Best Thinking in Reality TV Programs

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  Teen Pregnancy and the Media
  Topic by Enelda Butler

  The large commercial success of MTV’s “Teen Mom” has led some to question whether the TV show serves as a cautionary tale of the difficulties of teenage pregnancy or glamorizes the mothers and diminishes the seriousness of the social issue. Teen pregnancy has entered the national...

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  Nik Wallenda's High-Wire Walk Across Niagara Falls
  Topic by Ed Murrieta

  Now this is a recipe for ratings: Take one Wallenda seasoned in seven generations of daredevil feats and family promotion. Cross Niagara Falls for the first time in 116 years. Stir with a high wire and a heavy pole in a three-hour televised spectacle broadcast by ABC. Add...

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  Has "New TV Season" Become a Meaningless Phrase?
  Topic by Derrick Bang

  In the summer of 1967, doing my best to become an adolescent pop-culture junkie in that media-starved era, I fretted over the fates of my favorite TV shows: Star Trek , The Man from UNCLE , The Wild Wild West , Get Smart , Batman and — yes, I admit it — The Monkees . I would have...

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  TV Viewers Once Again Held Hostage During Provider Spats
  Topic by Derrick Bang

  On July 10, as a DirecTV satellite subscriber, our home lost all Viacom channels—among them Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV and VH1—as a byproduct of the hardball tactics employed during contract renegotiations between the two companies. The quarrel was resolved on July 20. Some...

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  Imposing Limits on Virtual Advertising
  Topic by Enelda Butler

  This month it was discovered that ads for the 2011 movie "The Zookeeper" were digitally imposed into a rerun of a 2007 episode of the television show "How I Met Your Mother." Product placement is extremely common in entertainment, ranging from television, movies, music videos and video games....

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  Does the Media Influence Crime?
  Topic by Nidhi Singh

  The world has experienced yet another act of terrorism and the horror of a mass shooting. On July 22, 2011, Norway faced a terrible tragedy with a bomb blast and a mass shooting in Oslo and Utøya, killing a reported number of 76 people. The media's constant reports allowed viewers and...