True, but many of these contrived-drama reality shows and carnival-barking entertainer packaged as pseudo-expert shows (Boo-Yah) are prevalent throughout the media landscape. They span many different genres, it is a formula for marketing success in today's media.
I agree entirely with the premise of the article's title, the biggest loser is whoever watches this drivel and expects it to contain any serious information which you can use to improve your life in any way.
We've been wallowing in ignominy and appealing to the lowest common denominator for decades with public TV in this country. It's a medium that could be such a great vehicle for lifting the collective social IQ and yet it doesn't. The dumber the premise of the show, the higher the ratings seem to be. These guys are no longer even trying to disguise the fact that they prey on human shortcomings and exploit them.
They have cultivated an audience that is non-sympathetic, non-empathetic for their fellow man. Their audiences -- by and large -- do not view these shows with a mind-set of "OMG, there but for the grace of God go I.." but more "OMG, I don't feel so bad about my crummy life, look there's somebody worse off than I am...I feel better."
Somehow, I don't think we're better off for the change. We don't seem to want to be lifted up as much as dumbed down today and that's too bad. It's a sign that we've simply given up.
from Huffingtonpost.com
Yoni Freedhoff M.D. : The Real Biggest Losers? The Show's Audience:
While I personally find the show to be an emotionally and physically abusive, misinformative, horror show, it's clearly beloved and trusted by many -- that record premiere was reported to have been viewed by over 7-million people. And while my personal opinions shouldn't concern you, the peer-reviewed medical literature stemming from The Biggest Loser, as well as the AAP's implicit endorsement of the show, should.
Perhaps not surprisingly given what appears to be the overarching theme of the show -- that obesity is the individually controlled consequence of gluttony and laziness -- a study published in the journal Obesity this past May demonstrated that watching even a single episode of The Biggest Loser dramatically increased hateful weight bias among viewers -- an effect that was heightened among non-overweight viewers.
Given this season's causal billing as a "big, bold mission: to tackle the childhood obesity epidemic head-on," no doubt viewers are going to be looking to the teachings of The Biggest Loser to help with their children's struggles. Therefore along with being taught that obesity is treatable by means of incredible amounts of vomit-inducing exercise, severe dietary restriction, and never-ending servings of guilt and shame, the medical literature suggests viewers will also be taught that failure is an obese child's personal choice -- something that their bullies have been saying forever. Indeed increasing hateful weight bias is the last thing America's already over-bullied overweight children need as a recent study on bullying published in the journal Pediatrics found that the odds for being bullied for an overweight child were 63 per cent higher than their lighter peers.
'via Blog this'
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