and/or traumatized by the stunts these shows have staged. One of the reasons such programming is attractive is that it can be much cheaper than traditional shows, but that may change as insurance premiums for reality tv begin to reflect higher to insurers There is never any attempt to justify these shows as enriching or worthwhile in any way, though certainly not every program needs to be educational or highbrow. Nevertheless, it does raise the question as to why they are made. Perhaps a clue about what is going on lies in the aforementioned lawsuits. According to Barry B. Langberg a Los Angeles lawyer who represents one couple g like this is done for no other reason than to embarrass people or humiliate them or scare them. The producers don' t care about human feelings. They don, t care about being decent They only care about money Comments from various reality Tv producers often fail to demonstrate much sympathy or concern with what their subjects experience-what we are seeing is a great callousness towards other human beings who are treated as means towards achieving financial and commercial success, regardless of the consequences for them. Injuries, humiliation, suffering, and higher insurance rates are all just the "cost of doing business"and a requirement for being edgier Where's the Reality One of the attractions of reality television is the supposed"reality"of it- unscripted and unplanned situations and reactions. One of the ethical problems of reality television is the fact that it isn 't nearly as"real"as it pretends to be. At least in dramatic shows one can expect the audience to understand that what they see on the screen doesn' t necessarily reflect the reality of the actors lives; the same, however, cannot be said for heavily edited and contrived scenes on sees on reality hows There is now a growing concern about how reality television shows can help perpetuate racial stereotypes. In many shows a similar black female character has been featured -all different women, but very similar character traits. It's gone so far that Africana. com has trademarked the expression The Evil Black Woman to describe this sort of individual: brazen, aggressive, pointing fingers, and al ways lecturing others on how to behave MSNBC has reported on the matter, noting that after so many"reality"programs, we can discern a pattern of"characters"that isn't very far different from the stock characters found in fictional programming. There's the sweet and naive person from a small town looking to make it big while still retaining small-town values. There's the party girl/guy who's always looking for a good time and who shocks those around them there's the aforementioned evil black woman with an Attitude, or sometimes Black Man with an Attitude-and the list goes on. MSNBC quotes Todd Boyd, critical-studies professor at the University of Southern Californias School of Cinema- Television as saying"We know all these shows are edited and manipulated to create images that look real and sort of exist in real time. But really what we have is a construction.. The whole enterprise of real ity 22 and/or traumatized by the stunts these shows have staged. One of the reasons such programming is attractive is that it can be much cheaper than traditional shows, but that may change as insurance premiums for reality TV begin to reflect higher to insurers. There is never any attempt to justify these shows as enriching or worthwhile in any way, though certainly not every program needs to be educational or highbrow. Nevertheless, it does raise the question as to why they are made. Perhaps a clue about what is going on lies in the aforementioned lawsuits. According to Barry B. Langberg, a Los Angeles lawyer who represents one couple: Something like this is done for no other reason than to embarrass people or humiliate them or scare them. The producers don't care about human feelings. They don't care about being decent. They only care about money." Comments from various reality TV producers often fail to demonstrate much sympathy or concern with what their subjects experience - what we are seeing is a great callousness towards other human beings who are treated as means towards achieving financial and commercial success, regardless of the consequences for them. Injuries, humiliation, suffering, and higher insurance rates are all just the "cost of doing business" and a requirement for being edgier. Where's the Reality? One of the attractions of reality television is the supposed "reality" of it - unscripted and unplanned situations and reactions. One of the ethical problems of reality television is the fact that it isn't nearly as "real" as it pretends to be. At least in dramatic shows one can expect the audience to understand that what they see on the screen doesn't necessarily reflect the reality of the actors' lives; the same, however, cannot be said for heavily edited and contrived scenes on sees on reality shows. There is now a growing concern about how reality television shows can help perpetuate racial stereotypes. In many shows a similar black female character has been featured - all different women, but very similar character traits. It's gone so far that Africana.com has trademarked the expression The Evil Black Woman to describe this sort of individual: brazen, aggressive, pointing fingers, and always lecturing others on how to behave. MSNBC has reported on the matter, noting that after so many "reality" programs, we can discern a pattern of "characters" that isn't very far different from the stock characters found in fictional programming. There's the sweet and naive person from a small town looking to make it big while still retaining small-town values. There's the party girl/guy who's always looking for a good time and who shocks those around them. There's the aforementioned Evil Black Woman with an Attitude, or sometimes Black Man with an Attitude - and the list goes on. MSNBC quotes Todd Boyd, critical-studies professor at the University of Southern California's School of Cinema-Television as saying "We know all these shows are edited and manipulated to create images that look real and sort of exist in real time. But really what we have is a construction. ... The whole enterprise of reality