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THE "REAL" REALITY TELEVISION
OVERVIEW
In this three-day group activity, students break into groups of five to create a scene from a reality television program about a scenario that actually reflects reality involving a place the United States has intervened - Vietnam, Palestine, Grenada, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Honduras, Iraq, Panama, Costa Rica, Iran, Somalia, the Philippines etc.... from which they create a short television scene reflecting the values, reactions, struggles, etc., of that country at the time.
As students create and share their multimedia presentation, they keep in mind a few central questions:
- How did United States intervention affect the lives of their group?
- Why does mainstream media not show "real" reality TV?
- What would American reaction be to U.S. intervention in third-world countries if "real" reality TV aired their lives?
DETAILS
- Each group should be separated heterogeneously, i.e. sex, ethnicity and perceived academic ability is balanced.
- Give each member of the group a role to play: director, screenwriter, screen artist, researcher / fact checker, etc. Students will be given primary and / or secondary documents that give a thorough overview of what happened in their country because of U.S. intervention (positive and/or negative).
- Explain to students that they have been assigned to a small group in charge of creating a reality scene for television about U.S. intervention from their country perspective.
- Students will be given 2 class blocks/periods to research, create and present their scene.
- On the third day, students will present their scene to the class. After each individual scene is presented, have group members from that country explain why they created the scene the way they did and ask the audience to comment on the presentation.
DISCUSSION
At the end of all the presentations, pose these discussion questions to the class:
- How would the American public respond if reality TV were depicting these countries, reaction to U.S. intervention?
- What are the main reasons this type of reality TV is not shown to American audiences?
- What obstacles would the producers of these "real" reality TV programs encounter?
- What is the primary reason for American television programs? Educate or entertain?
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