A pictures worth a thousand words...

While doing some further research on topics for my blog I came across a picture that grabbed my attention. Its more of a graph than a photo but nonetheless I wanted to discuss it. The graph shows statistics based on a study from a UK Publication on the ages of viewers who watch Reality television in the US. Now clearly Reality television has been proven to be a hot commodity and is extremely successful in attracting viewership around the world. The graph pretty much solidified my assumptions that the majority of viewership is between the age range of 18-25, both for male and females alike. However what the study left out and I wish it haddent was the percentage of viewers in the teenage bracket lets say from ages 13-17. In my opinion if the study had accounted for those ages the outcome would have been very different and the leading age ranges would have shifted. Clearly the older age groups don't have nearly as large an affinity for Reality TV as the younger generations, it could be because most of the Reality TV genre is aimed at the younger target audience with all the sex and drama.

That is exactly what my issue is with reality TV, that it emphasizes a bit too much on the sex and drama, and with the viewership being as young as I suspect it to be its not sending the proper message to its younger viewers. Its one thing for a movie or sitcom to be based around sex or drama because its fiction, its a story, its suggested and a certain line can be drawn from it. Reality TV however is proposed as "real" or factual not fiction and that message can be manipulated by a younger viewer. Take in point the second image in my blog to the left. It shows the comparison of teen pregnancies in this country related to others. We are second only to Bulgaria and my belief is that a main cog is that our teens are bombarded with sex in every facet of television with Reality TV in the forefront. Teen Mom is the perfect example, with the glorification of teen pregnancy and motherhood's. To me there has to be a direct coloration to the numbers of teen pregnancies to what is being showed on TV. Lets face it, Televisions is a mass media engine, couple that with the internet and the on demand readiness to which a teen can be exposed to these shows and there's no stopping the impact it can have on a ripe mind.