Viva Reality

Everyone watches it even if they say they don't: Reality TV. Why is it so popular. Has the sitcom died? Well not exactly, but the sitcoms that ARE thriving focus their shows like they are reality, everyday people (i.e. The Office, 30 Rock). So what is so enthralling about reality TV. I believe it is the shock factor. Many people watch it because they are thinking to themselves, "well, at least I am not as screwed up as those people!!"

But in reality TV, there are gatekeepers as well, and that is the casting crew. On reality shows, we only see the young, fit, and beautiful. And if we do see some people on reality TV that do not fit this stereotype they are usually on a weight loss show, or some type of crazy mother.

Why is this? Do people not want to see the "real" people. Or do they just want to live in the fantasy land that this is how everyone looks? People who do not like reality shows many times say it is not congruent with their lifestyle, and maybe if they had a show that spoke to them, they would watch. Well I propose that we make shows for every walk of life. Will this ever happen? No, but it would be nice if it did! What type of image do you think America is portraying to other countries with the reality shows on TV?

Newsworty or not: You be the judge!

The news has been a buzz the past few much about the Gosselins. If you do not know who they are, they are the stars of a show on TLC called Jon and Kate Plus 8. The show followed them throughout their daily lives taking care of their multiples (a pair of twins and a pair of sextuplets). In June of 2009, the Gosselins announced that they were filing for divorce, and then the media frenzy ensued. The paparazzi has been tailing the family, tying to create any story they can, making matters worse. Why worse? Well think about the kids. They should not have to subjected to all this drama.
We are all adults here, everyone should back off and let them have privacy at this time is one argument tat man have.

But then let me play devil' advocate: why does Kate Gosselin continue to do all these interviews? She must want the publicity!

People get divorces all the time, news channels should not be talking more about their drama than real world issues. But alas, they are the gatekeepers, and they tell us what is news.

The end of an era

One of the most famous American gatekeepers, Oprah Winfrey, announced on Friday November 20th, that she would be ending her talk show in September 2011. That will be her 25th season on air. Here is the video of the announcement.

Since 1986, Oprah has been entertaining the nation with commentary and interviews in that infamous 4pm time slot. We have seen here through smiles and tears, through many weight changes, and many major events. She is a world renowned philanthropist, and many people take what Oprah reports as the gospel truth. She has, like many others, also has had her fair share of controversies. Here is a look back at some of them:

*2008- This was a big year for change. During Barack Obama's road to the white house, Oprah openly endorsed him on the campaign trail and she even had him on the show (but he was on the show well before he announced he was running for president). The controversy lay in who she chose not to have on the show: Sarah Palin. She was on the Republican ticket as Vice President Candidate with John McCain. Everyone assumed that Oprah would invite Palin on the show because she was a little known governor from Wasilla, Alaska. Oprah then released a statement that she did not want to use her show as a political platform, which obviously outraged many Republican women, since she openly and repeatedly endorsed Barack Obama. Finally, in November of 2009, Palin was on the Oprah show to endorse her new memoir, Going Rogue.

*2002-2003- During the height of the war in Iraq, Oprah aired many shows showing the negative effects of having entered Iraq post 9/11. Many anti-war advocates praised Oprah for her openness to express her feelings about the war, while the the government was not happy at all. The government knew how many people tune into Oprah and follow her claims, and they felt that she may be stirring up unneeded anti-war sentiments.

The above are just two of the major controversies that involved Winfrey this decade, but think back to 1996 during the height of the Mad Cow Disease controversy, when Oprah vowed never to eat red meat again. She had a show all about the treatment of the cows at the farms, she invited on Howard Lyman, a retired cattle rancher (now vegetarian!!) to explain further what really goes on. After her shows, sales of beef plummeted. The beef business tried to sue Oprah after that show, but loss. The court declared she had just used her freedom of speech.

So just from these few examples, we can see that Oprah has been a HUGE gatekeeper for the past few decades. Who will be able to fill her shoes? And now who will the general public listen to?

you decide: newsworthy or not??

I am sure everyone has heard about it by now. Adam Lambert, of American Idol fame and his infamous performance on the American Music Awards. What was all the fuss about, well during his performance, not only did he simulate oral sex with one of his dancers, but he also kissed another male dancer as well. And boy, was there outrage. Now is this really as racy as everyone has been saying? We must keep in mind that everyone has always popularized two women kissing, we see it on TV all the time, and now that this happens there seems to be a grave double standard. Adam Lambert was scheduled to be on Good Morning America (aired on ABC just like the AMA's was) and they cancelled him after the incident, so The Early Show on CBS invited him on, and he proclaimed that he was not going to apologize for what he did, and he is not a "babysitter". Personally, I find the whole thing funny. People are saying everything from "he's shoving his sexuality down our throats" to "it was an inappropriate display for children". Thoughts? Was this really newsworthy, or blown out of proportion?

Some more food for thought can be provided here at the following links:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/gossip/2009/11/the-view-adam-lambert.html

http://tv.popcrunch.com/adam-lambert-ama-performance-sexy-or-too-raunchy-video/

What news is good news?

That question is definitely up to personal interpretation. Just to think, a few decades ago we only had three TV channels and the daily news only came on once a day at 6pm! Now we have channels on cable television just dedicated to round the clock news. The main channels of this sort include CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. And all have been criticized for being one sided on the political forefront. FOX news , which uses the moniker, "fair and balanced" is obviously conservative/republican in all of their news stories. On the other hand, CNN although they claim to present the facts from both sides of the spectrum, is blatantly liberal/democratic. MSNBC seems to flip flop from time to time, but for the most part, has been consistently liberal. What does this all mean and why does it matter? Well, we all know that people like to tune into things consistent with their beliefs and tune out things that are not. So this perpetuates more one sided ways of thinking and does not give people the opportunity to hear all sides of a issue.

Its upsetting that news outlets are like this, but what can we do about it? They are the gatekeepers, and unfortunately, unless something drastically changes, there will always be biased news in the world. But the good thing is that the net generation along with probably many generation X- have learned to take things merely at face value and then go and research the topics for themselves. Thoughts?

twilight fever

Stephanie Meyer released the first novel in the Twilight saga in 2005. From the beginning, young girls and older women alike fell in love with the heroine, Bella Swan and her dark love interest, Edward Cullen. "But why do they like this crap?" , is what many people who have no interest in the series proclaim. Well, my answer is this: everyone loves a fairytale (well, mainly women and young girls anyway). All women dream of a prince charming coming to sweep them off their feet and to love them unconditionally. From the beginning of story telling, there have always been stories of the knight in shining armor that comes and sweeps the princess, or damsel in distress off of her feet. In the case of Bella Swan, she is awkward, quirky, shy and often misunderstood. Many young girls also relate to her because she is not conventionally pretty. She, to many is considered the antithesis to what the media has shoved down our throats of what we should aspire to be.
Also, through history since the early middle ages, the folklore of vampires has always been wildly popular. Vampires are always perceived as beautiful, dark, mysterious, and dangerous. The character of Edward Cullen embodies all of this, except for major difference. He's a humanitarian, he and his coven value human life and feed off of animals only. Edward and his family are not bloodthirsty deviants as many other stories portray vampires as. Also, Edward has the ability to love, not just lust as many other stories stereotypically typecast vampires as. So, all of this makes for an interesting mix for the reader: the unconventional meets the unconventional, and as the readers follow the saga of the star crossed lovers, they become more immersed in the fantasy and are very anxious to see it in real time on the big screen. On November 21, 2008 Twilight the motion picture was released in theaters and grossed a whopping 384 million worldwide! The phenomenon was introduced to a whole new set of people, many of those who had not even read the novel. But soon after seeing the movies, the fanatics went out and bought all of the books and the merchandise available. Sales are skyrocketing, and with the release of New Moon, the second installment in the Twilight saga this weekend, the sky is the limit for Twilight fans.
Twilight's popularity could not be determined by the gatekeepers of the media. It was fan fueled. In popular crowds, it got horrible reviews, but those who truly like the story are the ones that are the gatekeepers to the phenomenon.

Ballon Boy or Bust

On October 15th of this year, the world was captivated by the ongoing sage of little Falcon Heene. His frazzled parents popped up on the television proclaiming their son was missing and may be up in a silver balloon flying in the sky. The web was flooded with chatter and prayer chains for the family, and people watched the balloon fly in the sky for hours until the anticlimactic end. So what was the end? Little Falcon was hiding in the garage, supposedly upset or scared because his father has yelled at him earlier that day. So the local and national news outlets also aired the tearful reunion, and the Heenes thanked the people watching and praying for their family. At first, this seemed like a strange, yet genuine ordeal.

But then the discrepancies rolled out. First, reporters noted that the Heene family was featured on ABC's WifeSwap in 2008. Many were speculating that maybe this was their attempt at further publicity. Then just hours after the incident happened when the Heenes were being interviewed by CNN about the ordeal, Falcon was asked why didn't he come out of the garage if he heard his family yelling for him, and he replied that he did it for a show! The Heenes looked uncomfortable and tried to brush his comment off. Here is the footage:

Then on the Sunday after the incident (10/18/09), the Larimer County (CO) Sheriff;s department raided the Heene's home. To make matters worse, it was revealed that on October 23 it was revealed that the wife and mother of the Heene family, Mayumi, admitted that the whole ordeal was a hoax to the police.

On November 13, Richard Heene and Mayumi Heene pleaded guilty to felony(Richard tried to influence a sheriff, while Mayumi is being charged with filing a false police report) and misdemeanor charges, respectively. This is an ongoing story and only time will tell what happens next.

So how did this get into the national media anyway. I think because our society likes the unusual. When something crazy happens, with today's technology, news of it travels fast. What aggravates me about this whole situation is that the media devoted so much time to this story, which ended up being BS when there could have been screen time for more important news! There used to be a fine line between tabloid type news and real news and now that line is very blurry. It may be escapism. People don't want to think about the real issues.