Educational television channels such as The Science Channel and The History Channel have shows such as "The Deadliest Catch" and "Ice Road Truckers" which illustrate and provide insight to real people doing hard and dangerous jobs. This is not to be confused with an ABC program such as "Dancing With The Stars" which is rehearsed, scripted, produced, and even sometimes prerecorded before the actual "live" recording.
Before Phil Harris (RIP) died earlier this year from a stroke, every time watching his show you would know this is realistic and not planned because it takes place in nature. There are crabs the size of someone's head!! In huge nets, in 50mph winds rainstorms.. Crabs everywhere so him and his team can provide us all with some crab meat! Also, on Ice Road Truckers you would think some of those men driving those trucks are lunatics for agreeing to go on those missions through Alaska, in legit CRAZY blizzards, to transport some supply for the oil industry up North near the Arctic Zone. They were driving on ice in huge trucks carrying pipes and stuff. That's dangerous and informative! All for a couple-thousand dollar paycheck. Come on, you cannot tell me that is not some real reality. Some people may say all reality TV is fake, but History and Science Channel promote authentic, credible content. How could any of that possibly be planned? Unless they were psychic...
If you know a show such as "Laguna Beach" (Sorry to all the Laguna Beach fans, but that shit was definitely planned out by Lauren)is somewhat planned out and rehearsed... that is fake reality. It may look like a real situation, but those girls talked on the phone about what they were gonna say on camera while Laguna was being filmed. Also, Super Nanny is NOT real reality!!! That is a just a plain stereotype of an ol' British nanny just like Mary Poppins. The woman on that show was hired.
Hi Matt,
ReplyDeleteI wrote a paper for research methods on product placement and actually used American Idol and Coke Cola as a major example. There is subliminal messaging going on,and the advertising works so well and reaches millions of viewers. The current trend in society is to copy the hottest celebs,watching them drink from Coke cups plants the idea of Coke in peoples minds. Product placement has been around for a long time, I can think back all the way to E.T and the trail of Reese's Pieces..... :)