Captain Planet 09/12/09

In class on Thursday we discussed realism. I never truly understood the concept of realism; how it was defined, how it was used, and how the term connected to the course concepts we’ve been studying. After doing the Lyotard reading and dissecting the text, the class discussion we had on Thursday really aided in my understanding of realism. Realism is a part of our everyday lives because it’s the media. We discussed in class that these so-called reality shows on all the major TV networks don’t actually portray reality at all. When asked if their lives were more like The OC, a show about a group of high school kids, or like Laguna Beach, a reality show about a group of high school kids, college kids on average said their own lives were more like The OC. The fictional show mirrored ‘reality’ more than the ‘reality show’ did. The show Murphy Brown blurred boundaries in the 80’s and 90’s when the lead character became the topic of news headlines because of her out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Every day we are bombarded with images of actors and actresses trying to live normally in their everyday lives – and then on the reverse side of that – of reality show characters on TV commercials and magazine ads. Media has confused us. We no long can determine what is real and what is not. And furthermore, due to realism, nothing new and innovative can be produced. Several blockbuster movies come out in a month nowadays. The movies that follow along with ideas that have already been done before are the ones that masses flock to. The movies that introduce new ideas are often overlooked by the public. Society seems to be driven by realism.