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Blurring the Lines
Reality TV's fine line between objectivism and neglect
When the feature film The Truman Show came out in 1998, audiences were fascinated by its concept: A simple man (played by Jim Carrey) goes through his life believing that his wife, friends, family, and job are exactly what they appear to be — until he discovers that, since birth, he has been the star of an elaborate TV show where every element of his life has been a tightly-scripted plot and all of the people in it, including his wife, are hired talent.
By the time The Truman Show came out, reality TV was already firmly entrenched in American life. With COPS paving the way in 1989 and MTV's The Real World upping the ante in 1992, the genre was on the verge of a massive pop-culture explosion. At the time, issues of reality TV's moral turpitude were swallowed up by its novel, voyeuristic appeal.
But that's beginning to change. Though babies aren't being born to star in manipulated storylines yet, the idea doesn't seem so far-fetched anymore.
In a Monday New York Times story, reporter Jeremy W. Peters addressed some of the legal and ethical challenges presented by shows such as Intervention, which follows addicts and alcoholics from active addiction through the course of a planned intervention. The story focuses on the failure of many reality TV production crews to intervene when they see someone engaging in desperate or harmful behavior. The unspoken rule seems to be that of wildlife photographers: You are there to film the natural course of events, not to disrupt it.
By the time The Truman Show came out, reality TV was already firmly entrenched in American life. With COPS paving the way in 1989 and MTV's The Real World upping the ante in 1992, the genre was on the verge of a massive pop-culture explosion. At the time, issues of reality TV's moral turpitude were swallowed up by its novel, voyeuristic appeal.
But that's beginning to change. Though babies aren't being born to star in manipulated storylines yet, the idea doesn't seem so far-fetched anymore.
In a Monday New York Times story, reporter Jeremy W. Peters addressed some of the legal and ethical challenges presented by shows such as Intervention, which follows addicts and alcoholics from active addiction through the course of a planned intervention. The story focuses on the failure of many reality TV production crews to intervene when they see someone engaging in desperate or harmful behavior. The unspoken rule seems to be that of wildlife photographers: You are there to film the natural course of events, not to disrupt it.
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16:02 EDT, 11.Oct.07
12:29 EDT, 10.Oct.07