My premise is that the phenomenon of reality television betrays insight into the way we understand ourselves and each other, and I've got a few theories about what that insight might be. The most obvious problem, of course, is that we might not think there is anything meaningful about the rise in this type of programming - that its merely an accidental byproduct of network focus groups or the unfortunate habit of viewers to watch whatever happens to be on. I'm going to ask my reader to suspend that objection, and allow me to posit that *if* we can derive any meaningful conclusions from the popularity of reality tv, these are them. But that's a big 'if', and if I can't make a plausible claim that the phenomenon itself is meaningful - and I'm not sure I can - then my thesis is ultimately untenable.

Our Veracious Vice

"For the actual 'real world', see Reality." - Wikipedia's entry on The Real World reality program.

Guilty Pleasures

Devolution of Entertainment

Comedy and Tragedy

The Meaning of Entertainment

Exposé

Escapism

Voyeurism

Shantih, shantih, shantih

-- JuliaS - 29 Mar 2008

Julia - Interestingly, I understood the proliferation of pornography under the same themes - expose, escapism, and voyeurism. Plus, pornography is reality to boot, if, by reality, I mean a non-fictional and non-imitative simulation of 'real world' events. On this basis, it is closer to Good Morning America than No Country for Old Men.

You should check out this You Tube video which is tangentially related in intellectual mood rather than actual substance of reality tv, but it may inspire some ideas for you on a possible purpose of reality tv.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQEBDoi5MyE

-- JesseCreed - 29 Mar 2008