Reality television has evolved over the decades and many people see it going in a downward spiral, in greater quantities and lower quality of content. In the article The Case for Reality TV by Michael Hirschorn he defends reality television, claiming that people often take these shows for face value and do not look for the deeper meaning behind them. He uses shows a wide range of reality shows and express that these shows are not only for entertainment value but also good mediums for social commentary. Also, Hirschorn includes how effective competitive shows are adept at explaining what people would do, much like an experiment, and are a good medium when explaining complex ideas. He uses reality television 's underlying factors and themes that
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His overall argument that reality TV is beneficial matches with this statement because Hirschorn believes to not look at reality shows and take them literally or face value. Instead he believes it is necessary that shows be more deeply observed and says, “The competitions and elimination shows are latter-day Milgram experiments that place real people in artificial situations,”(Hirschorn 1). This statement explains how crucial these shows are in describing what people do in these controlled environments. Hirschorn also includes the Survivor and describes it as a,”fantasy and more a metaphor for an imagined post-apocalyptic future,” (Hirschorn 1), giving the show a Lord of the Flies storyline, but with fun competitions; and instead of kids dying contestants get voted off the island. Also, in these quotes he makes good use of metaphors by comparing reality shows to “Milgram experiments” and “an imagined post-apocalyptic future,”. As a result Hirschorn makes the reader think of these shows as metaphors for how people will act in real life in these environments given through the reality show. It is also effective because by comparing shows to the “Milgram experiment” says that the shows are able to generate plots and environments that are similar to experiments, with controlled variables and conclusions based on observation. His comparison to experiments is important because he sees realizes that we can use reality shows like The Survivor for reference if we ever go into a similar situation. This supports Hirschorn’s argument because he sees the benefit of using reality television as metaphors for what people would do in real life. and sees reality shows as useful references if a similar situation would
His overall argument that reality TV is beneficial matches with this statement because Hirschorn believes to not look at reality shows and take them literally or face value. Instead he believes it is necessary that shows be more deeply observed and says, “The competitions and elimination shows are latter-day Milgram experiments that place real people in artificial situations,”(Hirschorn 1). This statement explains how crucial these shows are in describing what people do in these controlled environments. Hirschorn also includes the Survivor and describes it as a,”fantasy and more a metaphor for an imagined post-apocalyptic future,” (Hirschorn 1), giving the show a Lord of the Flies storyline, but with fun competitions; and instead of kids dying contestants get voted off the island. Also, in these quotes he makes good use of metaphors by comparing reality shows to “Milgram experiments” and “an imagined post-apocalyptic future,”. As a result Hirschorn makes the reader think of these shows as metaphors for how people will act in real life in these environments given through the reality show. It is also effective because by comparing shows to the “Milgram experiment” says that the shows are able to generate plots and environments that are similar to experiments, with controlled variables and conclusions based on observation. His comparison to experiments is important because he sees realizes that we can use reality shows like The Survivor for reference if we ever go into a similar situation. This supports Hirschorn’s argument because he sees the benefit of using reality television as metaphors for what people would do in real life. and sees reality shows as useful references if a similar situation would