Final draft: competition TV shows and culture

Whenever I turn on the TV, there is almost always at least one channel showing a competitive program. From top model, top singer to top price, competition TV-shows provide top goals for everyone to achieve. Thought TV programs alone do not form our culture, their prevalence certainly reinforces or encourages certain values in our culture. I will argue that while competition TV-shows reveal human’s competitive nature and encourage the sense of achievement, they promote the behavior of humiliation might not be a good influence for our culture.
From a psychological perspective, social comparison theory suggests that individuals examine and evaluate their self-worth by comparing their ability to others (Festinger, 1954). Because only one person can be the best one, the majority of others start to look for inferiors so that they can look better themselves. Our culture is dominated by capitalism which holds competition as the central idea and believes it brings prosperity to society. Frustrated by the fact that we do not always win and yet desire to be the “betters”, we watch competition TV-shows which provide a place critique someone else’s failures and thus making ourselves look more valuable. In other words, we might watch such shows with an ugly reason.
Living in a media-saturated world, people are exposed to media and are affected by them significantly. Theories that explain media effects allow us to understand how media contents affect individual behavior and shape our culture. In social learning theory, researchers argue that people imitate certain behaviors or feel encouraged to act in certain ways according to what they receive on media (Campbell, Martin &Fabos, 2006). People build values from what they consistently see. Cultivation effect supports the idea that people “perceive reality in ways that are consistent with the portrayals they see on television” (Campbell, Martin a& Fabos, 2006, p. 529). In this case, the prevalence and popularity of competition TV-shows could have a significant influence in shaping our culture.
To analyze the relationship between competition TV-shows and our culture, I will look at the America’s Next Top Model as an example and discuss how it reveals and influences our culture. The show’s popularity indicates that the genre of competition program meets mass population’s interest. First, the producers look for ordinary women who have a dream to become a model and to participate in the show. Tyra Banks, the host of the show, sent a message on their first TV promo saying, “Models are not born, they are made.” The coveted goal becomes achievable. Second, by going through different intense challenges, competitors receive mostly negative comments or even malicious humiliations. It seems to me that this show is being a “mutton dressed as lamb,” while they claim to provide a wonderful opportunity to succeed, at each cycle, they create only one winner and a bunch of losers.
Some viewers might question the morality of such humiliation at the beginning, but according to the theory of cultivation effect, such behavior becomes so prevalent that audiences gradually accept it as part of our culture. Also, the reason that America’s Next Top Model’s become so popular approves the theory of social comparison. Unlike the idealized drama stars, the competitors share much more in common with the majority of the audience, and therefore more easily to fall into comparison spot. By revealing the weakness of the competitors, audiences may feel better about themselves. The focus is no longer on how the competitors achieve the goal, but how bad they behave and lose. I remembered watching the first season of the show and felt encouraged by Adrianne Curry, the winner, overcame challenges and won the competition. But as the show progresses, the focus switched to fights among competitors and humiliated comment from the judge. With its long term effect, America’s Next Top Model brings flaw values into our culture by encouraging the behavior of attacking others’ weaknesses and celebrating people’s misfortune.
I agree with Festinger’s social comparison theory exists in community life and witnesses TV programmers used it to attract audience. The behaviors of humiliation and celebration of others’ misfortune rampantly showed on competitive TV programs do not make them justice. Unawareness of media effect, such twist value could easily slip into our culture. When constructive criticism turns to a free license for humiliating others, our culture is being misled. Competition TV-shows not only stimulate human’s competitive nature, but also encourage fallen values.