The Reality of "Reality."

In the article, “The Hegemonic Processes of Television” Thomas Gitlin spoke about the ways that TV content and genre are regulated by the population who watch them. He says that TV genre most often reflects the popular mood at the time and in order for genre to shift, cultural ideas must also shift.

Based on this interpretation, I would have to say that the cultural idea in this day is exceptionally self-indulgent and pitiful as today’s television in bombarded with frivolous, extremely trivial programming. Case and point, reality TV. We all love it and love to hate it, either way we watch it. TV networks show what sells, and realty TV most certainly does that. The constant craziness, mayhem, and chaos are things that we love to watch and partake in. However, there is a question to pose here. Are people really still in love with reality TV or is the undemanding and inexpensive format of reality just too much for networks to give up on?

The reality TV format was an ingenious move to entertain the masses at a relatively small cost. There are no writers, no actors, and no directors, just people living their lives while simultaneously being taped, supposedly. We all know that reality TV is not all reality. Most of the time the subjects are fed lines and put in situations to enhance the entertainment factor. However, we still watch and the networks continue to make money. So in effect, networks achieve the entertainment factor of a normally written program, for half the price. And because we are fascinated with the extremeness of reality TV, we keep watching, looking for the next outrageous moment to discuss with our classmates, co-workers, family. It is a vicious cycle, we keep watching, they keep making, it never ends. Gitlin may have been right about cultural ideas, hegemony, and genre in the seventies, but in today’s world, genre is not so much affected by the populations cultural ideas but by what makes us say ooo and ahh, and the networks ability to capitalize on that.