Reagan Russell - FINAL PODCAST

Reality TV is a popular topic that is increasing in relevancy. This episode focuses on the production and business side of reality TV and the potential consequences. Dr. Matthew J. Smith, a professor at Radford University, is interviewed to provide insights. Reality TV is unique because of its economic drive, with the goal of attracting viewers for profit. Producers manipulate and create drama to engage the audience. Reality TV presents itself as real, but it is far from it, leading to a distorted perception of reality. It promotes unrealistic lifestyles and standards, which can have negative effects on viewers. Hello, and welcome back to Keeping It Real, a podcast dedicated to discussing relevant things to keep a good perspective on the world. I'm your host, Regan Russell, and on today's episode of Keeping It Real, I decided to pick a topic that I was extremely interested in, and that I just think is increasing in relevancy by the day, which is reality TV. Reality TV is such a dense topic. There are so many things that just come to mind when I hear the words reality TV, and there are a thousand things I could talk about. But for today's episode, I wanted to particularly focus more on the production and business side of reality TV, and then some potential consequences of this type of programming. I think when we hear reality TV, we're pretty familiar with the types of programming, how the show is set up a little bit, but kind of the behind-the-scenes part and what goes into producing and making reality TV, I think we all tend to be a bit more naive of kind of what that entails. So for today's episode, I had the privilege of interviewing Dr. Matthew J. Smith, who is a professor at Radford University, and who has written a book and done intense research on reality TV, so we look forward to hearing from him later. With all that being said, let's dive right into today's episode of Keeping It Real, reality TV. What do you think of when you hear the words reality television? We all might have different depictions, different ideas that come to our mind, but a general premise is the same. Most of the time, we're envisioning and picturing, you know, the drama-filled excursion, you know, this drama-filled production. Yet, when we think of reality TV, it's very different than if you thought about sitting down to go watch a drama on Netflix or on HBO. Although they both include drama, there's entirely different notions that surround reality TV, which is extremely important to distinguish from the very beginning. Now, reality TV, it's not this new concept. This concept's been around for decades, even dating back to the 1950s, starting with, you know, some radio shows and whatnot. It's not this new thing. I always tend to associate reality TV with early 2000s and, you know, it's booming right now, but we have to understand that this is not a new concept, that this has been with us for a while and we've been dealing with this for a while, which is also why we're now able to kind of analyze and kind of study some ramifications that come with reality TV. One of those ramifications being the business side of things. Reality TV is so unique because of its business elements. Every single show, every almost thing around us has business tied to it. Business is a very loose term, but just this economic concept that there is money driving, you know, these things. There's money driving these productions, and there's more to it than just a pure entertainment factor. There's a huge economic drive, and to talk about that really quick is Dr. Matthew J. Smith. Their drive is always economic. It's not about creating content. It's certainly not about creating television art. I think there is television art, but I don't know that the networks are necessarily thinking about, well, art is our goal. Eyeballs are their goals, right? They want people to tune in or they want the right people to tune in. As he explained, there is a huge economic drive fueling reality TV, which is what makes it so different than any other type of programming we watch today. It's what makes it so different from a box office movie or a hit new Netflix show. It's an entirely different ball game, which may be a little hard to grasp, but let me explain. Producers basically realize that producing a hit new show takes a lot of money. Between casting, sound stages, editing, effects, there was so much that went into it, both time and money wise, that eventually it would pay off, but the amount to produce, the cost to produce, was so high up front that it was becoming almost way too costly. That's where reality TV was kind of founded. They realized that they could produce something that didn't take as much money, didn't take as much time, didn't take as much editing, and they could still get people to watch and get a huge economic return, which is just a crazy concept, but it makes sense and it is a very successful business today. However, unfortunately, when you're looking at the business side of things, these producers are so focused on making money that it's way less about the audience and just about what's going to get them the largest profit, what's going to provide the largest return. To go off that, here's Dr. Smith once again. Everything is very calculated out of the business side of things. I think the interesting part is, how are they then tapping into something in the audience that makes them want to tune in to these reality TV offerings? Everything is very constructed and very manipulated. The producers are the puppeteers and the audience are the puppets. A lot of the times, it's really hard to see that we're being controlled and being manipulated because we're in it. We are a part of this. By watching reality TV, we insert ourselves into this equation, into this business profit method. Now, here's what I mean by that. Reality TV is not what you see is what you get. Although they pitch it that way, it's extremely, extremely different. Reality TV pitches a fly on the wall production method. What that means is, they're pitching that these cameras are acting like flies. These cameras are simply there to pick up people's natural state, their natural drama. You know, if drama is produced, it's because that's just how they naturally act. Although humans are pretty dramatic, and myself included in that, it's not to the extent of reality TV. Drama needs to be produced. If a camera was truly just picking up people in their natural habitat, people would not be this engaged to watch. There still needs to be a plot. There still needs to be motive. There needs to be this driving factor created. Otherwise, you don't have a show. Producers have to create drama. They have to create the conditions for drama to emerge. That was Dr. Smith once again. A good analogy or a good metaphor for thinking of drama when it comes to reality TV is thinking of bacteria. You create the right environment, this bacteria is just going to grow and it's going to spread and it's going to feed off of each other until it is so consuming. I think that's just a really good way to kind of analyze the drama that goes on within reality TV. Although it might not all be scripted or it might not all be staged, producers are putting people and putting their cast in an environment where drama is going to grow, where drama is this heightened thing and it becomes this normal concept when it really isn't normal. Having this much drama with this much people around you, it's not a normal concept. For example, think of The Bachelor. It is not a normal scenario where one person is going to have to decide between 12 other people and who they're going to give a rose to, who they're going to keep hanging on. It's not this normal concept to also be dating that many people at once, be falling in love with that many people at once and have this grand decision. That's not an environment that would come up naturally. It's this drama produced environment that creates this attention. It does create this entertainment factor. You've got to give props to reality TV. It is extremely entertaining, but it is so, so far from real. And I truly think that is one of the most dangerous parts about reality TV is that it pitches itself as real, that it's this authentic form of television when it is so far from that. The more you think of reality TV as this real concept, the more detached from reality you are going to become. The more our reality and the world as we know it, the more it becomes distorted and kind of this false perception of reality. Another example is the Kardashians. The Kardashians have this lifestyle that is so unattainable, so unattainable. It is this lavish lifestyle that is created and monitored that allows people, that gives people the confidence to say, I can look like them or I can be rich like that when, although some people probably could, it is not a lifestyle that's achievable by the modern human. Not just that the Kardashians are on television, but the Kardashians are an unrealistic, almost unattainable physical perfection and economic attainment that none of us are going to reach, right? I can have all the surgeries I want. I'm not going to look as good as those guys. And I can try to work as hard as that, but I'm never going to be rich as those people. As Dr. Smith just said, it is less about what is airing on TV and more about how unrealistic it is. Unfortunately, you know, shows like Love Island, they cast very conventionally attractive people. You know, they cast these people that have bikini perfect bodies and everything seems to be going right for them. And it's less about that they're looking for love and, you know, the drama that ensues on the show, but just more so that that lifestyle, you know, that way of living is so unrealistic. It is such a foreign concept that is truly becoming normalized in our world today. And because of all these normalcies, there's so many side effects because it's becoming so normalized. These behaviors, you know, these dating styles, these ways of looking, ways of living, these weren't concepts that were truly present before. Now, we've all had our fair share of insecurities, our doubts, and, you know, goals and dreams. Those are not new concepts. But if you definitely look at, you know, reality TV and what it pitches, what it preaches, there are distinct connections and distinct side effects that come with that. Now, we had talked a lot about, you know, the business and how reality TV is not a new concept, but a lot of its side effects are. Although reality TV has been around for a while, it is truly starting to boom. I'd say in the last decade, reality TV has skyrocketed to becoming, you know, our top program, so much so that people are producing drama shows that are about reality TV. Reality TV is becoming such a big phenomenon that it now has, you know, entities being, you know, created off of it. It is such this large piece of our lives now, whether we like it or not. So, I don't like to think of reality TV as the enemy. I don't think it is being created to be harmful, and I don't think producers intended for some of its side effects and some of its consequences, but the consequences are there. And unfortunately, I don't think most people, especially when tuning into reality TV, understand exactly what they're getting into, exactly what terms and conditions they are signing on to by deciding to watch a reality TV program. So, before I became, you know, interested in reality TV, I'd just watch, you know, your standard programs until I realized that there was this whole entertainment factor with reality TV that I had been missing out on, and I got really addicted to watching reality TV. I was being brainwashed into these programs that I found so interesting at the time without knowing truly what it was doing to my mental health and psyche. Every day after school, I would watch hours upon hours of reality TV. I was consuming it rapidly, and I was, you know, a direct product of what they had created. I was truly their audience, you know. I was coaxed and enticed into this, and at the time, and when you're watching these reality TV programs, it's really hard to understand what's not to love. I was being spoon-fed drama. I did not have to work for anything, and I was given this entertainment, and it was something, you know, I felt so, I wouldn't say fulfilled, but I felt so entertained. I felt so content at the time until this started to become such a rapid pattern. You know, this became a very regular thing. It was an everyday thing, and I didn't really know how to stop. It was my go-to show, my go-to form of entertainment, and it took me a long time to realize that all of my insecurities, all of my self-doubts were becoming heightened because of these shows that I was watching, because of the example that reality TV was setting. While I was watching these shows, I became so incredibly insecure about my body and, you know, how I looked and how I acted. You know, I bought products that I thought would make me look prettier, you know, that would make me more attractive, whether it was clothes, skin care, hair care, everything. I wasn't acting for myself. I was acting for the perception of other people, and once I was able to take a step back and look at how fragile I was during that time and how insecure I had became, I think I quickly realized kind of the pitfalls, some of the problems with reality TV that I wish I could say it was just me who was facing them, but unfortunately, it's not. Most teenagers that engage in watching reality TV have admitted it's become their guilty pleasure, but along with admitting that, they've also admitted tons of body image, that reality TV has made them question their self-worth, it's made them question their self-esteem, and the amount of mental health, body image, self-esteem issues that have arisen as reality TV has become this, you know, this integral part of our lives, it's truly alarming, and it's something that can definitely be avoided. It's something that doesn't have to be this way. You know, we can find ways to coexist with this form of entertainment without us feeling horrible about ourselves. Reality TV should be able to exist and function without tearing down people's livelihoods, you know, as a cost. Most people don't have a high enough media literacy to understand that what they are watching is staged, what they are watching is scripted, it's produced, it's not this genuine form of entertainment. The producers are not being genuine, they're not being honest, and they're not doing it to lie to us, but most Americans don't have the understanding that they are being lied to, that what they are being said may not be the truth, that it's unhonest and truly kind of unethical. With that being said, I think there are many compromises that can be made with reality TV. Now, although there can be compromises made, because it's a business, because these producers are able to make so much money, it's unrealistic to think they're going to compromise with the audience. You know, they know we're going to watch it. I still watch it, you know, knowing everything I know about reality TV. I am still an audience member, so I don't think it's necessary to cut reality TV out of our lives. I think that's an unrealistic solution and truly not the best one. Let's be honest, you know, reality TV, it is entertaining, but I think something that's really important is before you go down to watch your next bit of reality TV, really understand what you're getting into. I think if you can understand the intent of the producers, you can understand the false reality that is being created in front of you, we'd see a significant, you know, decline in some of these issues that are arising because of it. I have seen, you know, myself included, too many people that I love be affected by reality TV. It's not this sickness, but it is a plague that's infecting all of us, whether we realize it or not. It is this dangerous thing. It is not intended to be a weapon by any means, but if we're unaware of, you know, what it is and what it entails, it easily can be a weapon of destruction, and it is becoming even more relevant by the day, and which is why I think it was such an important topic to discuss today because in an effort to keep it real, I think just, you know, learning more and just making an effort to educate ourselves on reality TV, it'll make us all not only smarter, but just more aware, hyper aware even, of kind of what we're watching and, you know, these different forms of entertainment and how they can be dangerous. That is all for today's episode of Keeping It Real. I want to give a special thanks to Dr. Smith for being with us today, and I want to give a huge thank you to all of our sponsors as well. If you enjoyed today's episode, make sure to check out the other episodes of Keeping It Real on whatever streaming platform you use most often. Thank you.