Typical Formulas for Entertainment on TV.
• Reality Series:
o New genre, cheap to produce. Non-actors (“Real” people) are put into a competitive situation.
o What Potter doesn’t say: The Reality TV formula trivializes prized and highly respected social institutions (survival, courtship/marriage, cultural exchange).
I dont think its bad to find new conventions (specifically, i’m talking about the changing of traditional ideas about courtship and marriage); i would just like to see more respect paid to the traditional ways and ideas. It makes me angry to think about “The Bachelor”, where Marriage is turned into a sort of game show. I understand that courtship is a competition (if multiple people want the same person)(and in that respect I understand how it fits into the Reality TV Series), just seems like there’d be a certain moral obligation not to trivialize it.
I dunno. Maybe i’m just into “the old way”.
