This article: “TV Contestants: Tired, Tispy and Pushed to Brink from The New York Times (August 2nd, 2009) is about how contestants are treated mainly off camera in different reality shows. There is definitley an injustice in how people who participate in these shows are handled. They are without a doubt, according to this article, treated poorly.
In this article it says, that contestants on reality shows find themselves having long workdays and “communication blackouts” (pg.#1 of this article by Edward Wyatt). These shows have “…. evolved arguably into Hollywood’s sweatshop” (pg. #1- of this article).
Most contestants recieve either no pay at all or very little pay. Also most contestants (of most shows) do not have any union representation.
In this article: “Makeover television, governmentality and the good citizen” (by Laurie Ouelette and James Hay) they talk about programmes that try to”…. transform floundering individuals into successful self- managers” (pg. #472- of this article). Supposedly, what comes with this — as the article says, is freedom and burdens that goes into changing the person with the help of coaches, lifestyle experts and motivators.
But to what length do these shows go to to try to intervene in in another human’s life or lifestyle? If these shows are getting a bad rap for how they treat contestants on their shows– then how is this contributing to the well-being of the actual person who is a contestant? Is it so important for them to be their own self-managers that they must endure not getting paid and working too much. All of this for an outcome that may or may not be even good for them or have longevity?
In this article from the New York Times, it talks about how certain contestants are treated by producers. The object of these producers’ goals is to get people (contestants) into a state where they are tired, stressed and emotionally vulnerable. This makes them more easily manipulated.
How is this helping people to feel good about themselves? I think it does the opposite. Does this help people get away from the State and encourage them to help themselves? Even if in some ways if it does the tactics and strategies are all wrong, in my opinion. This says something unfavorable about human nature. These shows are overly aggressive in manipulating people and their ways of getting people to participate are discouraging in many aspects.
