Controversial Reality Television

Posted on 13 December 2009 by Stenberg-Tendys W.L. in Uncategorized

MTV may be courting controversy and disaster when it airs it next episode of Jersey Shore where one of stars, Snookie, gets punched in the face by a random man at a bar. She is seen lying on the floor of the bar. The next shot is of a man in handcuffs being escorted to a police car.

It is reported that the guy who threw the punch in the show, is a teacher from Queens, Brad Ferro.

The North Queens Community High School teacher tried to steal Nicole Polizzi’s (Snookie) cocktail. When confronted by her, Ferro punched the pint-sized star in the face, at the Beachcomber Bar and Grill in Seaside Heights.

Ferro was arrested, found guilty of simple assault and fined $500, given a six-month suspended sentence and ordered to take anger management classes.

Seaside Heights Detective Steve Korman said that the punchy boozer had been told to lay off drinks because he appeared to be too drunk.

jersey shore stars

Jersey Shore is a reality show where eight, self described ‘guidos’ and guidettes’, live and party together for an entire alcohol fueled summer.

Reality television is a low cost genre of television that supposedly provides audience entertainment through unscripted, dramatic or humorous events, featuring ordinary people, instead of professional actors.

This genre can cover from quiz shows, elimination games, to surveillance focused productions such as Big Brother. It is a genre that uses sensationalism to attract the audience and thus generate advertising profit.

While many shows appear unscripted, frequently the participants are coached to act in a certain way by off screen ‘story editors’ or ‘segment producers’. Events and speech are often manipulated and contrived to create an illusion of reality, through editing and other post-production techniques.

In 2008 the Academy of Televison Arts and Sciences announced its first Emmy Award for Outstanding Host for a Reality-Competition Program. “Reality television has become such an integral part of television and our culture, so it only made sense for us to create this new highly competitive category,” TV academy Chairman and CEO John Shaffner said.

However reality tv can include, unreal environments, misleading editing, restaging, premeditated scripting and acting, misleading promises of winnings.

Tom Alderman, media analyst wrote, “There is a sub-set of Reality TV that can only be described as Shame TV because it uses humiliation as its core appeal.”

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