DOES REALITY TELEVISION AFFECT YOUTH SELF-IDENTITY AND THEIR VIEW OF

OTHERS? 1

Chapter 1: Introduction

In today’s present moment, the lives of youth everywhere are shaped

by a variety of texts and incessant media exposure. The lives that young

people lead are underscored by the media that they consume and the ways

in which they interact with it. According to Nielson, during the 2007-2008

television season, 77 percent of viewers who were watching the top ten

television programs were choosing to watch reality television shows (Nielson,

2011). Additionally, from 2000 to 2010, the number of reality television

shows on the air increased from 4 to 320 (Ocasio, 2012). That equates to a

mind-blowing 7900 percent increase in a matter of ten years. In spite of

these numbers, there are some who still choose to dismiss media and

electronic texts as simply harmless entertainment. However, there are

others who realize both the direct and indirect impact these texts have on

the lives, thinking and even well-being as international citizens of young

people. Because the world is saturated in this way, the need for a greater

understanding of media, as well as the deeper effects that media may be

having on young people, has never been more imperative. Unless educators

want to allow the media to continue to “control the ‘bewildered herd’,

meaning the U.S. citizenry, in a state of quasi-perpetual stupidification”

(Macedo, 2009, XXV), it is important to explore the ways in which youth

make meaning out of media and specifically, reality television.

Today’s preteens and teenagers interact with media on a daily, if not

hourly basis. The choices and types of media that they have at their
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fingertips are essentially endless, but many choose to watch reality

television shows with considerable regularity. According to Nielson Media

Research in 2006, during the 2005-2006 television season, 4 out of the top

10 programs popular with viewers under 17 were reality based television

shows. Additionally, Ouellette and Murray (2009) found that in 2003, one-

seventh of all programming on ABC was based in reality television. While the

types of reality shows that youth interact with are widely varied, the fact

remains that this form of media is something that occupies a large portion of

young people’s time and is, therefore, worthy of an in depth study. Reality

television has been studied by scholars such as Laurie Ouellette and Jennifer

Pozner; however, much of their work has been focused on the genre itself,

rather than on the possible effects that reality television shows may be

having on young people. Even when effects on audiences are studied, these

effects are often focused on adult viewers, rather than youth. This study

aims to change that, by focusing specifically on young viewers of reality

television. Preteen and teenage viewers, their interactions with and

responses to reality television are important to study when research shows

that numbers as high as 67 percent of preteens and 70 of teenagers are

watching at least one reality television show on a weekly basis (Harris

Interactive YouthQuery, 2006).

As Ouellette and Murray note in Reality TV: Remaking Television

Culture, it is difficult to argue with the concept that reality television has a

longevity and reach that many may have dismissed at first as a passing fad.
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What some critics may have thought at one time would be something that

would come and go out of fashion rather quickly has become a phenomenon

that reaches across the globe and covers an incredible number of topics.

Reality television is no longer a peculiarity, but rather a “widely recognized,

cultural form” (2009, p. 2). With this new cultural form has come debate and

discourse over what can and should be considered “real” along with issues

surrounding branding, commercialism, stereotyping, violence and many

other thought provoking and questionable interactions and portrayals. What

is interesting to note, however, regarding this debate and discourse is the

tendency that some viewers of reality television have to defend the shows

that they are choosing to watch. Randall Rose and Stacy Wood explained

this phenomenon when they explained that, “The popular aesthetic

empowers consumers of mass culture to defend the pleasure they obtain

from it” (2005, p. 286). This need to defend this pervasive cultural artifact

can make it difficult to gain a deeper understanding of how viewers perceive

and interact with reality television, as well as any lasting effects that these

shows may be having on them as a viewer. If one is choosing to defend his

or her shows and entertainment of choice, it may become difficult to engage

in deeper questioning and critique of the images, behaviors and

representations that are being viewed.

Ouellette and Murray argue” that The Real World trained a generation

of young viewers in the language of reality TV” (p. 5). While this show may

have served as a starting point, reality television is a far different animal now
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than it was when The Real World first debuted. When reality television first

became prominent, viewers were watching The Real World on MTV. During

this first major venture into reality television programming in 1992,

audiences were experiencing something new, something that had rarely - if

ever - been done before. While this was provocative in many ways, it may

perceived as quite mundane to today’s viewers. Over 20 years ago, this was

one of the few choices in terms of watching reality television. Instead,

today’s audiences can choose from over 300 of these types of shows.

Reality television shows range from cooking shows to home makeover shows

to physical and mental competitions to dating shows to portrayals of families

and everything in between. Many reality shows involve constant conflict,

violence, stereotyped portrayals of race, gender and ethnicity and strong

sexual situations. Because of this, these shows aid in perpetuating the

society that Henry Giroux describes as being “rooted in a neoliberal market-

driven society that numbs many people just as it wipes out the creative

faculties of imagination, memory and critical thought” (2011, p. 4). This

critical thought that Giroux is vocal about the general public losing touch

with is the very faculty that viewers need to employ while watching these

shows and interacting with entertainment that is being described as “real

life”. With such an incredible number of reality shows to choose from, the

depictions of people’s lives that are playing out for the entire world to see,

and the potential societal impact that reality television shows hold, it
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becomes important to work to understand the effects that reality television

may be having on viewers, and specifically, young viewers.

When one tunes into a reality television program, he or she is making

the conscious choice to tune into something that is being advertised as a

glimpse into the real life of a person or group of people. These claims to

authenticity may be met with differing levels of skepticism, based on the

viewer, but the fact remains that the promise exists of “real life” being

played out for all to see. To a young viewer, or one untrained in the ways of

critical thinking, this promise may be taken at face value. This is troubling,

when one thinks of the ways in which certain lives are documented, edited

and manipulated, all before their “real lives” make it on the air. As Ouellette

and Murray explain

So while the promise of the real is what might hook audiences from the
outset, the ways in which authenticity is promised by producers and
received or questioned by audiences is a complex interplay of a variety of
factors . . .

p. 6

This concept of authenticity was also studied by Kim Allen and Heather

Mendick (2012), when they investigated the complex interactions between

social class, young people and authenticity in reality television. The authors

found that young people work to negotiate meaning and connections with

the participants that they are viewing. Additionally, young people work to

make sense of particular class positions while viewing reality television

shows and that young people spend their time while watching reality
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television searching for someone who is being ‘real’. This search for a “real

self” being played out on television or a quest to make a connection to what

may or may not be a genuine personality speaks to the very real effects that

young people are feeling when viewing reality television. Therefore, Allen

and Mendick’s work illustrates that there is much to be explored in terms of

young people and their interactions with reality television; thus, these factors

are worthy of greater study and will be explored here, along with the effects

that these shows may by having on their preteen and teenage viewers.

In spite of the fact that youth make up a large portion of the viewers of

reality television programs, their involvement in this cultural phenomenon

has not been explored in great detail. Additionally, youth studies as a whole

is an area of study that still struggles to be both recognized and valued.

Awad Ibrahim (2014) explains that there is a lack of information,

understanding, and even manipulation that exists when it comes to the ways

in which scholars both study and understand youth. This misconception is a

crucial part of the reason why I feel the need to study teens and preteens

and their experiences with media. Ibrahim explains the ways in which critical

youth scholars understand youth identity as an incredibly complex notion

and he urges his readers to not just view youth as a concept, but to really

work to understand the complexities of youth and youth studies. This is

what I aim to do when working to understand the effects that reality

television may be having on the ways in which young people work to form

their identities as well as the ways in which they view others.

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When considering the research problem, it was important to focus on a

specific aspect of youth culture. While youth studies is an area that is both

intriguing and, I would argue, underdeveloped, there exists far too broad a

scope of study if I were to explore the effects of media usage or even

television viewing on young people. Instead, I chose to narrow the research

problem to one particular genre of television and one that I knew young

people are spending their time with. Additionally, this particular genre of

television programming is one that both scholars and critics find

questionable and intriguing, so it appeared to me that something that is so

pervasive, yet raises so many eyebrows, was worthy of greater exploration.

Today’s preteens and teenagers have spent their developmental years

immersed in a time when the world has gone digital – everything is at their

fingertips and nearly anything can be found by simply staring at a screen.

Because one of these screens is sending out messages that some may find

questionable, or even toxic, the problem of how reality television may be

affecting young people grew and developed. Additionally, when young

people have grown up in a culture of rampant neoliberalism and an

educational system that often does not value or teach critical thought,

respectful debate or even compassion for others, the combination of reality

television viewing and shifting societal dynamics becomes that much more

intriguing.

Societal impacts are particularly worth exploring when discussing

reality television, as both Pozner, as well as Allen and Mendick noted that the
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idea of working class or middle class populations are largely unseen in reality

television programming. While Allen and Mendick noted that working class

people are often pushed towards middle class values and thus deemed as

inauthentic by viewers, Pozner noted that those who are middle class are

often portrayed as having more than they do or even living in homes that are

not their own, solely for the purposes of appearances and storytelling on the

shows. This disappearance of working and middle class populations on

reality television shows mirrors the state of society today and does nothing

to further the discourse around the societal ills and structural inequities that

are working to push so very many people out of a comfortable or even

tolerable lifestyle. When preteens and teenagers view hours of this type of

programming weekly, their view of the world around them can potentially

become quite narrow. Additionally, preteen and teenage viewers may

develop a skewed notion of the difficulties that exist for many families that

may be just like their own. If a young viewer comes from a struggling family,

but never sees his or her type of family situation depicted in “real life”

programming, what kind of message is that sending to the viewer? And what

kind of effect might that have on the self-worth or self-impression of the

impressionable teenager? This type of influence on young people can have

devastating effects as they move forward with their own lives, education and

work choices if not mediated by some type of critical questioning or

dialogue.
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The question of influence is something that has been discussed in

regards to young people for as long as young people have been around. I

would argue that every generation worries about the one that comes after

them and the people, ideas, messages and texts that may be influencing

them. This particular generation faces an entirely new set of digital

situations and thus, an entirely new set of potential influences. Thus, by

exploring the research problem of how reality television may be affecting

youth self-identity and their views on others, an idea that has not yet been

explored deeply can come to life and take shape.

As stated above, the reach of reality television can no longer be

denied. Not only do the types of programs that are now considered to be

reality television wildly varied, but the areas of life on which there may be

some effect are far reaching. There have been a number of shows over the

years that have had commercial or industrial contexts. These shows take

viewers inside businesses and performances and work to give context to

areas of life that the general public may not be familiar with. In addition to

industry, the personal spaces that reality television explores are endless.

What often happens in these industry or commercial shows is an introduction

to characters that are often shown to be down on their luck, waiting for their

next big break or promotion, or even just trying to make ends meet. Through

editing and production, the sad tale is often one of personal choice and

responsibility that has led this poor character to be hanging all of his or her

hopes on this one particular chance. Often there is a gatekeeper of some

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sort, waiting to decide or dictate how this sad tale will end. The element of

power and control is huge in these types of shows, along with the continued

perpetuation of neoliberal concepts of individualism, choice and fault, rather

than societal ills and structural inequalities. Because of this framing of

people, business, industry and competition, these types of shows bring

viewers into the private lives of a many different types of people and work to

situate gender, race, class, and sexuality in a variety of ways. Shows that

explore both personal lives as well as industry work to perpetuate different

elements and concepts of culture and power and the dynamics that surround

the two. In all of these instances, there is an interactivity between viewers

and the program. This level of interactivity is important to understanding

reality television’s effects on viewers.

While exploring this question of reality television and its effect on

young people, it is of the utmost importance to situate media and reality

television in our current social, political and economic times. In the era of

neoliberalism, when, as Chris Hedges explains, “A nation that destroys its

systems of education, degrades its public information, guts its public libraries

and turns its airwaves into vehicles for cheap, mindless amusement becomes

deaf, dumb and blind,” (Hedges, cited in Lea, 2011, p. 132) young people

and their education (both formal and informal), their media and their overall

life experiences are all being shaped by the neoliberal policies and practices

that now are taking over the public spaces. Because this is the world that

students and their families are living in, there is very little thought or critical
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questioning regarding the different policies and influences that are shaping

the lives of young people every day. Because reality television shows sell

their products as real life playing out before the cameras, we may see the

dire straits that people are living in, but not the entire lifetime that played

out beforehand and led up to the point in time that is being televised. We

see people and families struggling or made into comic relief on one channel

and then can quickly switch over and watch celebrities overindulge and live

lives that 99% of the rest of the world will never understand or take part in.

These shows illustrate the neoliberal condition, but young viewers do not

have the tools or even the forum to negotiate what any of it means, other

than the fact that it is something to watch. Sadly, without any discussion

around the current state of society, the policies that impact our lives and the

lives of the reality characters that are being viewed, young people are left to

simply wonder or ignore the messages that are playing out in front of them.

The policies and influences surrounding today’s youth are what Shirley

Steinberg would describe as “a bewildering new world of contradictory

influences, profound crises of the old and tumultuous birth of the new”

(2014, xii). When young people are living in ‘profound crises’, educators and

scholars need to take it upon themselves to help them examine these

policies and influences and give them a space that is “grounded in social

justice which recognizes and respects youth” (xiii). Youth studies is a field in

which far more voices need to be heard and in which far more people must

be willing to make the statement that young people are important and that
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power holders are doing them a disservice by not helping them make sense

of the technological, political, social and cultural world around them. By

working to study reality television and the potential implications that these

shows hold on the ways in which young people are working to construct their

own identities and understand other people, the importance of young people

and the difficulties that they are facing due to different policies and

influences can come to light.

It is important to note here what Douglas Kellner explained in “Toward

a Critical Theory of Youth”, namely that today’s young people are growing up

in increasingly unstable times. They are surrounded by endless pressure via

high stakes testing, incessant social media and networking, the decline of

the welfare state and different programs that may have once helped their

families to live in a way that at least kept them fed and clothed. Kellner

writes that they are the first

Cybergeneration, the first group enculturated into media and computer

culture from the beginning, playing computer and video games, accessing a
wealth of TV channels, plugging into the Internet, and creating communities,
social relations, artifacts, and identities in an entirely original cultural
space.

2014, p. 9

All of these factors and the ways in which media culture is pervasive have

created a culture for today’s youth that has never existed before our current

place in history. It would be unwise and potentially harmful to not work to

understand this new culture, as well as the issues faced by preteens and

teenagers due to the media and reality television shows that they consume
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and interact with daily. Media, and namely mainstream media, often work to

marginalize young people while spreading the dominant discourse and

hegemonic ideas and this study will work to understand how all of these

issues factor into the lived experiences that young people are having.

When one considers the neoliberal policies and practices that now

define the world, the idea that all people are valuable for their ability to

consume is always at the forefront. With that in mind, there are scholars and

advertisers who have looked into the connection between teen and pre-teen

audiences and the appeal and influence of reality television. In one study,

published in 2011, Patino, Kaltcheva and Smith studied the idea of

“connectedness” and looked into specific ways to help advertisers better

market their products based on the demographics of viewers of the most

popular reality television shows. Troublingly, the researchers were basing

their study on the idea that reality television programs influence the buying

power of young people, which has been estimated at more than $20 billion

per year. Rather than examining the message that reality television may be

sending or exploring how this idea of “connectedness” is affecting viewers,

these researchers instead focused on the market that is reality television and

the potential benefits for advertisers. Their conclusion states,

The authors’ research allows advertisers to bolster the effectiveness of

product placements and brand integration. By knowing the values of the
preteen and teen viewers who are most likely to watch a certain program,
advertisers will be able to target products that appeal to those values.
Television networks also can employ both the shows and the reality
celebrities as forms of branded entertainment.
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(p. 294)

With the writing and publication of this type of research, it becomes clear

that the ability of youth to purchase and consume is at the forefront of

advertisers and marketers plans. Additionally, this research makes clear that

the influence and power of both celebrities, pseudo-celebrities and the shows

that they inhabit is one that is real and thriving and must be explored. This

focus on buying power, on the individual and the choices that they make

regarding the programming they interact with and on the commodification of

both people and entertainment, coupled with a lack of criticality and a true

sense of media literacy illustrate the hold that neoliberal policies currently

have on society.

Neoliberal ideals and a constant focus on buying power work well in

the realm of reality television, as there is also the ever present notion of

brand placement and hyperconsumerism in reality television programming.

As Anuska Wolfman found in her research on young consumers, “Children

today are growing up in an adult world of consumerism and by the age of

three or four are able to have brand preferences” (2005, p. 60). If this is true

of three and four year olds, one can only imagine the ways in which branding

has taken its toll on children a decade older. In many reality television

shows, products are deliberately woven into the staging and setting, such as

the Pepsi products present on the judges table on American Idol or the labels

that women are wearing on any of the Real Housewives series. There are
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also other shows such as Extreme Home Makeover that show products being

purchased at Sears. Still other shows, such as the wildly popular Duck

Dynasty are completely built around product placement, as the show is

focused on the family who makes specific duck calls. With all of these

products so blatantly displayed and obviously woven into many reality

television shows and the number of young viewers who spend hours with

these shows, one must question the ways in which this incessant preying on

their ability as consumers is affecting the ways in which they view

themselves and their own worth. After all, if a teenager loves a specific show

focused around young people, but cannot afford to buy any of the designer

labels that the characters are seen in, isn’t it possible that this may present

some difficulty for the teenager in question?

This focus on consumption and buying power is just one of the ideas

foundational to the neoliberal policies and practices that touch every part of

the lives of young people. In addition to these policies, one must consider

two of the biggest socializing agents, schooling and media. Lawrence

Grossberg says that we should “not deny that (we) are often duped by

culture” (cited in Lea, pg. 146). Everything that young people (and even

adults) hear in the media, all of the hegemonic discourse, myths that are

passed down and even school curricula act as socializing agents that help

them to interpret the world in which they live. This act of interpretation for

teenagers comes at an immensely difficult time, when the media is working

to
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Cultivate a fear and suspicion toward all those others – immigrants,

refugees, Muslims, youth, minorities of class and color, the unemployed,
the disabled, and the elderly — who, in the absence of dense social
networks and social supports, fall prey to unprecedented levels of displaced
resentment from the media, public scorn for their vulnerability, and
increased criminalization because social protections are considered too
costly, thus rendering these groups both dangerous and unfit for
integration into American society.

Giroux, 2011,
p.36

When this culture of fear and cruelty is what is being disseminated in the

media and when society is so deeply immersed in neoliberal policies and

practices, there is developing a very different world for youth to interpret.

And while young people are working daily to make sense of who they

are and what the world around them means, they may not even realize that

the concepts of suspicion and surveillance, both so foundational to

neoliberalism, are the nature of the world that they are living in. Young

people have spent their entire lives immersed in a digital world, where there

are cameras on street corners, in schools, in elevators, possibly even in their

own homes. These children have grown up in front of a camera and have

rarely known a telephone that could not do anything that they need it to do,

including capture and share any private or public moment that they would

like to share, much like their favorite reality star. Because of this, the

concept of having their own lives constantly documented on film does not

seem to be a questionable practice. Nor does viewing all aspects of the lives

of others.
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This private surveillance of the general population is something that

reality television has helped normalize. Not only have today’s preteens and

teenagers grown up in a world of constant surveillance, but it is something

that I would argue often goes unquestioned, mainly because it is normal and

even welcomed in the everyday lives of young people. As Ouellette and

Murray explain

We are also encouraged to participate in self-surveillance. Part of what

reality TV teaches us in the early years of the new millennium is that in
order to be good citizens we must allow ourselves to be watched as we
watch ourselves and those around us, and then modify our conduct and
behavior accordingly.

p. 9

By growing up in an age where the number of reality television shows has

grown exponentially, as has technology, social media and the means with

which we have to film both ourselves and others, disrupting the constant

surveillance that our lives are steeped in may not seem to be something

worth doing. After all, if so many people seem so willing to open their lives

to cameras and production crews, what could possibly be wrong with that?

Not only does this surveillance go unquestioned, but it is often welcomed by

young people.

This desire to constantly be under a type of surveillance and the

incessant sharing of private thoughts, photos and moments speaks to the

appeal of reality television, as well Zygmunt Bauman’s liquid modernity.

Bauman describes our world as one in which there has been an effacing of

the public and private spaces and where nothing is held to be sacred,
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private, meaningful or secret anymore. Bauman writes, “The realms of the

“private” and the “public” tend to be on war footing, and so do the laws and

norms of decency that are binding inside those realms. For each of the two

realms, the act of self-definition and self-assertion is performed in opposition

to the other realm” (2011, p. 22). This idea then, of self-definition in a world

where the public and private are at war, is critical to understanding the

relationship that exists between preteens and teenagers and reality

television.

In Bauman’s liquid modern era, relationships are fragile and fleeting, at

best. Instead of working to cultivate long-lasting relationships and maintain

a sense of community and connection, people are instead focused on

constantly moving on to the “next best thing” and always working to move

forward and keep going, so that no relationship ever takes shape, but instead

is always liquid and not fully formed. This focus on the new, the next, the

latest, has resulted in a world where there is very little meaning-making and

critical thought and instead an endless series of distractions. Reality

television serves as one of these distractions. If we can focus on the various

disasters, competitions, turmoils and comedies that make up other people’s

lives, then it makes is much easier to stay distant and removed from our own

lives and not be concerned with what may be happening to our private

spaces.
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The idea of private spaces is again, one that is not totally familiar to

teens and preteens. One look at social media would prove that. Many

people – both young and old -- have no problem documenting every detail of

their lives in both images and words for all to see. This blurred line between

what is public and what is private is something that has always been a part

of the lives of those who are now preteens and teenagers and so it may be a

daily occurrence that does not even warrant thought anymore. There seems

to be no question as to the need for secrecy, or as Bauman describes it,

“privacy, individuality, autonomy, self-definition, and self-assertion” (2011, p.

24). Without this privacy or secrecy, we must question what is happening to

our ability to make sense of who we are or who we want to be. Without any

semblance of a private life or any tangible division between what is private

and what is public, the private lives that are shared publicly on reality

television can potentially be having a very real effect on the identities and

viewpoints of the young people who are watching them. Because there is no

discernible line anymore between public and private spaces, teenagers may

very well be viewing reality television as real life and may be looking to

model themselves, their lives and even their perspectives of others on the

lives that they are watching on television.

What is interesting then is this willingness to make private lives so

public. Again, one look at the current political, economic and cultural

landscape shows a world that is often obsessed with celebrity culture, or as

Giroux would describe it, “a debased and debasing celebrity culture” (2011,
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p.51) This preoccupation with celebrity culture not only illustrates the failing

faculty of critical thought, but also the desire to become a celebrity oneself.

This is often the basis for interest in reality television shows. In a time when

many people are just looking to become famous or trade in their fifteen

minutes of fame, reality television shows may seem like the perfect avenue,

as there is no talent requirement, no prior experience needed – just the

willingness to put one’s entire life on display for the world to see. Bauman

makes clear this idea of celebrity and its connection to liquid modernity when

he writes, “We seem to experience no joy in having secrets, unless these are

the kind of secrets likely to enhance our egos through attracting the

attention of researchers and editors of television talk-shows, tabloid first

pages, and the covers of glossy magazines” (2011, p. 25). Instead of secrets

or intrigue, people instead aim for attention and pseudo-celebrity. This

dream of becoming famous or being recognized on the street by perfect

strangers is one that is appealing to some young people and that may play a

role in the programs that they both watch and interact with.

The troubling part, however, involved with seeking instant celebrity on

reality television shows is the cost that comes with it. In Bauman’s liquid

modernity, because of our constant consumption, because of our endless

quest for new or better or different, because there is no difference between

creation and destruction, these same ideas have come to apply to people as

well. In liquid modernity, not only are things disposable, but people are as

well and reality television shows illustrate this concept beautifully. From
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competition shows that dismiss the winner to dating shows where one lover

is always jilted, reality television programming plays out the culture of

disposability to far too perfect of a way. Bauman explains, “All these shows

are public rehearsals of disposal: the disposability of humans and things”

(2007, p. 123). There are no longer lasting bonds between human beings,

relationships that are cultivated and grow; instead there are shows where

people willingly put their entire lives on display, in hopes of catching that

next big paycheck, at the expense of anyone that can be disposed of, should

they get in the way. This playing out of disposability for all to see is a very

real issue and one that should be explored in terms of how young people

perceive and make sense of it.

The purpose of this study then is to critically analyze the ways in which

youth interact with media and how the images and lifestyles that are

portrayed on reality television may be affecting the manner in which youth

shape their identities and view others as well. Because adolescence is a

time of self-discovery and identity formation, there is much to be discovered

in terms of how the viewing of reality television may be playing a role in this

process. Shirley Steinberg (2009) makes clear that media affects all of us,

for better or worse and my goal with this study is to gain a clearer

understanding of those effects on young people and their identities, as well

as their perspectives on others.

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The importance of this study is paramount to understanding the ways

in which young people are relating to others and making meaning out of the

constant media messages that consume their daily lives. By gaining a

greater understanding of the effects that reality television has on young

people, scholars can continue to develop tools based in critical media

literacy that may act to arm youth with the critical thinking skills that they

need, in order to make sense of the message at the site of consumption and

analyze how certain television shows may be affecting the views that they

hold of both themselves and others. Additionally, by acquiring a clearer

understanding of how youth interact with and process reality television,

educators can gain the knowledge that might better allow young people to

engage with social realities and the knowledge that will serve to both help

them deconstruct their own lives, as well as enrich the lives of others.

Because reality television shows often present certain races, ethnic

groups or socioeconomic groups in a particular light, the power that these

shows have in molding the opinions of young people about those who have a

different background than their own is unprecedented. By examining these

issues in this study, it gives those who interact with children on a daily basis

a starting point for the critical discussion that is necessary in dissecting the

hegemonic messages and stereotypical views that are presented to young

people via reality television. These stereotypes and different views are

troubling when one views them through the lens of ‘reality television’.

Because these television shows are presented in a way that purports to

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simply be real life caught on tape, the only things that viewers – both young

and old alike -- may know of certain segments of the population come from

the stereotyped representations presented on reality television. This study

will provide a critical look at the effects that these presentations may be

having on young people and the greater implications for what these

messages may mean in terms of identity development. As a target audience

for many of these shows, youth need to understand these implications.

Because teenagers make up a large portion of the audience of these shows,

they have the ability to work with media and different texts in ways that

work to challenge and analyze the dominant discourse; or they can sit back

idly and allow themselves to be entertained, while blindly taking in dominant

ideologies and thus, reproducing them over and over. As an educator, I want

youth in the future to take a more active role in questioning the dominant

discourse.

A large part of being able to question the dominant discourse comes

from being educated in the subject of critical media literacy and its practices.

Unfortunately, critical media literacy is not something that youth are being

educated on in traditional schooling. Youth are constantly interacting with

texts of all varieties and many are doing so without the critical literacy skills

needed in order to make sense of them. Some scholars, such as Giroux,

would argue that this lack of critical media literacy skills is deliberate, as a

means to keep the general public in a state that leaves them unable to

question and critique the messages that are being disseminated by

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mainstream media. Others would argue that – deliberate or not – critical

media literacy skills are an imperative for today’s youth. Douglas Kellner

acknowledges that critical media literacy holds the ability to empower young

people as they learn to question, critique, resist and argue with the world

presented to them.

When studying reality television and its effects, the link between this

form of programming and the need for critical media literacy becomes that

much more apparent. When reality television is accounting for nearly 40% of

popular programming and nearly three-fourths of the teenaged population

are active viewers, it becomes irresponsible to not look at how to better

educate the population on how to analyze and better understand the ways in

which media presents gender, race, class and sexuality. Additionally, when

concepts of gender, race, class and sexuality are presented in a time where

human bonds seem nonexistent and human beings are being treated as

disposable, the need for a means to make sense of these presentations

becomes that much more important.

Because I am completely dedicated to hearing the youth voice and

offering a platform on which youth can stand and be heard and recognized, I

was adamant that this study be told through the voices of young people who

are interacting directly with reality television shows. I wanted young people,

specifically those aged 12 to 14-years-old, to be able to express their

knowledge and opinions of reality television shows in their own words and in
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OTHERS? 25

their own way. As Awad Ibrahim wrote, “No one is more of an expert on their

lives than young people themselves” (2014, xix). As a means of gleaning

some of this expertise and accomplishing the task of getting young voices

heard, the methodology for this dissertation is a critical qualitative case

study. Because the focus of this study is a contemporary phenomenon

(reality television) and because the main research question presented in this

study is, “how is reality television affecting how youth self-identify?” this

approach, along with Phil Carspecken’s (1996) methods of data analysis and

interpretation, will aid in my exploration of social issues and human

phenomena. Critical qualitative research allows me to explore aspects of

youth identity and their relationship to reality television in a way that

quantitative research does not allow. Additionally, because there is an

element of power in terms of the relationship between media and those who

interact with it in various ways, taking a critical qualitative approach will lend

itself well to examining the deeper layers of reality television and the

potential effects that it is having on young people. I view this work as that of

a critical scholar because, as Phil Carspecken writes, “Criticalists find

contemporary society to be unfair, unequal, and both subtly and overtly

oppressive for many people. We do not like it, and we want to change it”

(1996, p.7). By employing a critical case study methodology, I hope to

understand the thought processes of young people and the ways in which

they are mediated by different power structures and relationships.

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The case study model of inquiry is being used as the methodology for

this study as a way to work to understand the interactions between youth

and reality television. Case studies allow the investigator to focus on a case

within its specific context. Or, as Yin (2014) explains, a case study is

An empirical inquiry that: (1) investigates a contemporary

phenomenon (the ‘case’) in depth and within it real world context,
especially when (2) the boundaries between phenomenon and context
may not be clearly evident (p. 16)

Because reality television has become such a far-reaching phenomenon and

because the lives of youth are so delicately intertwined with this type of

programming, critical case study provides me the means by which I can

collect data in order to observe themes and then work to gain a much more

nuanced understanding of the complexity of this relationship. Each

individual will be considered as a single case, with the sum of the design

being a multiple-case study that will embrace all seven of the participants.

While every effort was made to work with a diverse group of students

and a large enough number of students, a limitation to this study would be

the small number of participants. With a sample size of 7 participants, the

result is a limited amount of data with which to work. Additionally, when

beginning research for this study, it because clear that the amount of

literature available based specifically around youth identity and reality

television was relatively small. While there is a great deal of scholarship

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OTHERS? 27

based on reality television shows and media influence, there is not much

specifically focused on how identity may be affected by reality television.

The lack of scholarship around this topic speaks to the significance of

this research to theory, practice and policy. By gaining a clearer

understanding of how reality television may be affecting youth identity

formation, as well as their viewpoints on others, educators and scholars can

work together to help prepare young people to make better sense of their

world; to understand and critique media in a thoughtful way and to develop a

more international world view. If more educators, young people and parents

are informed in the ways that media works in relation to present economic,

social and political contexts, then there is the possibility that consumers of

media will make more conscious choices and be more vocal about the types

of programming that are aired.