Reality TV: How does it affect perceptions of the real world

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Reality TVHow does it affect perceptions of
the real world?

• By Bola Ogunlade, Kesso Diallo, Melissa Francis,
  and Austin Wright

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Introduction

• How does the viewing of reality television
  programming affect viewers beliefs about love,
  sex and marriage in the real world?
  
• Reality TV is an extremely popular,but new,
  phenomenon its effects on viewers are unknown
  (have not been studied).
  
• Idea for study originated from studies of soap
  opera viewers Cultivation Theory (p77, chapter 6
  Fundamentals of Media Effects)
  
• Research Question For UNC-CH students,
  controlling for gender, what is the relationship
  between the viewing of reality television
  programs and perceptions of love, sex and
  marriage in the real world?

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Cultivation
Initiated by George Gerbner who investigated the
cultivation effect Cultivation Hypothesis Pr
oposes that over time, heavy viewers of
television develop views of the world similar to
what they see on television Has four assumptions
1. Messages are relatively uniform. 2. Viewin
g of television is non-selective.
3. Television viewing is habitual. 4. The tel
evision and its viewers interact.
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Key Concepts of Cultivation
Television is the great storyteller of our age.
Resonance Real-world events support the distort
ed image of reality shown on television.
Mainstreaming Heavy television viewers absorb d
ominant attitudes and beliefs that are presented
repetitively on television.
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Theoretical Bases for Cultivation
Television has become the most common and
constant learning environment. It both mirrors
and leads society. Symbolic interaction Cognit
ive Paradigm-Heuristic Model of Cultivation
Learning and Construction The viewer constructs
an outlook regarding the real world based upon
what has been learned from television watching.

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Hypothesis
The Cultivation Indicators Project Gerbner,
1967 Mean World Syndrome The Cultivation Hypot
hesis H1 Heavy viewers of reality television a
re expected to have views of love, sex, and
marriage that are in line with those which are
portrayed on reality programs.
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Method
Gave surveys to UNC undergraduate students
100 students surveyed (50 males and 50 females)
Surveys included a sundry of questions that dealt
with issues addressed on many reality programs
Measured topics such as fidelity/dating/physical
appearance/morality/views on sexuality
Wanted to see if the participants views/beliefs
about love, sex and marriage were affected by the
amount of reality television that they watched
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The Results
The p-value Results are significant when the
p-value is below .05 The following relationship
s had a p-value below .05
(P-value
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The more hours of reality shows watched and.
the level of interest in participating in a
reality show the stronger the belief that true lo
ve is possible in reality show situations
the weaker the belief that too much nudity and
sex is shown on television the higher the predict
ed percentage of marriages that end in divorce
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The more hours of reality shows watched and
the higher the predicted percentage of college s
tudents that are sexually active
The higher the predicted percentage of college
students that have sex with someone they have met
for the first time the greater the number of sexu
al partners participants feel it is
normal/acceptable to have at one time
the more important physical attractiveness is to
choosing a mate for participants
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The more hours of reality shows watched and
the more participants believe that infidelity is
acceptable the less participants consider family
approval when choosing a mate
the more romantic participants are (i.e.,
believe in a soul mate, love at first sight)
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Males Versus Females
The survey was administered to 50 males and 50
females to assess gender influences.
After an analysis on gender differences, we found
that gender also plays a role in some aspects of
a persons perception of love, sex and marriage
in the real world.
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Males Versus Females
Male are more likely to participate in a reality
show. More females considered STD protection and
birth control to be important.
Females believe that a higher percentage of
marriages end in divorce then men.
Females believe that relationships last longer.
Males showed greater approval of more than one
sexual partner at one time. Females relied more
on family approval when choosing a mate.
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discussion

• Heavy Viewers of Reality TV
• Believe that physical attractiveness is highly
  important in finding a mate
  
• Have a pessimistic outlook on relationships and
  marriage (perceptions of high infidelity, high
  divorce rates), but
  
• Are more romantic (believe in a soul mate, love
  at first sight)
  
• Have fewer sexual inhibitions (have several
  partners, more likely to cheat on a partner, open
  to sex/nudity on TV, overestimate the number of
  sexually active college students, etc)
• Place little importance on family approval of a
  mate
  

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Theoretical implications

• Supports Gerbners Cultivation TheoryHeavy TV
  viewers develop views of the world similar to
  what they see on TV
  
• Demonstrates the changes in values and attitudes
  in response to repeated exposure to sexual
  materials Viewers are desensitized, more
  accepting to pre- and extramarital sex, have less
  desire for monogamy, etc.
• Demonstrates Social Construction of
  RealitySimilar to Cultivation Theory believe
  reality is like that portrayed on TV
  

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practical implications

• If the Reality TV trend continues, it could have
  widespread effects on viewers (esp.teenagers,
  college age youth) many of these effects will be
  negative.
• Repeated exposure to Reality TV with high sexual
  content (esp. Real World) could have high social
  costs (more sexually active youth higher rates
  of teen pregnancies, STDs).
• Parents of younger children should limit their
  viewing of Reality TV.
  
• Media practitioners should do much more extensive
  research on the effects of Reality TV suggest
  ways to counter these effects.
  

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Limitations Suggestions

• Limitations of
• our study
• Only surveyed college students (does not include
  one of the highest Reality TV viewer populations
  high school students)
  
• Not enough data to account for viewer perception
  differences between each show.
  
• Does not examine perception differences between
  races.
  

• Suggestions for future research
• Examine the differences in perceptions among
  viewers of each different reality program (I.e,
  are viewers of The Bachelor more romantic than
  viewers of The Real World?)
• Do further analysis of the perception differences
  between genders.
  
• Determine if viewers perceptions of how
  realistic Reality TV actually is affects their
  perceptions of the real world.