Ethics of reality TV - how far would you go?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXU9YMZRY54
LEAD-IN
Have you see any of these TV shows? If so, what are they about?
Big Brother, The Apprentice, Survivors, The Bachelor
Discuss the following statements.
I hate reality shows because they convey negative values.
Watching reality television makes me feel better about myself.
Reality television puts me in a bad mood.
Watching reality television makes me want to be on a reality show one day.
Watching reality television is an enjoyable way of spending my free time.
Reality TV helps me learn about life and about human beings.
VIDEO
In this short TED Talk, How Far would you go?, Kobi and Arjun examine the ethics promoted by reality
television and question our own understanding of right and wrong. Read the statements, watch the video
and fill in the statements with ONE or TWO words.
1. Most people like to spend their _______________ watching a baseball game, relaxing on the beach or
_______________ with friends.
2. Julie Chen hosts Big Brother where _______________ strangers are _______________ in a house for
three months.
3. Kobi states that he can tune into Big Brother _______________ if he likes.
4. Kobi and his group share a _______________ for reality television competition shows.
5. Reality TV makes up a _______________ of the _______________ according to the Nielsen survey.
6. Kobi and Arjun _______________ a survey and sent it out to their University _______________ .
7. In Kobi and Arjun's survey most people across the board didn't like _______________ . They preferred
to manipulate or _______________.
8. Celebrity Apprentice participant Kenya Moore _______________ that another member, Vivica A. Fox,
had _______________ .
9. Kenya Moore was finally _______________ by the then host Donald Trump.
10. One member of Survivor decided to _______________ all the food _______________ on the beach in
order to _______________ all his partners during the rest of the season.
11. Reality TV can lead people to act in an _______________ way, for example _______________ strangers
or _______________ a good friend.
12. In real life people have to collaborate instead of _______________ each other apart.
13. On reality TV shows people who _______________ by the _______________ do not normally achieve
their aims.
14. If real life mirrored reality TV shows we would constantly be in a _______________________ struggle,
_______________ against each other.
15. We can win without having to put people _______________ or without leaving the others in
the______________.
SPEAKING –The role of TV
Objectivity, an old bone of contention
The demand of censorship
New ways of accessing TV content
New kinds of programmes on the schedule
Today’s TV series, cinematic art?
Financing the public TV or the story of a bankrupt
Role models TV establishes these days.
The TV of the future, what’s next?
When most people think of their summer vacation, they imagine hanging out with friends, relaxing on the beach, maybe
attending a baseball game. Not me. My summer vacation consists of me sitting alone in my house watching Big Brother.
Yeah! I spend my summer watching Julie Chen and 16 strangers locked up in a house for three months. But unlike most
shows that are on about once a week, we get the pleasure of tuning into CBS on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays. Yes,
we get Big Brother three out of the seven days of the week. But I don't just stop there. Yes, I'm proud to announce that
I'm one of the insane people who purchases the Big Brother live feed on CBS so I can have access to the house 24/7. Now
you might say that I am obsessed with television and that's true.
One of my favorite things in the world is television. When my group and I sat down to brainstorm ideas for this talk, we
found that we all have a certain fondness for those reality television competition shows, such as Survivor and Celebrity
Apprentice. We started to wonder how far would people really go in order to further their place in the game. We wanted
to know... we knew how we would do if we were participants on these shows, but we were really interested to see how
our peers would do, so we wanted to explore this topic more in depth.
We looked at a recent Nielsen study that surveyed viewership across the board. We found that reality TV makes up a
majority of the ratings, with over 50% dedicated specifically to reality TV shows since the 2002-2003 season. With so
many people watching reality television, we became curious about how people would act if placed in a reality television
show. We knew how we would do again if we went on this show but we wanted to see how our peers would do, so we
set up a simple survey and sent it out to all of our peers around the campus.
First off, of the 186 responses we received, 70% said they watched reality TV to begin with. The next three questions
asked participants to rate on a scale of one to five their willingness to manipulate others, lie to others and sabotage
others enabled to... in order to advance in the reality TV competition such as Survivor. Across the board the responses
were very similar, with all three questions garnering almost the same response. Overall, participants were much more
willing to manipulate or ally for advancement rather than sabotaging. One reason for this could be that sabotaging
sounds more like cheating, whereas lying and manipulating sound more like something you should do on the shows like
Survivor.
Now for the first question, willing to lie, the average on a scale of one to five was again about a 3.4, which is about
average, and so one example of this was just this season on the Celebrity Apprentice Kenya Moore, the crazy housewife,
started tweeting facts about Vivica A. Fox about her menopause, and this was all just a way to lie to Donald Trump to try
and further her place in the game but, unfortunately, it didn't work for her and she got fired that episode.
The next question again was willing to sabotage but this was interesting because our data went down to about a 2.7,
which was below the average for us. And one example of this was on Sur..., excuse me, Survivor, a few seasons ago,
Brandon Hantz, a notorious Survivor player, he, for some reason, wanted to sabotage his team and decided to dump all of
their food rations out on the beach, so they were starving the rest of the season.
And again, our last question, willing to manipulate, again we went back up to the average of about 2.5, I believe. And one
example this season on The Bachelor, I don't know if you all watch, but Kelsey, she decided to... some believe she had a
panic attack, just to get an example, just to get the rose from Chris.
Both of these are... all three ideas are examples of people who took extreme actions in order to achieve their goals. Their
acts were shown to millions of people all across the world and they encouraged extreme behaviour in order to achieve
real life goals, hence reality TV. Reality television can easily influence people to do these unethical acts, whether it be
sabotaging a stranger or backstabbing a best friend.
You need to take a step back and realize that reality television isn't real. Reality television doesn't show what happens in
the world in order to succeed and in order... In order to succeed, people need to be able to gather... people need to work
together instead of tearing each other apart.
The survey shows interesting and disturbing results about how reality television alters our view of reality. These
competitive reality TV shows show lying, manipulation and sabotage almost daily. People who choose to play by the rules
barely ever succeed but when you think about it, reality television is just a means of showing the worst in people. It's
hardly a true representation of reality. If it was, where would be as... where would we be as a society now? We'd be in a
continuous power struggle and we'd be unable to work together without plotting against each other.
As a society, we have to take a step back and look at ourselves: Are we really willing to let society slide into chaos just
because it's what we see on a television show? We can all be survivors without putting down our peers.
We can win this amazing race of life without leaving each other in the dust.
... for society to succeed, we need to reject the norms that reality television tries to press on us. Instead of going against
each other, we need to help each other. Instead of arguing with each other, we need to compromise. If we work together,
we can do amazing things. Look around, we're all living proof. Thank you.
KEY
1. VACATIONS / HANGING OUT 9. FIRED
2. 16 / LOCKED UP 10. DUMP / RATIONS / STARVE
3. 24/7 (or ALL THE TIME / CONSTANTLY...) 11. EXTREME (UNETHICAL) / SABOTAGING / BACKSTABING
4. FONDNESS 12. TEARING
5. MAJORITY / RATINGS 13. PLAY / RULES
6. SET UP / PEERS 14. POWER / PLOTTING
7. SABOTAGING / ALLY 15. DOWN / DUST
8. TWEETED (LIED) / MENOPAUSE
