Reality Television Is an Oxymoron

Reality Television is an Oxymoron



Television over the years has changed from innocent, family friendly shows like


“Parkinson” and “Match of the day” to sitcoms like Only Fools and Horses or Friends


but In the last 15 years a new genre of television has started to thrive in households all

around the world: reality television. Reality Television itself can be split up into


different groups, more family oriented game shows and contests like Family


Fortunes or the more adult and exploitative shows like “Big Brother” or


“The only way is Essex.” While some of these shows may seem harmless and merely


giving an inside view of others lives I would argue that these shows are heavily


exploitative, they unwittingly promote dysfunctional behaviour and they scrape the


bottom of the barrel when it comes to entertainment.




Many reality shows display the glamorous lifestyles of rich people and their


Luxuries and nowadays many young people have started to try and mimic their


behaviour and see them as role models, going as far as to alter their own bodies. Most


reality shows are based on celebrities or “normal” people who live everyday lives that


a television company deems the most shocking or interesting enough to promote and

broadcast. The problem with reality TV lies within the shows themselves and what the


editors and creators of the show want you to see. Companies know that nowadays


controversy and the idea of Beauty sells incredibly well to a young, mainly female


and teenage audience. As a result of shows like “Keeping up with the Kardashians,”


a show where an almost literally plastic family with overly dramatised problems moan


to each other for half an hour) young women have begun to follow in the footsteps of


the show’s main star Kim Kardashian, famous for her looks and body, by undergoing


plastic surgeries. Medical experts in America have...