The Sensitivity Theory Of Reality Television

There are a variety of popular culture phenomena that Americans are interested in. Reality television programs seem to be of particular interest to Americans. Reality television is defined as a television show, which continuously films peoples. According to Petracca “In 2009, Nielsen found that the amount of time the average American spent watching TV had increased again -- up to four hours and 35 minutes a day”(Petracca, 178). With the large amount of time that Americans spend watching television, it becomes hard to avoid reality television. There are many large popular reality television shows, such as Survivor, Big Brother, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, and The Real Housewives. Competition reality television shows including, Big Brother and Survivor began in the 1990’s. While reality shows such as The Real Housewives, and Keeping up with the Kardashians did not begin until the late 2000’s. As a country, we have become fascinated with watching cameras follow around casts. It was originally believed that Americans watch reality television in order to be able to talk …show more content…
The Sensitivity theory suggests that, “people pay attention to stimuli that are relevant to the satisfaction of their most basic motives, and they tend to ignore stimuli that are irrelevant to their basic motives” (Reiss et al., 2001). A study done by Reiss et al., identified the 16 basic desires of all humans, some of which include power, status, and vengeance. This theory suggests that consumers watch television to fulfill their desires. However, another concept suggests a different explanation of the interest in reality television, symbolic interactionism. This concept allows viewers of reality television to compare their own life to that of the reality show cast. It can assure viewers that their life is normal because they often see others doing the same exact things on