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REALITY TV- GARBAGE IS GARBAGE

Reality TV is based on the premise of lowest level identification with situations and characters, as portrayed in short burst, high intensity "moments". Not unlike a combination of a game show and a soap opera, but shallower. The precedent-formula-buying methods of networks are the main reason for its success as a genre.

As a production, few things are less genuinely expensive. A garish set, an island available from some impoverished nation, few of the Reality TV scenarios require much more than the altruistic instincts of a real estate developer. Those who bothered to finish their media degrees know how little these extravaganzas of tat really cost, and how to keep large amounts of their production budgets. Same old money-short change. A few camera angles and some sandwiches costs a million or so; sure, they do.

Possibly more expensive is getting the characters on Reality TV shows housebroken, so you don't have to put down all that newspaper when they're in buildings. No script, just editing, so that's no particular challenge, when you're selling to people with roughly the same gerbil-like level of intelligence and social instincts.

Then there's the "naughty" element. Not terribly helpful, perhaps, to the Safe Sex efforts, when it's telling every kid on the planet to move into a house, and get it on with anything that moves. But then, Reality TV is so utterly unchallenged by the sad little herd of sheep in suits that they don't even bother to check out what they're buying So mere children aren't all that important. After learning how to get diseases, the education of the audience moves on to the invaluable social skill of backstabbing everybody anywhere near you.

If you ever really want to see media psychology at its most banal, Reality TV is the place to go. Close ups, thousands of them, more than even The Bold And The Beautiful, and a selection of character types, from the tacky Everybody's Little Friend to the Trashy Thing With The Big Boobs. Ah, the mystery of it all. Then there's the staged tantrums, the controversies, and the heartbroken confessions to a camera which are so articulate for people who can't usually achieve two syllables without straining something.

There's also the sickly process of trying to look like "real people". Have a look at the usual zoo outtakes in any Reality show. Formula people. I've seen more diverse groups in graveyards. The character types are about as generic as any talentless geek of a producer

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