November 8th, 2012
Live Broadcasts, False Reality
In today’s media there is a very large grey area surrounding live television. Whether it’s a reality game show, or a live performance, it seems that a lot of what we see at home is already scripted and ready to perform in front of the cameras. So what is it that makes us attracted to the idea of something being live? I believe that it is due to technological change throughout our time. For example, a live broadcast is only half of what it states, it is only a broadcast that has many takes recorded beforehand. We cannot suggest that the definition of live is scripted or it will continue to build to a point where there is no such thing as a real live broadcast. In my paper I will be examining how there is no such thing as live television, due to the authenticity of the show, the false impression that they leave on viewers, and the fact that they are a business above everything else. Ultimately, these 3 factors leave a mark on all reality television series, whether it is real or fake. As an audience, we will never know.
Authentic, this word means a lot to our society. Authenticism is valued very highly. Everyone wants an authentic designer handbag not a knockoff one, or an authentic baseball card rather than a replica. But it seems that we’ve lost this authentic value in our television programming. Live news broadcast are not live, but instead, it is a few takes of someone reading off a Mak 2
Mak 2
teleprompter. This fake aura of live is also found in reality television shows as many of them are scripted, but because they are seen by the audience in what seems to be real time, it feels live. It seems as if technology, rather than people, are creating the effect of liveness seen on television. The claim that they are live is false. Mike Fleiss, the creator and executive of producer of “The Bachelor” has admitted that his reality show is not 100 percent...