The issue of how much the media’s texts affect their audience has always been in question since our society has started to evolve around media culture. These following sources just begin to touch the surface in trying to examine how the audiences are affected by certain media texts, specifically reality TV. “A companion to Reality Television”, edited by Laurie Ouellette, analyzes many topics under the umbrella of television, but a few of its chapters cover topics that relate to my study specifically, one in particular is called “Realism and Reality”. This book’s over arching theme is the complex relationship between reality television and actual reality, or “realism”, and more specifically how they shape the audience’s idea’s of how their
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There is the chance that the audience is not affect by these depictions of “reality” and “realism”. Another study took that issue and went one step further to look into audience commentaries on certain reality TV shows. In Susan Murray’s edit of “Reality TV: Remaking Television Culture”, one of the authors, Johnathan Gray, found that many of the reactions were negative and judged the reality TV shows because they were obviously scripted, which means that the audience would not incorporate these images of reality into their own lives. But he does mention that this is clearly not a universal idea because these shows are still very prevalent in television today (Murray, 2009). In Dr. Barbara L. Baker’s essay on “Sexism in the Media”, she addresses Cultivation Theory and how the mass media is cultivating a distorted perception of the world, making viewers think that their lives should be like it is in the media. (Baker, 1998). She believes that, through Cultivation Theory, viewers will begin to emulate reality TV norms into their own lives. Because of the theory, Baker wonders what media is cultivating in the minds of the viewers in regards to the relationship between a man and a woman …show more content…
Wood, who wrote the article, “The Influence of Media on Views of Gender”, she agrees with the past sources that there is inherent sexism in the media and explicitly in relationships as well. She states that there are specific ways that the media poses women inferior to men; they are underrepresented, there are stereotypical representations of women (women being overly dependent and submissive to men), and stereotypical relationships between men and women (women are there to enforce the mans heteronormativity). According to Wood, most of the media portrays the women in the relationship as serving the man and only being there to help him and cater to his needs. It paints the picture that the main goal in a women’s life is to get married, and they are of less importance if they cannot do so. (Wood, 1994). This is a reoccurring theme within these sources because the concern with media enforcing certain representations can be dangerous to society. A specific representation that depicts women in the relationship as being side props, or there to serve the man’s purpose, is brought to light in the article written by Ben Clayton and John Harris. These authors examine the role of soccer wives and girlfriends in England. Clayton and Harris used textual analysis on multiple media sources resulting in the idea that women are the prop to ensure the males adhere to hegemonic normativity. The women are portrayed as “hetero-sexy and traditionally feminine, in the supportive
There is the chance that the audience is not affect by these depictions of “reality” and “realism”. Another study took that issue and went one step further to look into audience commentaries on certain reality TV shows. In Susan Murray’s edit of “Reality TV: Remaking Television Culture”, one of the authors, Johnathan Gray, found that many of the reactions were negative and judged the reality TV shows because they were obviously scripted, which means that the audience would not incorporate these images of reality into their own lives. But he does mention that this is clearly not a universal idea because these shows are still very prevalent in television today (Murray, 2009). In Dr. Barbara L. Baker’s essay on “Sexism in the Media”, she addresses Cultivation Theory and how the mass media is cultivating a distorted perception of the world, making viewers think that their lives should be like it is in the media. (Baker, 1998). She believes that, through Cultivation Theory, viewers will begin to emulate reality TV norms into their own lives. Because of the theory, Baker wonders what media is cultivating in the minds of the viewers in regards to the relationship between a man and a woman …show more content…
Wood, who wrote the article, “The Influence of Media on Views of Gender”, she agrees with the past sources that there is inherent sexism in the media and explicitly in relationships as well. She states that there are specific ways that the media poses women inferior to men; they are underrepresented, there are stereotypical representations of women (women being overly dependent and submissive to men), and stereotypical relationships between men and women (women are there to enforce the mans heteronormativity). According to Wood, most of the media portrays the women in the relationship as serving the man and only being there to help him and cater to his needs. It paints the picture that the main goal in a women’s life is to get married, and they are of less importance if they cannot do so. (Wood, 1994). This is a reoccurring theme within these sources because the concern with media enforcing certain representations can be dangerous to society. A specific representation that depicts women in the relationship as being side props, or there to serve the man’s purpose, is brought to light in the article written by Ben Clayton and John Harris. These authors examine the role of soccer wives and girlfriends in England. Clayton and Harris used textual analysis on multiple media sources resulting in the idea that women are the prop to ensure the males adhere to hegemonic normativity. The women are portrayed as “hetero-sexy and traditionally feminine, in the supportive