Fiction vs. reality TV – Part 1

The expression “Reality TV” is a complete misnomer in most cases because many of the so-called “real” situations are contrived and clearly, have more in common with fiction than fact. The participants in any reality program are immediately affected by the knowledge that cameras are rolling, recording their every move and utterance. There is also evidence to suggest that some reality television programs are manufactured by the program makers to add spice to what would otherwise be a boring piece of television viewing. The only genuine realities in this genre are the programs where the participants are caught by hidden cameras and continue to act in a natural way.

Reality is a very loose description of the kind of television that puts real people in contrived situations and which is edited to have the greatest impact on the viewer. An outstanding example is “Big Brother”, a reality program where viewers watch random people live in a house and interact with each other. To make it more interesting, the program makers added some sexual chemistry, before moving to the next stage, “Celebrity Big Brother”. Now, the networks are full of “reality” shows, all of which seem to follow a distinct pattern of contestants vying with each other to remain, while the viewers and judges vote others off. The advent of reality television has turned regular people into celebrities and is now the genre of choice for many viewers.

This fixation with reality television has had an impact on standard programming like fiction presentations. Fictional programs usually comprise interesting story-lines, good actors and characters we begin to relate to, even though we know, they are not real. The quality scriptwriting is a far cry from the banal conversation we find in reality television presentations and the predictable format, which leaves nothing to the imagination. Fiction is genuine entertainment and appeals more to our creativity and imagination than reality shows ever could. The variety we find in fictional television makes it all the more attractive as it reaches into the areas of crime, medicine, legal and comedy, to mention a few. Unlike reality television, fictional programming will never have to suffer from a lack of new ideas in creating new presentations.

The gulf between fiction and reality TV is extremely wide when it comes to quality, but he difference in meaning is not. There is no question that reality TV has become increasingly popular across the networks. The irony is that in most cases, it is anything but reality, but more akin to fiction.