Week 8

The article by Henry Jenkins called "Buying into American Idol" was very interesting from my point a view. Jenkins speaks on a process called media conversion and reality television. To starts off, this article is from his book called "Convergence Culture: Where Old Media and New Media Collide". This is actually a book I would probably read. I have always been very interested in how the media can affect us. I think that through growing up, the media has changed drastically and caused more affect then it used too.
Personally, watching television shows in general growing up did change and affect me. I was a big fan of Gossip Girl- now, that's not a reality show- but the way it protrays everything in life- especially relationships- was something that I saw to be normal. Back to the reality shows though. These people start out as "normal" everyday people, just like you and I. And they hit it big. Jenkins specifically talks about American Idol and the first thing that comes to mind was Carrie Underwood. She is at the top of her game right now as one of the leading country artists. And she bgan as a normal person, won American Idol, and now is extremely famous and worldwide known musician.
All of these reality shows are like this. The Bachelor/Bachelorette series is another one. Jef Holm and Emily Maynard, the couple of the last season of the Bachelorette, recently broke of their engagement and now they are known worldwide because of their appearances on that show. The reason that these poeple have these ratings and shows like American Idol do well, as Jenkins touched on, is because of the audiences. It is because of the population of people who watch that show and put in their votes and pay attention weekly. It is amazing how much our world is involved in these reality shows- and for some people, it is positive, like most of the people of American Idol. But how many couples on the Bachelor/Bachelorette have actually stayed together and gotten married? ONE. That goes to show something right there. Not only do they have a warped view of what "love" is, but so do the people watching it. Now, American Idol isn't that bad, but we should really watch what reality shows we are feeding our mind with. Becuase, in real reality, they are mostly lies.