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Thursday, April 7, 2011

Not reality, actuality

That is the slogan for TruTV, formally known as CourtTV.

An analysis of its website, trutv.com, finds the following shows being advertised on the website:
Of these 21 shows, more than one-quarter deal with crime and criminal justice. Two of the shows in particular stand out, including Forensic Files and Police POV.

Here is the description of Forensic Files:

Forensic Files: science has never been more entertaining. Since its inception in 1996, this groundbreaking show has aired hundreds of smash episodes about the dramatic world of forensic science. Forensic Files follows investigators as they piece together bizarre sets of clues from crime scenes, accident sites and victims of dangerous diseases to build evidence through a whodunit, half-hour race against time. As the actual police officers, victims and suspects come together to discuss what really happened, you'll see a show that isn't reality - it's actuality.

And here is the description for Police POV:

It's the most intense police series ever. Police POV captures what it's really like to be a cop, with every wild moment caught on the new AXON camera from TASER, from their point-of-view. All the car chases, drug busts, foot pursuits and struggles with hidden guns, just as the cops see it. You'll never look at law enforcement the same way again.

Neither of these shows is realistic. Both are meant to be entertaining, and both create major misconceptions of criminal justice in viewers. Watching these shows leads one to believe that crimes are usually solved with forensic science techniques (false), and that policing is often exciting and focused on life and death crime situations (false).

Other shows feature random acts of violence or crime, even though their title does not hint that they are about these topics. Take Operation Repo, for example, which shows some pretty ridiculous characters seizing property of others, often being confronted with angry and people threatening and even using violence. And the show Bait Car sets people up to steal cars, cars that happen to be rigged with hidden cameras and microphones and which can be controlled from remote including locking the car so the offenders cannot get out.

I suppose it is entertaining to see people make stupid mistakes like stealing a nice car with the keys left in it, so that we can take joy at their suffering, laugh at them, and then end up paying tens of thousands of dollars per year to incarcerate each one of them.

Here is what is listed under the "Videos" tab of trutv.com:
That is basically a bunch of videos about crime, sex, nudity, disaster, and did I mention, crime?

If any one network has "perfected" the delivery of infotainment, it is TruTV. And you don't even have to have a TV to see it, since it is now all online.

The network even has a "crime library" featuring pages on Serial Killers, Notorious Murders, Criminal Mind, Terrorists & Spies, Gangsters, and more.

Check it out. Just don't spend too much time there, as every minute spent on the page lowers your IQ by about one point.
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4 comments:

  1. jonesbs1April 11, 2011 at 1:40 PM

    Good point--although a lot of people watch and find shows such as Bait Car interesting, I highly doubt even a single one of them stops and thinks about the significance of what they're watching. i.e. they don't realize that they are actually paying for the people who are essentially 'tricked'to stay in prison and go through the criminal justice system. It's pretty scary to think that entertainment is more important to us, regardless the cost.

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  2. Tripp ChoateApril 15, 2011 at 9:43 AM

    Before I took this class, I never really took the time to actually analyze crime shows on tv. Now, i'll admit, I do watch Trutv every once in a while as they're one of the few channels that offers any programming super late. However, you can clearly see after simply reading the titles of the shows that they have basically no value what so ever. In fact, I know that at least four or five of those shows aren't even real in the first place and are actually scripted. I know that there is only so much crime to go around and create shows about but come on Trutv, Lizard lick towing??

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  3. foxklApril 19, 2011 at 2:12 AM

    I don't watch television when I'm at school, but when I go home for the summer, this channel is definitely one that sets my teeth on edge. It didn't used to be this way. I can't tell you any programming that used to play on Court TV, but can reel off at least half a dozen of the ones listed above without even looking. That's the point: truTV is memorable. Dramatic. Entertaining. Real? Maybe. Perhaps based on some vague event that once happened, but with the need to inform us in a disclaimer that they are only actors now. (Their slogan, "Not reality. Actuality." gets me as well.) And I must fairly admit I enjoy some of the shows from time to time, like Top 10 Most Shocking (which at least has real footage) and All Worked Up (anger, yelling, and violence against the poor people who are just trying to do their jobs, what could be better). Are viewers then left to pick out what is real from what is fake? What was once real but which is now dramatized? What becomes of the viewers who were channel surfing to begin with, and might not give thought to anything else for the next half hour, wishing only to be entertained? The misconceptions that most of these shows propagate quite out way their pleasing aspects, and leave viewers misinformed, sometimes without even knowing it.

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  4. UnknownMay 4, 2011 at 2:45 AM

    Some shows on TruTV are jokes. The fact that some people really think these shows depict true actions in the criminal justice system is sickening. Lizard Lick towing and operation repo are as fake as they come. I had a conversation with a coworker of mine that actually thought these shows were for real. Its amazing the level of intelligence people have today.

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