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Reality Television

Reality Television

Description

One of the most recent and freshest trends to come out of television is the phenomenon of "reality television". Spurred by trend setting programs like CBS's Survivor and MTV's The Real World, reality television was launched as a new genre. With such recent hits as Laguna Beach: The Real OC, Flavor of Love, and American Idol, reality television, as a genre and a staple of pop culture, has only begun to grow. In an analysis of various articles studied from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and, The Los Angeles Times within the last three months has confirmed a recent trend in reality television itself. The articles tend to state the popularity and lucrativeness of reality television and its continuing growth, with no downfall in sight.

Analysis

According to a survey by PollingPoint.com, almost half of our nation's younger generation watches more reality television than last year. The average American television viewer only watches four to five shows on television regularly. Eighteen to twenty five year-olds – the target audience for much of the programming for reality television - watch close to four reality shows a week. Even people who were over the age of 55 were keeping up with at least two reality shows. This increase of viewership in reality television has shown that reality programming is strongly popular with a wide variety of ages. And with networks devoting their programming towards reality television (VH1's Celebreality block of programming; ABC's WifeSwap, Extreme Makeover, Dancing with the Stars; MTV's ever growing roster of reality shows, Fox's American Idol), it is easy to see that the popularity of reality television is an immediate trend in not only television, but in pop culture as well.

Interpretation

Even if you do not watch reality television, it is becoming increasingly hard to avoid the trend. When probing for articles in the journals mentioned, "reality television"...