Reality And Forms Of Media Essay

The relationship between reality and forms of media has been obscured for many years. Most of the time, what viewers depict as reality is selected and framed situations chosen by producers and editors in reality televisions shows and documentaries. Satire uses irony, ridicule and humorous themes to discuss important issues in the world such as gender discrimination in the workplace. The following will demonstrate how media forms have framed reality and its impact on viewers’ perceptions of everyday life. Reality shows like Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Hockey Wives and The Real Housewives of Atlanta show how viewers find real life more interesting than scripted fictional life (Couldry, 2008). These shows allow the viewers to step into the private spheres of celebrities and others in order to see what happens behind closed doors. Reality television that are framed around finding love like The Bachelor have an antagonistic relationship to reality since most people …show more content…
Documentaries have been considered superior in discourse and institutions compared to films and other forms of media (Nichols, 1991). The world filmed is as much of a social constructs as fictional media. The filmmaker can decide which scenes, people and what topics should be covered in a documentary. Documentaries offer access to a world that most people would not be able to experience in a lifetime. However it is important to note that documentaries are depictions of a specific part of the world in a context framed by the filmmakers and editors. Documentaries do not depict reality and all truths of life but they display a single instance in a point of time (Couldry, 2008). Like storylines and characters in a fiction, the evidence is used to build a story and to prove a position. Interviews, external music and narration can be shaped to complement and reinforce the filmmaker’s point of