Stereotypes of reality show characters

Several adjectives can describe the majority of male characters on reality television shows. Vulgar, obnoxious, drunk, clowning, violent, whoring, and inconsiderate are several, but there is a new breed of reality television that is beginning to highlight males in a much different manner. Shows like Pawn Stars, Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory, and American Pickers are beginning to pop up on several networks and they attempt to show their male characters as intelligent, good-guy businessmen with positive intent.

Pawn Stars and American Pickers both air on the History channel, and though still considered “reality television,” they can hardly be uttered in the same sentence as Jersey Shore or The Real World. Pawn Stars is a show about a family owned pawn shop that does things the “right way” unlike most crooked pawn shops you’ll find on average street corners. Rick and his father own the shop, while Rick’s son Cory helps to manage it. They are not typical male reality show characters in that they showcase their extent of knowledge about the vast array of historical pieces that come into their shop and run a legitimate and successful business. American Pickers is about a couple high school buddies who go around the US looking for forgotten antiques stored away in rotting barns and storage sheds. They attempt to buy these items from the owners so they can sell them in their own shop. Again, they run a legitimate business and are very educated/knowledgeable. The characters in these shows seem to have something to offer the world while characters of some of the more popular reality shows come off as mostly mindless.

Rob Dyrdek, while vastly different from the characters in the previously mentioned shows, is another reality television show personality who doesn’t tend to follow along with all the stereotypical adjectives of most reality television males. He definitely has the carefree, “I want to have fun all the time” attitude, but he is also a successful businessman who goes out of his way to give back to the community. Most episodes of his show attempt to show this side of him, though not always. However, even if the businessman trait isn’t always highlighted, the show definitely rejects the typical stereotypes like the “obnoxious, drunk man whore.”

Reality television is seemingly everywhere now, and it is important to remember that it’s simply an umbrella term. Within the genre there are an endless amount of sub-categories that could be specifically identified. For that reason, the typical stereotypes of male, as well as female, reality television personalities need to be wiped clean because as shown by my examples above, they definitely do not apply to all.

Product Placement, Subliminal Advertising, and Subliminal Messages

Those tricky advertisers are always at it. Virtually every show we watch on television and every movie we see has some type of product placement, subliminal advertising, subliminal messaging, or combination of the three. Though they all sound somewhat similar, these three advertising strategies are all a little different.

Product placement: When brands pay to have their products or brands placed in scenes for the simple idea of exposure. The idea is that seeing a certain brand name will help achieve a sense of familiarity. Imagine soda was a new concept and no brand names existed. If you were to go to the movies and see characters always drinking a new type of drink called Coca Cola, what do you think you would do the next time you were in the drink section of the grocery? I would probably give it a try because I gained a sense of familiarity.

Subliminal advertising: This is when a product or label is somehow in a scene, but not necessarily a focal point or overly obvious. Seeing a Coke logo in a background of a scene is much more subliminal than seeing a character order one at a restaurant. The idea, though, is still to achieve familiarity even though it’s done in just a slightly different way. The hope is to trigger a response that encourages one to buy.

Subliminal messaging: This usually doesn’t send off an advertisement for a product, but rather a general idea or message. Many of today’s pop music videos have the subliminal message that “sexy” is important while brains take a back seat.

The point is, we are constantly targeted by advertisers who have the goal of making us buy into a certain brand, product, idea, message, etc. even if we are not consciously aware of what’s happening.

My New Haircut = Jersey Shore

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JMOh-cul6M

Just so everyone knows, the language in this video is very vulgar.

But while we’re on the topic of Jersey Shore…

During our conversation about the show, we mentioned some things that help fuel the stereotypes of the “guidos” we see on Jersey Shore. One of those that we mentioned, but never showed in class is the above link, “My New Haircut.” I’ll be honest, I don’t know where this video originated from or when it was made, but I know it was pre-Jersey Shore. It is amazing how closely related the two really are despite not being affiliated with each other in any way except the character that they embody. When I think of the people, specifically guys, on Jersey Shore, a few adjectives come to mind: Cocky, hot-headed, jock, man-whore, drunk, etc. When I watch the “My New Haircut” video, that character displays every one of those adjectives.

I remember the first time I ever saw an episode of Jersey Shore and I texted the friend that originally showed the “My New Haircut” video asking him if this was an extension of the video, a complete joke, etc. And considering the wide popularity the video had on YouTube alone, one has to wonder the connection, if at all. Did MTV see the success that is “My New Haircut” and see an opportunity to capitalize on a pop culture mockery? I do not think that’s out of the question, but nonetheless, television stations and other outlets do know seem to be able to target what our culture finds “entertaining” and that’s why we continue to see the same characters over and over again in so many different shows.

Is Jersey Shore really getting old?

(Oops, forgot to tag it. Sorry for the repeat!) http://tv.yahoo.com/blog/gym-tan-yawning-why-were-so-over-jersey-shore--2650 This is a pretty interesting article that fits right in with our class conversation from last week. We were arguing back and forth about what reality television really is. Is it really that entertaining? Is it even real enough to be called “reality”? Well this article addresses both of those questions, in a sense.

First of all, I think it’s interesting that just as we’re talking about how Jersey Shore is taking the reality television world by storm, this column shows up pointing out the show’s irrelevance. That got me thinking about the lifetime of reality shows. Jersey Shore is in (correct me if I’m wrong) its 3^rd season and possibly getting old, while shows like The Real World and Survivor are cruising through decades with high ratings. What separates the two? My guess is that Jersey Shore relies on the same characters season after season, while shows like Survivor and The Real World have a different cast each season.

That brings me to the next point: This show apparently is real enough to be considered reality. It’s the realism that’s making the show repetitive and boring. The link claims that the cast has been stuck inside so much because of their own fame. That’s real. The Ronnie/Sammi feuding is seemingly never ending. That’s real. True and not so exciting personalities are beginning to show through the false, exciting scripts and ultimately, the reality of the real world is beginning to take its toll on the show in a definitely negative manner.

Facebook Experiment

This post is a bit of a blast from the past, but nonetheless, here we go.

We were talking in class quite a while ago about how Facebook establishes legitimacy with what’s going on in people’s lives. People begin to rely on Facebook on Facebook profiles to figure out what’s going on in people’s lives. So I decided to try something out to test how powerful the medium really is.

I changed my relationship status to “in a relationship” for 24 hours and kept track of the types of responses I got. I’ll not that I only have about 300 “friends” on Facebook.

Comments: 12

People that “liked” it: 10

Texts/Phonecalls: 11

Personal message on facebook: 2

People that made reference in person: 3

People that talked to me about it on Facebook chat: 15

I was surprised that I had that many responses in a period of about 24 hours. And what surprised me even more was that so many people actually believed it was real, including some of my best friends I talk to at least a few times a week. Most of the responses via computer (comments, chat messages, etc.) were pretty simple. Examples are, “Congratulations, who is the lucky lady?” and “Yay!” but the responses I got through text messages and phone calls were much more personal and detailed. A couple of people were even mad at me for not telling them sooner!

In the end, I think what I did proved that Facebook is a powerful medium. I received 53 different responses about a completely bogus circumstance in a day’s time. Without that post, I probably would have only had contact with a handful of the people that responded over the course of the next week, and I would say that dozens of other people saw the status even if they didn’t comment on it or respond in any way.