see thin girls on TV and assume they have to fit the same stereotype to be liked when said “Girls and women in our culture are bombarded with so many messages about being thin and perfect that it can be really, really hard to truly believe we are beautiful just the way we are. That doesn’t mean that we’re failures in any way; it’s really the culture that has failed us”(Help yourself other) some women find it so hard to believe they can be happy if they aren’t as thin as that girl they saw on Jersey Shore or The Hills. V.
Watching reality TV affects the way children deal with conflict or crude situations in school and out of school A. Aggressive B. drama VI. Reality TV shows affect the way girls perceive the world. A. What girls see on TV is what they expect to happen to them. 1. Affecting everyday actions, reality TV has a big impact on individuals. When said, reality TV tends to be the center of all problems in our culture. It creates a memory that affects the way one thinks and acts (Course Examines How). It can persuade someone to act a different way than normal.
According to how they saw someone on a show act, they feel the need to act or try in act in the same way. B. Watching reality TV makes it difficult to distinguish between reality and non-fiction 1. When people see something on TV, they assume it’s something that will happen to them. They assume the things on TV are real life situations when practically they could be impossible. They still focus on it when said, “This type of show that largely impacts on young people and generations, do not reflect the style of life in our society” (TV Values Destructive).
With this motto in mind, it can affect the way young people live their lives. 2. Watching reality TV allows a child to believe what happens on TV is only what can happen to them. It has been proven that; “The mere fact that it is called reality is misleading in itself and I think it is giving them a very limited view of what is possible,” she said, adding that many young viewers were unaware that reality shows were heavily manipulated, edited and commercially driven” (Hazelhurst qtd. in Edwards). Many children don’t know the extent behind reality TV shows. . Many agree that often times things come a lot easier on TV or are made a lot simpler when said, “On the screen, any major life problem is portrayed as simple, or at the very least, not as complicated as in real life. On television, any time a woman unexpectedly gets pregnant, she debates whether she should have an abortion, but coincidentally has a miscarriage right before she has to decide” (Pritchard). When kids see something bad happen then automatically something well then more times than not they will do something that will result in something worse.
When that good thing doesn’t come to save them, they feel lost. VII. Conclusion A. Drilling into kids head that being skinny or looking the best or being the best is important, Reality TV shows have mislead the way children see things. If something isn’t done to stop what’s being shown on TV, kids will continue to starve themselves to be the skinniest, abuse drugs and alcohol, and teen pregnancy rates will continue to increase. Not all of these cases are a result of media and reality TV, but it plays a big contribution. . Most people agree children would be much better if reality TV was no longer available when they say, “I confess I find TV such a corrupting phenomenon that I believe the best solution to combat the damage it causes would be to do away with it entirely” (Gatto 45). Without reality TV, kids would be able to focus on more important things 2. Reality TV shapes the way kids think when researchers say; “Especially with young, impressionable minds out there, more honest portrayals need to circulate.
The real world is meaningful and exciting in its own right, so why not represent it at least somewhat accurately on screen” (Pritchard). Their minds are shapeable and reality TV shapes them into believing the wrong things about life. 3. B. Reality TV shows that were created to show teenagers the hardships of life and is actually glamorizing the worst of the worst to make kids want to experiment, should be forced to bring to a halt any new recordings of the ones already recorded should be removed from TV. 1. The Federal Communications Commission’s is in charge of regulating what’s on TV.
By persuading the lawmakers to pass a law that dismisses any sort of crude reality TV shows from being aired, children can learn to behave and act in a way accepted in society. C. Bridalplasty was a show that aired that showed 12 brides competing in order to get the grand prize, plastic surgery of their choice for their wedding. Young girls are growing up with the mentality that they won’t be perfect unless they have some kind of plastic surgery and it’s no wonder they think this with the kind of shows on TV.
