Unreality

I like the concept of reality television, in terms of showing something that actually reflects reality but this isn't the case with most reality TV shows because they have to be entertaining to be considered appealing and as a result the behaviours you see are accentuated or parody versions of reality.  This creates a lot of problems when people base their real life expectations on what they have seen on television. 

In much the same way when we think about porn we should be able to recognise that what we see in pornography is a fantasy, a depiction intended to excite and arouse, not a depiction intended to reflect reality.  Where sex education and sexual exploration is left to be guided by porn alone this can cause a lot of problems that most people instinctively understand.  Entertaining this scenario even now you are probably imagining the plethora of problems a sexual education based on porn would create, and yet when we turn our attention to reality television we aren't as critical it seems.  There's a greater eagerness to believe what is depicted is accurate in this scenario, despite the fact that these productions are edited and produced with the same intent of providing entertainment more than reflecting reality.

I like the concept of reality television but I don't think it actually exists, at least not in a form that stays true to the concept.  This in many regards is quite like communism in that the theory would work if adhered to but no attempt to create such a system has ever stayed true to the theory and inevitably diverges and becomes corrupt.  Nothing within the realm of media ever stays pure, production and editorial decisions mutate the original vision until the end product is something entirely different.  

This mutative process is one reason why I choose to self-publish most of my work, to retain artistic control free from outside influence.  Would my published works do better if I were to give in and adhere to that process, probably, but what would be published as a result I would not consider to be "my" work if it did not resemble my vision.  I am no Da Vinci, but I find myself entertaining the idea of a modern day Leonardo painting the Mona Lisa only to have it scanned, photoshopped, and reprinted to make it look more appealing to the consumer. 

This coercive creative process as it could be termed is one reason why I am drawn to Youtubers whose channels are more "raw" in terms of creating content where the mistakes are left in, frustrations are accurately depicted, and a truer representation of the content creator is captured.  This I believe is also one of the reasons people find streaming so appealing, in that a stream is a raw feed from a creator that is unedited and uncensored.  Those channels that minimise production and editing, and those channels that stream their content live are both filling the need for reality that was supposed to be fed by reality television, it is perhaps most telling that neither of these would be embraced by traditional media and promoted to the same extent as their traditional content is treated.

By refusing to create content for reality television shows that was in fact real and true to life, those networks missed their opportunity to capitalise on these desires, youtube and streaming services won out in the end because they were willing to allow user submitted content to be delivered relinquishing all control over the creative process deferring it to the creators.  Arguably this is one reason why Youtube specifically has an existential threat hanging over it, the Youtube Partner Programme has become too invasive, creating too many restrictions that are influencing the creative process, it is ironic that a service that set out to be independent and set out to challenge mainstream media is now becoming more akin to mainstream media as the latter has been in decline. 

The strategy most traditional media outlets seem to pursue now is to create content that is further detached from reality, either by purporting to be real but amplifying and exaggerating the content in the extreme, or by openly embracing the surreal and fantasy elements by creating TV shows that incorporate visual effects and landscapes that amateur content creators on Youtube can't rival on the same scale - for now at least, the bar for this content has been rising on Youtube.

If those who cannot distinguish what is real and what is not real continue to be influenced by reality television shows that diverge further and further from reality with each episode, what impact does that have on the wider world?  If reality television creates expectations for viewers that their lives should reflect those unrealistic story-lines how long does it take before they start to behave in ways in their own lives in an attempt to mimic what they see?

"People like that don't exist" - "but they will after they see this"

Or as Oscar Wilde once said, "Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life"