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Reality television is a type of entertainment that is appealing to a significant amount of the world’s population. The term Reality is used to describe television programming, which hypothetically is based on factual depictions of life as lived by people from various walks of life, as in contrast to programming based on scripts by professional actors. Collins English Dictionary (2013) defines reality television as “television programs focusing on members of the public living in conditions created especially by the program makers (“Reality Television”)”. As an avid viewer, I sometimes choose to relate to characters whether they are fictitious or truthful because of the intriguing lifestyle that is promoted in a number of these programs by television networks, and at times am mystified by some of the behaviors set forth on such television shows. I found myself wondering if teenagers are easily influenced by behaviors presented on reality television, and if so what are the potential effects on identity development of the teenage viewer, especially during the formative later years of adolescence between the ages of 15 and 18? It is during these later teen years when young people living with parents are moving toward independence that I am most interested in. Research about the possible influences of reality television will foster a keen insight into the effects of such television programming.
Due to the early stage reality television is in, there has not been formal research conducted on the effect, which limits the amount of information available about this most recent development in what Harry Stack Sullivan termed “mediated learning”. Sullivan (1953) commented on the influence on learning that takes place from the then dominant mediums of radio and newspapers (p.37).” Since that statement, much has been researched about the effects of television on human behavior, violence in movies, and video games. Since the advent of cable and satellite reception, recent years have evidenced an explosion in the number of channels from three or four hundreds. This change has included an ever-increasing number and variety of reality based programming from X-Factor to Duck Dynasty. This expansion also includes infomercials produced to appear to be news releases of “factual” reports of miraculous products such as weight loss and get out of debt schemes. Nielsen Ratings (2011) reports that “reality television first made an appearance in the top ten rankings in 2000, and since the 2002-2003 season has consistently captured the largest percentage of the audience watching the top ten broadcast programs. In 2007-2008 seasons, reality programming captured 77 percent of the total audience viewing those top ten programs” (Nielsen, 2011, Para 2).
Research can be found on the aspects of this rapid growth of programming. The research proposed in this study will reflect the findings of focus on the effects of reality television on teenage viewers between the ages of 15 and 18. For the purpose of this study, I chose to explore the phenomena of watching reality TV programming in terms of effects; are consumers of reality TV truly able to self-identify with characters that are deemed as “real”? Do we understand the influence on identity development of the adolescent viewer while watching reality television? Do unrecognized problems exist when teenagers base their lives on actors and/or actresses that may be leading them to self-identify with characteristics that are not the outcome of natural paths of self-discovery? For adolescents on the verge of self-defeating behaviors, do these types of shows jilt them into patterns that are difficult, if not impossible to alter? If so, what patterns are related?
This dissertation studied how reality television influenced behaviors that are recognized as unreal to the teenage audience who serves as a large percentage of the viewers. The statement of identification to be explored is: Reality television may affect adolescent viewers between the ages of 15 and 18. This study models a qualitative approach in order to better understand the effects of reality television.