Introduction
I gave my sixth grade class a survey asking them to name their favorite television shows, movies, music, etc. Ninety percent of the students claimed that Jersey Shore is their favorite past-time show to watch. In this "reality television show", cameras follow the lives of eight individuals living in Sea Side Heights, New Jersey throughout the summer. The show became an instant phenomenon and millions tuned in every week to see the crazy antics of "Snooki" and "The Situation" after a night of binge drinking. The students assume that since this is a reality television show the events that happen are real and this is how life is while living on the shore. One student voiced the collective understanding of all these students: "It has the word real in reality when you name what kind of show it is. So that must mean that what you see on the show has to be real or it can't be considered that kind of show." The majority of my students have come to idolize these individuals and the lifestyle they lead. The class has even created a list naming which student would best portray "Snooki", "the Situation", and the other cast members. The remaining seventeen students created their own 'jersey shore' nicknames. I had a discussion with some of the students about the list. They talk as if they are close friends with the cast, knowing each person's background, picking a side of one of the cast members if they had a brawl with another roommate. The students want to live their lives to be exact replicas of what they see on Jersey Shore. What the students don't realize is that the people on the show are getting paid to act in certain ways while the cameras are filming (the actors themselves claim they are completely different when the cameras are not rolling). The students also don't realize that the producers will air certain footage to pull in viewers and ratings. They don't see how the creators of the show are in a way manipulating their thinking. It made me wonder: what is the appeal of this atmosphere in contrast to our daily lives?
The thought occurred to me that the manipulation of minds through the use of television parallels the driving purpose behind writing a work of fiction. Now, I consider myself an intellectual and sensible thinker in that I am able to differentiate between fact and fiction when reading a novel. Two summers ago I read Kathryn Stockett's novel The Help. I finished the book in two days. I couldn't put the book down- I was so involved with the story line and the characters that I thought I was a part of the sweltering heat of the deep South. This fictional piece is told through three different women and their points of view of the events involving racial inequality happening in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962. Kathryn Stockett eloquently created a fictional world that I considered myself a part of and for a moment thought this was a true historical event and wanted to share that historical moment with those three women. I was so involved with the characters' lives and their stories of growth and accomplishment that I allowed it to consume my thoughts and for a second forgot that I wasn't living in Southern Mississippi in 1962. I had to remind myself that these women indeed are fictional and the revolutionary book they worked so hard to create is only present in the pages of Stockett's novel.
Due to the author perfecting her craft, she successfully pulled me in and consumed my thinking as do the cast and creators of the Jersey Shore television show for my students. The difference between my students and me is that I realize that the creator had a way with words that manipulated my train of thought. My students have a harder time taking a step back, refocusing and using their own logic to question what they see. They just assume that everything placed in front of them is factual unless it is stated otherwise in the text or media.
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