Reality Television Stereotypes Essay

James A. Forbes once said, â€Å"When people rely on surface appearances and false racial stereotypes, rather than in-depth knowledge of others at the heart, mind and spirit, their ability to assess and understand people accurately is compromised. † Over time, our generation has watched reality television develop into one of the most sumptuous prodigies of our time. From â€Å"Bad Girls Club† to â€Å"Basketball Wives† reality television has maneuvered itself into our everyday infrastructures. Reality television has had a catastrophic effect on reasoning, education, and society. To start with, reality television depicts its cast as â€Å"real people†, or a group of people archetypally found in the real world as they take on roles that delineate parts of the population dealing in race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, etc. As reality television characterizes misrepresentations, this becomes important for educational and societal ameliorations. Secondly, reality television was found to be main stream and refines stable images after some of its own. Many heavy viewers of television believe the world to be more ungovernable than it is in truth. This is known as the â€Å"cultivation theory† and what is does is test trends in the culture of our society. It broadens the capacity of enrichment by studying the apprehension of stereotypes in reality television. Explained better, the popularity and upheavals correlated with reality television make it an affluent source of education exploration, but in light of what reality television claims to be it makes such educational examinations rather imperative. Moreover, reality television in relation with the aforementioned cultivation theory, the stereotypes presented on reality television of associations (racial, ethnic) may harm the overall mannerly intellection of these associations. Because these shows are shows that are supposed to be a representation of the real world, they have a greater impact on society, and while they emphasize cliched effigies, they therefore give the audience a viewpoint saying that what they see is real. Taking â€Å"Jersey Shore† into examination, the Italian-Americans are seen as loud, pornographic, fractious, obnoxious and overall atrocious quadrupeds, well, to their Italian brethren. In America, one can think that they would be seen as party idols, but shortly after arriving to Italy, they were publically shamed and disowned but the society that surrounded them. Some people might say that these types of shows address the issues the famous face off of the red carpet and on the red carpet. While this may be true, many reality television stars have found the intrusion into their most private matters disheartening and it is not uncommon to see them slowly fade away from the beaming spotlight. Stereotypes are a very touchy subject and can lead into many forms of bigotry and illiberality. Although stereotypes can be used in positive ways to appeal to the certain and right audiences in commercials and advertisements, we must wonder if the conspicuous aggrandizement and affirmation of them should be acceptable in the things we let our kids and ourselves watch. We must also consider the factors that the dangerous stereotypes can affect when looking at this subject, the education factors, the societal factors and lastly, the logical/reasoning factors.