How Real Is Reality Television

Reality television is gaining popularity throughout the world lately because of the "realness" of it and the interesting scenerios that some of the reality shows contestents are placed into. But is that reality? For example, if a television network take 12 individuals and places them in a pre-staged scenerio to compete for a prize, how can that be a real? First, the setting is fake, because these 12 individuals would not be in that place or circumstance if they were not "led" there so to speak. Secondly, people in general
have a tendency to act differently when faced with possibly winning a large sum of money. They may
also say and do things they normally wouldn't do in normal life in order to win the prize. Here are a couple of quotes from J. Rupert Thompson, who is a director and producer of reality shows such as 'Big Brother' and 'Fear Factor'

“Certainly, reality TV is a very manipulated format where the basis of it is that real people are put into unreal situations to create a story,”

“As soon as they get into an unreal situation,” Thompson said, “one could argue that it’s scripted, because the situation is created by the producers. What makes it so compelling is that you never know what a real person’s reaction to an unreal situation will be. That’s why you get such great stuff on reality TV.”

If some reality shows are in fact scripted or partially scripted, an argument could be made if these
shows should even be called reality television. A good rule of thumb to live by is that if large sums of money are at stake, it will be as real as the directors and producers want it to be. Which in my mind, is decided by ratings. That is just my personal opinion.

The Hunger Games

We are currently reading 'The Hunger Games' for our Eng 49 class. I never heard of it until it came time to order my books for school this semester. It is one of them type of books that draw you in more and more as you read through it.

As I am reading the book there are a few things that I notice. The setting is in some sort of post United States and the people are in an oppressed society and are left to fend for themselves for the most part. The main character, Katniss, has to hunt (illegally) for her family due to the lack of resources that are provided for the citizens of their district. So you get the general feeling right away that things are not going well for the main character and life is quite difficult.

To make matters worse, the government has a lottery once a year and draws 2 names out of a "hat" from every district to compete in a fight to the death contest. The reason they do this is due to a rebellion by the citizens in the past that the government pacified and serves as a reminder not to do it again. This contest is last man standing and the contestants are both male and female between the ages of 12 and 18. The older you are the more times your name gets dropped in the hat. A 12 year old would only have their name in the hat once so the odds are definitely in your favor of not getting selected the younger you are. And wouldn't you know it? Katniss's 12 year old sister, who has one name in the hat amongst thousands, was selected to participate in the games. Katniss, being the older, protecting sister that she is volunteered to take her sisters place in the games.

I am at the point in the book where Katniss is traveling to the capital by train to take part in the games.

It is an enjoyable book so far and I can't wait to finish it. The book reminds me of 'The Running Man' by Stephen King, and 'The Long Walk' also by Stephen King. These books also had the government backed fight to the death type games.

Mapping Essays

Today in class we discussed mapping essays. It is not the first time we talked about it but we touched up on it again, which I don't mind because I think it is one of my weak points so far. I actually like the idea of mapping essays, but I still seem to struggle a little with it. It looks like it will be a helpful tool. Sometimes I have to read the text numerous times to figure out what blocks of information I should be retrieving to map out. Where do I start? Where do I end? What information goes here/there? Practicing will help and I will do that as much as possible. I don't seem to have a problem coming up with Ideas to write about. My problem is formatting whatever I write correctly so the information flows properly at the right times. In my opinion this is where mapping will come in handy in the future.