Documentary Time...

Come see "Believing Without Seeing" produced by LEJJ.
When: Thursday, May 3rd
Where: McKelvey Campus Center (Mueller Theater)
Time: 12:45 to 2:00 p.m.
Witness the inspirational and uplifting story of a fellow Westminster student:)

(this event is free and open to the public)

What is TV really exposing us to?

For this assignment I watched a night of primetime television and learned quickly that the reality that TV is exposing us to is one that is not realistic at all. The first show I watched was Dancing with the Stars. Now I personally feel as though that this show is an attempt to sort of be like American Idol but on a different level. The stars that they find for this show are usually no longer popular anymore in the mainstream media. The second show I watched was an episode of the new Bachelor. For some reason I find this show so addicting although in the back of my mind I am saying that this show is not realistic at all. I mean, come on, can you really find the one you’re going to marry in a reality show. These women are put in this “fantasy” that when they come back to reality, is it really going to work out? Both of these shows combined took up the time slot of 8-11 p.m.
By taking a night to watch primetime television, it was easy to see that our world is controlled a lot by reality television. Reality TV has taken over much of regular television both in the daytime and at night also. Whenever you turn a TV on you can most likely be able to find some sort of reality TV program that is playing. Look at what MTV has become now. They used to be a station that only played music videos and things connected to music. Now the station is predominately reality TV shows and rarely ever any music.
The reality that we are exposed to on television is not an accurate depiction of the actual reality that we face in our lives. I mean, how many people do you know that are dancing with a star or finding the one that they want to marry on a television show? Our society has become fixated on the “reality” that is presented to us on these programs. So many people these days base their lives on the things that they see on TV, such as hairstyles and clothes. When most of the time these realities are not an accurate representation of our reality but rather ones of fantasy. For example, the Bachelor shows these girls going on lavish and fantasy like dates when in real life we all know that is not how it usually is on a date with a guy.
Baudrillard’s theory states that “the line between what is real and what the media dictates to us breaks down creating a hyper real world where it becomes difficult to distinguish between real and unreal”. Essentially, illusion has become reality. In watching a night of primetime television, it is clear to me that the situations or experiences in these TV programs are that of a hyper reality that our society believes is real. Society needs to realize that we cannot keep using the “realities” that we see on TV programs to base our lives off of.

Grey's Anatomy!!

My favorite t.v. show right now and has been for a while is Grey's Anatomy. I think alot of other people, girls in particular, would agree that this is a good show. The show originally was on on Sunday nights right after Desperate Housewives. This season the show moved to the Thursday night line-up at 9 pm. Since the move, the show has not suffered at all in ratings since the move. This goes to show that Grey's Anatomy has a group of loyal fans that will watch the show no matter what day and time it is on. Grey's is now up against CSI which airs on CBS during the 9 o'clock time slot also. It seems as though thus far that Grey's Anatomy is not having trouble competing agains CSI. The Nielsen Media Research website shows that for the week of March 19th, Grey's Anatomy was in third place behind the two nights of American Idol that is aired on FOX on Tuesday and Wednesday. Grey's has a 14.4 rating for this week. This means a household rating is the estimate of the size of a tv audience relative to that total universe, expressed as a percentage. As of September 26, 2005, there are an estimated 110.2 million television households in the U.S. A single national household ratings point represents 1% or 1,102,000 households. Grey's 14.4 rating is not too far behind American Idol's two ratings of 17.4 and 16.1. Grey's showed that it had 22.304 viewers for the week of March 19th. The viewers are measured in millions and includes all persons over the age of two. American Idol had viewers of 29.961 and 27.081. This means that Grey's Anatomy had roughly 22,304,000 viewers on Thursday night. The Zap2It website shows that ABC has been able to win the ratings war on Thursdays for the most part. Grey's Anatomy has been ruling the 9 o'clock spot pretty convincingly. So I guess it's safe to say that Grey's Anatomy has the ability to do well whether its on a Sunday night or a Thursday night. This show has loyal enough viewers that have given it the ability to stay atop of the ratings. For more information on Grey's Anatomy...go to ABC's website.