Should We Really Watch?

Susan Clark

∷爱宣 选 赵婧 注

时下各类真人秀节目层出不穷，其实这种节目形式并非新生，早在20世纪40年代就已现身银屏。制片方为了从中取利，不惜利用当事人各种尴尬、痛苦和屈辱的经历来搏“眼球”。然而，真人秀到底有多真？观众真的该买账吗？

Media both in America and around the world seem to have“discovered” that so-called “reality” shows are very pro fitable,resulting in a growing string of such shows in recent years.1. so-called: 所谓的；pro fitable: 有利可图的；a string of: 一系列，一连串。Although not all are successful, many do achieve signi ficant popularity and cultural prominence2. prominence: 重要，杰出。. That does not mean, however, that they are good for society or that they should be aired3. air: 播放。.

The first thing to keep in mind is that “Reality TV” is nothing new—one of the most popular examples of this sort of entertainment is also one of the oldest,Candid Camera.4. Candid Camera:《偷拍》，20世纪40年代诞生于美国的电视节目，该节目在真实状况中拍摄真实的人物，而被拍摄者并不知情；candid camera指在人不备时快拍用的小照相机。Originally created by Allen Funt, it showcased hidden video of people in all manner of unusual and strange situations and was popular for many years.5. originally: 原先，最初；Allen Funt:艾伦·丰特（1914—1999），美国电视制作人、导演、作家，创作并主持了电视节目《偷拍》，该节目于20世纪40年代到80年代于美国电视台播放；showcase: 展示（本领、才华或优良品质）；all manner of: 各种各样的，形形色色的。Even game shows, long a standard on television, are a sort of“Reality TV.”

Today’s programming6. programming: 节目，节目策划。, including a new version ofCandid Cameraproduced by Funt’s son, goes quite a bit further. The primary basis for many of these shows (but not all) seems to be to put people in painful, embarrassing,and humiliating situations for the rest of us to watch—and, presumably, laugh at and be entertained by.7. humiliating: 丢脸的，不光彩的；presumably: 可能，大概。

真人秀节目《偷拍》

真人秀节目《学徒》

These reality TV shows wouldn’t be made if we didn’t watch them, so why do we watch them? Either we find them entertaining or we find them so shocking that we are simply unable to turn away. I’m not sure that the latter is an entirely defensible reason for supporting such programming; turning away is as easy as hitting a button on the remote control.8. defensible:（意见、想法）合理的，remote control: 遥控器。The former, however, is a bit more interesting.

Humiliation as Entertainment

What we are looking at here is, I think, an extension of Schadenfreude,9. extension: 扩大，延伸；Schadenfreude:幸灾乐祸。a German word used to describes people’s delight and entertainment at the failings and problems of others. If you laugh at someone slipping on the ice, that’s Schadenfreude. If you take pleasure in the downfall of a company you dislike,10. take pleasure in: 以……为乐；downfall:破产，衰败。that is also Schadenfreude. The latter example is certainly understandable, but I don’t think that’s what we’re seeing here. After all, we don’t know the people on reality shows.

So what causes us to derive entertainment from11. derive from: 从……中获得（愉快的感受）。the suffering of others?Certainly there may be catharsis involved, but that is also achieved through fiction—we don’t need to see a real person suffer in order to have a cathartic experience.12. catharsis: 情感宣泄，精神发泄； fiction:虚构的事，想象的事；cathartic: 起宣泄作用的。Perhaps we are simply happy that these things aren’t happening to us, but that seems more reasonable when we see something accidental and spontaneous rather than something deliberately staged for our amusement.13. 或许我们感到高兴只是因为这些事情没有发生在我们身上，但是如果我们看到的事情是出于偶然自发而非为了取悦我们而刻意安排的，这种反应更合情合理。accidental: 偶然的，意外的；spontaneous: 自发的，自然而生的；deliberately: 故意的，蓄意的；stage: 组织，筹划。

That people do suffer on some reality TV shows is beyond question—the very existence of reality programming may be threatened by the increase in lawsuits by people who have been injured and/or traumatized by the stunts these shows have staged.14. 真人秀里的当事人确实遭受了痛苦，这一点毫无疑问——当事人因节目设计的噱头而遭受身体或精神损伤，由此引发的诉讼案件数量增加，这可能威胁到真人秀节目的存在。lawsuit: 诉讼；traumatize: 使受精神创伤；stunt:特技表演，噱头。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 re flect higher cost to insurers.15. insurance premium: 保险费；insurer:承保人，保险公司。

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.16. justify: 证明……有道理；enriching: 充实的；worthwhile: 有益的；highbrow:严肃的，高雅的。Nevertheless, it does raise the question as to why they are made. Perhaps a clue about what is going on lies in the aforementioned17. aforementioned: 上述的。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 decent18. decent: 正派的，规矩的。. 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.19. 各种电视真人秀的制作人在评论中往往不会表现出对“实验对象”的同情或关心——我们看到的是他们所展现出的极度冷漠，把这些人当作获得财富或商业成功的一种工具，而不考虑对他们产生的影响。demonstrate: 展示，表露出；sympathy: 同情（心）；subject: 实验对象；callousness: 无情，冷漠。Injuries, humiliation, suffering, and higher insurance rates are all just the “cost of doing business” and a requirement for being edgier20. edgy: 赶时髦的，前卫的。.

Where’s the Reality?

One of the attractions of reality television is the supposed “reality” of it—unscripted and unplanned situations and reactions.21. supposed: 据说的，假定的；unscripted:不用稿子的，事前未准备的。One of the ethical22. ethical: 关于道德的。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 re flect the reality of the actors’ lives; the same, however, cannot be said for heavily edited and contrived scenes one sees on reality shows.23. 至少对于戏剧节目，可以想见观众明白他们在屏幕上所看到的不一定反映了演员的真实生活，但是对真人秀中经过大量剪辑和刻意编排的场景，人们却不一定能分辨。not necessarily:不一定；edited:（电影、电视节目等）经过剪辑的；contrived: 不自然的，矫揉造作的。

There is now a growing concern about how reality television shows can help perpetuate racial stereotypes.24. perpetuate: 使持续；stereotype: 成见，模式化的观念。In many shows a similar black female character has been featured—all different women, but very similar character traits25. trait:（某人性格中的）特性，品质。. 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.26. trademark: 商标，标记，此处用作动词，表示“脸谱化”；brazen: 厚颜无耻；aggressive: 好斗的，挑衅的；lecture: 教训，训斥。

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.27. NSNBC: 美国的一个全天播放的有线电视新闻频道；discern: 看出，辨认出；stock: 老一套的，常备的；fictional: 虚构的，编造的。There’s the sweet and naive person from a small town looking to make it big while still retaining small-town values.28. naive: 缺乏经验的，幼稚的；make it big: 成名；retaining: 保留，保有。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 Attitude29. attitude: 我行我素的作风。, 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.30. critical-study: 批评性研究；manipulate: 巧妙地处理。But really what we have is a construction. ... The whole enterprise of reality television relies on stereotypes. It relies on common stock,easily identi fiable31. identi fiable: 可识别的，可辨别的。images.”

Why do these stock characters exist, even in so-called “reality” television that it supposed to be unscripted and unplanned? Because that’s the nature of entertainment. Drama is more readily propelled by the use of stock characters because the less you have to think about who a person really is, the more quickly the show can get to things like the plot (such as it may be).32. 戏剧性场景通过常见角色更容易推进，因为对于人物性格所需要的思考越少，情节（如果有的话）推进就越快。readily: 快速地，便利地；propel: 推进，推动；plot:（书、电影、或戏剧的）情节。Sex and race are especially useful for stock characterizations34. problematic: 成问题的；minority:少数民族，少数群体。because they can pull from a long and rich history of social stereotypes.

This is especially problematic when so few minorities appear in programming, whether reality or dramatic, because those few individuals end up being representatives of their entire group.34. problematic: 成问题的；minority:少数民族，少数群体。A single angry white man is just an angry white man, while an angry black man is an indication35. indication: 表示，象征。of how all black men “really” are.

How do stock characters appear in “unscripted” reality shows? First, the people themselves contribute to the creation of these characters because they know, even if unconsciously, that certain behavior is more likely to get them air time. Second, the shows editors contribute mightily to the creation of these characters because they completely validate just that motivation.36. mightily: 非常，极其；validate: 使得到认同；motivation: 动机。A black woman sitting around, smiling, isn’t perceived to be37. perceive sb. to be: 认为某人……。as entertaining as a black woman pointing her finger at a white man and angrily telling him what to do.

An especially good (or egregious) example of this can be found in Manigault-Stallworth, a star of Donald Trump’sTheApprentice.38. egregious: 极其严重的，令人震惊的；Donald Trump: 唐纳德·特朗普，纽约地产大亨，创建并投资了著名真人秀节目《学徒》；The Apprentice:《学徒》，美国全国广播公司出品的一档职场创业型真人秀节目。She has been called “the most hated woman on television” because of the behavior and attitude people see her with. But how much of her on-screen persona39. persona:（伪装）外表，形象。is real and how much is a creation of the shows editors? Quite a lot of the latter,according to Manigault-Stallworth in an email quoted by MSNBC:

“What you see on the show is a gross misrepresentation of who I am.40. gross: 严重的，过分的； misrepresentation: 歪曲，曲解。For instance they never show me smiling, it’s just not consistent with the negative portrayal of me that they want to present.41. be consistent with: 与……吻合；negative: 负面的，消极的；portrayal: 描写，表现。Last week they portrayed me as lazy and pretending to be hurt to get out of working, when in fact I had a concussion due to my serious injury on the set and spent nearly ... 10 hours in the emergency room.42. concussion: 脑震荡；on the set: 在片场，在拍摄场地；emergency: 急诊室。It’s all in the editing!”

Reality television shows are not documentaries43. documentary: 纪录片。. People are not put into situations simply to see how they react—the situations are heavily contrived, they are altered in order to make things interesting, and large amounts of footage are heavily edited into what the show’s producers think will result in the best entertainment value for viewers.44. alter: 变化，改变；footage: 影片，影片（片段）。Entertainment, of course, often comes from con flict—so con flict will be created where none exists. If the show cannot incite con flict during the filming, it can be created in how pieces of footage are stitched together.45. incite: 激起； film: 拍摄；stitch together:拼凑起，组织起。It’s all in what they choose to reveal to you—or not reveal, as the case may be.

Moral Responsibility

If a production company creates a show with the explicit intention of trying to make money from the humiliation and suffering which they themselves create for unsuspecting people, then that seems to me to be immoral and unconscionable.46. explicit: 清晰明了的；unsuspecting: 不怀疑的，无疑心的；immoral: 不道德的；unconscionable: 违背良心的，过分的。I simply cannot think of any excuse for such actions—pointing out that others are willing to watch such events does not relieve them of the responsibility for having orchestrated the events and willed the reactions in the first

place.47. 对这些做法我完全想不出任何理由——指出他人愿意观看这些节目并不能使他们推脱责任，是他们首先策划这些情节并操纵人们反应的。relieve sb of:解除某人的负担；orchestrate: 精心策划；will: 希望，想要（某事发生）。The mere fact that they want others to experience humiliation,embarrassment, and/or suffering (and simply in order to increase earnings) is itself unethical; actually going forward with it is even worse.

What of the responsibility of the reality TV advertisers? Their funding makes such programming possible, and therefore they must shoulder part of the blame as well.48. funding: 资金，资助；shoulder the blame:承担过失。An ethical position would be to refuse to underwrite any programming, no matter how popular, if it is designed to deliberately cause others humiliation, embarrassment,or suffering.49. under write: 负担……的费用；deliberately: 故意地，蓄意地。It’s immoral to do such things for fun (especially on a regular basis), so it’s certainly immoral to do it for money or to pay to have it done.