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How does the dramatization of storylines in reality television affect the…

- - - - "What they don't do a great job with, is telling positive stories and connecting with the multifacets of being African American. I have a degree in nuclear engineering from a top engineering school. I'm a mother. I work in national security. I am very well-rounded. And I just got boiled down to a simple trope of a lazy, unintelligent person" (Deggans 2020). (quote from Hart, an alum from the 2014 season Survivor: Cagayan)
        
        Colemans' quote gives claim that black women are often portrayed stereotypically and the quote from J'Tia provides a specific example of a popular reality TV show portraying her stereotypically
    - - "On Cesternino's podcast, the Black alumni spoke about the stress of auditioning before rooms filled with white executives, the challenge of not offending white castmates while also trying to play the game, having fans sling racial slurs or death threats and having white castmates use racial slurs around them" (Deggans 2020).
    - - "And Julia Carter, a Black woman who competed on the show's 38th season, Edge of Extinction, published a blog post in 2019 alleging that there were two instances when other contestants used the n-word around her — quoting a film and a TV show — that Carter says was never shown on air" (Deggans 2020).
- - - - "However, TV that broadcasts faux reality has a damaging impact on viewers. Showcasing fictional personas, planned storylines and exaggerated outlooks on life, shows give viewers a false image of reality. Not only that, they sometimes focus on the humiliation of participants strictly for consumership" (Wegmann and Brown 2022).
    - - Central Michigan University psychologist Bryan Gibson stated that “watching reality shows with lots of what’s called relational aggression — bullying, exclusion and manipulation — can make people more aggressive in their real lives" (Wegmann and Brown 2022).
    - - "Explaining the consequences of the incident, Alexander went on to say, 'Reality TV takes advantage of people. It both exploits existing and creates mental health issues. It psychologically profiles people by finding out their weaknesses and exploiting them" (Wegmann and Brown 2022).
- - - - "I found that individuals overwhelmingly reacted negatively to embedding narratives of race and racial duty into the competitive reality television genre. They rejected the experiences shared by Black contestants, describing the season as too political – the worst in the show’s history – and even vowed to stop watching" (Harbin 2023).
    - - "Taken together, existing research has repeatedly shown that media elites, especially show producers, have used competitive reality series to champion particular interpretations of race and racial realities in the United States" (Harbin 2023).
        
        Reality television is a form of media that has the power to alter racial biases, which gives these production teams an immense amount of influential power over viewers.
    - - "This narrative conveys Black Americans’ interpretation of racialized social obligations that exist and inform their decision to behave in ways that benefit the group as a whole rather than solely thinking of themselves as individuals. From this perspective, narratives of racial duty add complexity to narratives of racial progress by showcasing how certain groups continue to perceive that they must think and behave in ways that benefit their racial group – an understanding that is in tension with the notion that race is no longer a determinative factor in individuals’ life experiences and outcomes" (Harbin 2023).
- - - - "Mass media continue to stereotype Black women as aggressive, highly sexualized and strong" (Coleman 2019).
- - - - "...reality TV contestants from minority ethnic backgrounds are 71% more likely to be in the bottom two, rising to 83% if they’re Black women. Women of color also face extreme and violent threats online, creating a concerning situation of online hate" (Shah 2024).
      - "While some might see huge benefits from appearing on the show, for others, the experience isn’t so joyful, with Black women in particular often feeling the brunt of negativity while in the public eye" (shah 2024).
        
        A prime example of the aggression presented on reality television creating aggressive real life behaviors is the online aggression targeted toward black women after shows airing
      - "The negative and often stereotypical portrayal of Black women on reality TV contributes to the perpetuation of racial and gender biases. These portrayals not only reflect but also reinforce societal prejudices and stereotypes about race and gender" (Shah 2024).
- - - - "To advertise an episode, the producers of the show put together a teaser that made it seem that Kenny, a black contestant, got into a physical fight with Lee. What actually happened was much more muted verbal conflict and a discussion about why calling black men “aggressive” is racially charged" (Dorroh and Reyes Jr. 2024).
        
        While black contestants are being falsely portrayed in a negative like (specifically as aggressive), white contestants are given the opposite treatment as their are instances where racist White contests are face no negative consequences
      - "Reality TV is trying to package racial awareness into bite-size pieces for their consumers, but they’re failing because racial violence is too real for too many people" (Dorroh and Reyes Jr. 2024).
    - - "When racial conflict is shown on TV, even if only in the form of verbal disputes, it desensitizes viewers and subconsciously makes them think that racism is commonplace, acceptable, and something to simply be watched" (Dorroh and Reyes Jr. 2024).
- - - - "There have also been explicit incidents of overt racism and racialised name-calling by white cast-mates toward castmates of colour, with seemingly few repercussions" (Biakolo 2021).
    - - "To many viewers, reality TV feels real, and therefore the characters are relatable to our values and how we see ourselves. And, because the genre is broad, covering everything from dating to cooking to surviving in the wilderness, viewers can imagine themselves in many of the scenarios" (Biakolo 2021).
    - - "People of colour who are part of the production process can intimately inform the industry and the public at large on how they navigate their experiences and what they believe is needed during this push for more inclusion" (Biakolo 2021).
- - - - "Because nonverbal behavior is “off the record” and can be difficult to identify unambiguously, exposure to nonverbal race bias may undermine norm-driven correction processes and hence exert a social influence" (Weisbuch et al. 2009).
    - - "Nonverbal race bias was thus observed across 11 shows, each with an average weekly audience of 9 million, suggesting that many Americans are exposed to nonverbal race bias. These biases may occur for a variety of reasons: because actors spontaneously exhibit nonverbal bias, because biased nonverbal behavior is written in to scripts, and/or because directors persuade actors to change their nonverbal behavior"(Weisbuch et al. 2009).
        
        Nonverbals and stereotypical portrayals are two commonly used tactics for promoting racism for viewers without making racism explicit to the audience.
      - "We examined the prevalence, subtlety, and impact of nonverbal race bias across four studies. We observed that nonverbal race bias occurs on television and that exposure to this televised bias accounts in part for white viewers’ own race bias, as assessed with reaction-time and self-report measures" (Weisbuch et al. 2009).