I think it's safe to say that Survivor and American Idol are two major reasons why we have so many craptacular reality TV shows today. Media corporations need to realize that enough is enough and come up with new ideas for shows. Reality TV was new, but now it's effect is wearing off quickly, so now TV networks are competing for viewers by using shock value. TV networks are trying to sustain this shock value by making "reality" shows of families. Some examples of these would include Little People, Big World, 18 Kids and Counting, and Jon and Kate Plus Eight. All of these shows are taking advantage of a family's situation and sticking it in front of a camera for the world to see. In 18 Kids and Counting, they are trying to appeal to an audience that probably cannot relate to the show. In Little People, Big World, the family has had to deal with overzealous fans trying to invade their privacy in addition to having cameras follow them constantly. In Jon and Kate Plus Eight, the family was torn apart because of the show and it was recently named to Kate Plus Eight. Jon has since filed a cease and desist order against TLC to try and come to terms with his ex-wife.

How much spoiling is too much?

Chapter 1 shows the effect spoiling has on a television show. But spoilers appear in more than television. Video games and movies are also spoiled by searching hackers. Some hackers give the minimum amout of information, but others give a full detail "spoil" on the plot and features in the game. So how far is too far? Page 54 expains this theory perfectly. "Knowing the final four before getting to know the contestants was like someone sneaking into their house and unrapping their Christmas presents before they had a chance to shake and rattle them to figure out what was inside. Spoilers can take all the fun out of critically acclaimed books or movies if one comes across them on the internet. Spoiler TV is a great example of a spoiler site that just takes all the fun out of those "Christmas presents." A reader can get full information about the new TV shows and movies that others have just been dying to see. Even our daily news papers have begun to spoil movies for us. General information just isn't enough for the viewer anymore. We want the facts and all the information we can get on something. Its become like a disease that has spread through the world because of our easy access to the internet. So maybe we are spoiling "too much" but that is just part of the time.

Reality TV

In chapter 1, Jenkins starts talking about survivor and how it's viewers were figuring out who was going to be voted off next. Even though the show isn't scripted, the show still uses writers. Not to mention that the editors play a huge part in this. The writers need to come up with what the contestants are going to do each episode. Then the editors edit some of the things that the people say. Then with the commercials, viewers are starting to guess who is going to be kicked off next. Sometimes they can figure out who is going to win the whole thing. There was one season of Survivor were a guy faked his grandmother's death during the show. He ended up winning that season and it was revealed that his grandmother never died. I thought it would be pretty obvious on who was going to win that season.

Jenkins Chapter 1

After Reading Chapter 1 of Jenkins' book, and discussing it in class, i decided to take an internet trip to my favorite website, www.howstuffworks.com. I searched for reality tv and found a lot of interesting information of how reality TV started and how it actually works. If you get a chance you should really take a look a this article. I will sum uo what it said for you though. By definition, reality TV is essentially unscripted programming that doesn't employ actors and focuses on footage of real events or situations. "The defining aspect of reality TV is probably the manner in which it is shot. Whether the show takes place in a real setting with real people (much like a documentary), shoots in front of a live studio audience that participates in the program, or uses hidden surveillance, reality TV relies on the camera capturing everything as it happens." So, reality TV isn't necessarily real as it is live. They shoot it live unscripted, so this saves on the production costs. They rely heavily on producers and editors instead of writers and directors. So how successful was survivor and why? Well, adding the show survivor was said to be one of CBS's best moves. They captured their largest audience after adding this show. Some Shows that followed were "Big Brother," "The Mole," "The Amazing Race" and "The Bachelor." But how "real" are they? Not so much, they are technicly unscripted and aired live, but they are also heavily edited. They are also said to be rigged. "In 2001, first-season "Survivor" contestant Stacey Stillman filed a lawsuit against producer Mark Burnett and CBS, claiming that Burnett rigged the show by talking two other contestants into voting her off the island. Stillman said that Burnett wanted to keep 72-year-old contestant Rudy Boesch on the island to maintain an older viewing demographic. Also, a number of contestants on shows like "The Apprentice," "The Bachelor" and "Joe Millionaire" have claimed that their actions were taken out of context and presented in misleading ways."

Survivor Spoiling

In chapter one of Jenkins he talks about the spoilers of Survivor and how they collaborate together to find information about the show before the epsiode is actually shown. I found it interesting to read this and see information about these spoilers. We all want to know everything in adance; we can't wait until it shows, but we want it now. Survivor is a popular show, which is why Jenkins used it as an example. All viewer get interested in the show and can't wait for the next week. The viewers help modify the show and impact the show by things such as this. We predict what is going to happen, so the show has to try to trick us into thinking something different. The viewers have great impacts on shows. As I was searching the web, I wanted to look into the spoiling more of Survivor. I found several web sites of spoiling and then others just on spoiling itself. Here is just one site that is of the spoiling which links to other spoiling pages. It just amazes me how people just sit down and do this for their entertainment and for the entertainment of others.

Collective Stupidity

Collective Stupidity

In chapter one of Convergence Culture, Jenkins talks a lot about collective intelligence and uses the show Survivor as a real world example of it. I think that when people put their minds together, they can come up with all sorts of new ideas that individually would have never came about. However, with most things, there is also a downside. While surfing the internet about collective intelligence, I found several websites that talked about an idea called collective stupidity. It’s the idea that as a group, people can come up with some very dumb ideas and do dumb things. In an article about Collective Stupidity, author Sean Gorman cites a 45 minute traffic jam due to people slowing down to gawk at someone pulled over and rumors that are quickly spread by crowds as examples of the negative side of collective intelligence. He says that sometimes, as a group, we can easily only focus on what is right in front of us, losing sight of the bigger picture. I think a lot of what he says in his article is true but I think that collective intelligence is a lot more common in everyday life than collective stupidity is. A lot of seemingly simple things actually require the work of many people and without everyone working together, these things would not get done.