OR they see the scripted cycles of 'normal behavior' of sitcoms of which Reality is a descendent.
Reality TV is the fulfillment of decades of programming in repetition of stock-situations and their subsequent canned responses and their predetermined resolutions.
Klosterman innocently analyzed this phenomena in Sex Drugs & Coco Puffs in his Saved By The Bell chapter when he observed, 'it's as if the viewers wrote the script.' To paraphrase another of his points: nothing was learned or truthfully discussed in any episode. Only what had been predetermined as acceptable narrative parameters within the history of sitcoms was presented.
People behaving badly has become an entertainment standard. Look at the evolution from Homer Simpson, Seinfeld, South Park, Family Guy, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, etc. Reality TV (The Real World, Survivor, American Idol, Punk'd, The Simple Life, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Jersey Shore, etc) further established sociopathy as a social norm and a vital prerequisite for fame.
But you're ignoring the escapist nature of entertainment. No one really wants to watch shows about ordinary people. Reality TV allows people to imagine living in their own TV show. You can argue that it's proletariat, but you cannot delegitimize it's entertainment value. Art and Entertainment unfortunately are very different, often but not always removed from each other.
I'm not ignoring the entertainment factor, for the majority of the shows I listed I have clearly viewed beyond 'research' motives.
The problem is that Reality becomes an Orwellian inversion. Those who study Documentary are quickly confronted with the conflict between truth/reality and artifice of the cinematic form. All of the 'fathers of documentary' staged their narratives. There are vast untruths rampant in the archives of Documentary and equally in News Media since its origin. It's becoming increasingly difficult to determine 'the real' amongst the ocean of media that claims to be presenting 'truth'.
The problem is that Reality becomes an Orwellian inversion. Those who study Documentary are quickly confronted with the conflict between truth/reality and artifice of the cinematic form. All of the 'fathers of documentary' staged their narratives. There are vast untruths rampant in the archives of Documentary and equally in News Media since its origin. It's becoming increasingly difficult to determine 'the real' amongst the ocean of media that claims to be presenting 'truth'.
I'm the last one to bury the nature of escapist entertainment. Entertainment is the most effective means of manipulation. To play even further with the line of fiction and reality as Reality TV does by its doublespeak namesake is very dangerous because the sad fact is that the overwhelming majority of viewers are not media-literate. They don't see the edits, don't hear the overdubbing, the construction of 'events' from multiple days/months/YEARS worth of footage. All documentarians do some form of this, as do all News media.
The nature of the products that you are entertained by is immensely important, because it's what's filling your brain when you 'turn your brain off'.
Narratives are very different from reality, but narratives are the tool in which we shape our reality. Narratives are one of the most powerful weapons in all of recorded history.
I've always argued that Reality TV is equally as fake as fiction. If viewers were interested in watching 'real people', broadcast television is one of the worst places to look. So is the abyss of Entertainment media.
