Televisione - Lettura

Questa lezione di darà alcune notizie sul fenomeno televisivo del secolo.

What is reality TV?

Reality TV is a new genre of programs (British English: programmes) in which ordinary people (gente comune) are put in unusual (insolite) situations, from which a winner will emerge.
“Big Brother”, which confines a group of people in a small house with cameras running (attive) 24 hours a day, first screened (è andato in onda) in Holland. Since then, reality TV has become (è diventata) a major (importante) phenomenon with most networks screening some type of reality program. So what's the attraction? For the networks, reality TV shows are a cheap alternative to other programming. No scriptwriters (sceneggiatori), paid actors or complex sets are required. Viewers (spettatori) enjoy watching the relationships of the contestants (contendenti) from a safe distance and they can affect (influenzare) the result with a phone call.
Critics argue (sostengono) that "reality" shows have little in common with reality, because they feature (presentano) a selected group of people, confined in an artificial environment (ambiente). Supporters (sostenitori) instead argue that the audience can identify with the contestants, who belong to (appartengono) different social and age groups.