Blog Post 2

Kyle Miller

CCS 313

Professor Smith-Casanueva

10/21/14

Blog Post 2

Television is such a dominant presence in our lives and it has the power completely alter people’s perspectives. I want to key in on the show South Park. It’s a modern marvel of social commentary that is coated under the guise of a normal cartoon comedy of some young boys. A big part of their show is showcasing the impressionability of people and they always get caught in the trends. We read about Mcluhan’s “the medium is the message”, which basically is a way of saying that people become one with the media they watch. That ties in also to Friedman’s new take on viewing spectatorship. Friedman makes it a point to say that in today’s world, spectators have nearly total control over what they see.  In a way, rea people are good representations of what’s on TV. The South Park episode “Raising The Bar” is a great example of this. The episode depicts the popular show Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. It’s a highly rated show but it’s noted for its stupidity. Regardless, people choose to watch it.

In 2014, the most popular type of TV show is the reality show. “In March of 2011, Jersey Shore’s Snooki was paid more to give the Commencement address at Rutgers University than was offered to Nobel prize-winning author Toni Morrison. “Study hard, but party harder,” she proclaimed to the students. If that doesn’t say something about the impact of reality TV on our lives, I don’t know what does. (Kondapi)“ Snooki is a reality TV star whom became rich and famous by doing nothing of any real gain to society but perhaps that’s just want the people want. People relate and often idolize popular reality TV figures and therefore production companies pump out more and more reality shows in hopes of it achieving the fame of shows like The Jersey Shore. Reality shows will always be stuck with the stigma of them dumbing down their audience and it’s a reason for some to believe that people are getting stupider, as parotic shows like South Park have demonstrated. At the end of the day, the audience truly does have the control. TV companies are out to make as much money as possible and if the most profitable option is changing a TV station called MTV (Music Television) into a station where 95% of the shows are reality shows, then so be it.

Sources:

http://thehorizonsun.com/student-opinion/2013/08/30/reality-tv-as-a-cultural-phenomenon-2/