Real World or Not? Are you interested in a career in television-with real people? Although reality shows have been around for decades in various forms, they usually refer to a particular type of program produced since $2000$ . Programming usually involves a competition between "real" people that awards career opportunities, a monetary payoff, or both to the winners. Reality shows have become a mainstay in American culture, as this headline notes, "History Channel stays the reality course." The channel's scheduled programs include a number of educational reality shows. Critics say reality TV brings out the worst in its participants. Create an idea or theme for a reality show that you think would bring out the best.

The mass media first convinced us that the imaginary was real, and now they are convincing us that the real is imaginary; and the more reality the TV screen shows us, the more cinematic our everyday world becomes.

Why might it be a bad idea to deal with serious issues as they are dealt with on TV?

Reality TV and cosmetic surgery. Refer to the Body Image: An International Journal of Research (March 2010) analysis of the effect of reality TV shows on a college student's decision to undergo cosmetic surgery, Exercise $12.43$ (p. 739). The data saved in the file were used to fit the interaction model, $E(y)=\beta_0+\beta_1 x_1+\beta_2 x_4+\beta_3 x_1 x_4$, where $y=$ desire to have cosmetic surgery (25-point scale), $x_1=\{1$ if male, 0 if female $\}$, and $x_4=$ impression of reality TV (7-point scale). From the SPSS printout (p. 739), the estimated equation is:

$$\hat{y}=11.78-1.97 x_1+.58 x_4-.55 x_1 x_4$$

a. Provide an estimate of the change in desire $(y)$ for every 1-point increase in the impression of reality TV show $\left(x_4\right)$ for female students.

A 95% confidence interval for the proportion of viewers of a certain reality television show who are ơver 30 years old is (0.26, 0.35). Suppose the show's producers want to test the hypothesis $H_{0}: p=0.25$ against $H_{a}: p \neq 0.25.$ Which of the following is an appropriate conclusion for them to draw al the $\alpha=0.05$ significance level? (a) Fail to reject $H_{0};$ there is convincing evidence that the true.proportion of viewers of this reality TV show who are over 30 years old equals 0.25. (b) Fail to reject $H_{0};$ there is not convincing evidence that the true proportion of viewers of this reality TV show who are over 30 years old differs from 0.25. (c) Reject $H_{0};$ there is not convincing evidence that the true proportion of viewers of this reality TV show who ạre over 30 years old differs from 0.25. (d) Reject $H_{0};$ there is convincing evidence that the true proportion of viewers of this reality TV show who are over 30 years old is greater than 0.25. (e) Reject $H_{0};$ there is convincing evidence that the true proportion of viewers of this reality TV show who are over 30 years old differs from 0.25.

The mass media first convinced us that the imaginary was real, and now they are convincing us that the real is imaginary; and the more reality the TV screen shows us, the more cinematic our everyday world becomes.

Are most people unable to distinguish what is real from what is imaginary on TV?

Reread all or part of the text to help you answer the following questions.

According to Eco, how does the "reality" of TV change how people see the everyday world?

Decide whether each of the following questions are biased. Explain your decisions with support from the discussion of question bias. Do you avoid reality TV shows?

The article “Viewers Speak Out Against Reality TV” (Associated Press, September 12, 2005) included the following statement: “Few people believe there’s much reality in reality TV: a total of $82\%$said the shows are either ‘totally made up’ or ‘mostly distorted’.” This statement was based on a survey of 1002 randomly selected adults. Compute and interpret a bound on the error of estimation for the reported percentage.

What are some general argumentative essay topics for learners of English as a second or foreign language?

Using the essay earlier, answer the questions below:

(a) What is the mood of the final paragraph of the essay?

(b) Which details create that mood?

When it comes to non-traditional marketing media, which of the following is not a medium in which brand placements could occur?

a. Billboards

b. Movies

c. Sitcoms and dramas on TV

d. Reality shows on TV

e. Songs

Write a persuasive essay about the effects of media on viewers' perceptions of reality. Support your stance with details from Eco's essay and with your own observations and examples from current media.

The main purpose of the essay is to

A. explain why reality programming has become common on television.

B. further the author's idea that reality programming is superior to traditional television shows.

C. explain the cost-savings of reality programming.

D. claim that cable television will overtake traditional television through reality shows.

Reality TV and cosmetic surgery. Refer to the Body Image: An International Journal of Research (March 2010) study of the impact of reality TV shows on a college student's decision to undergo cosmetic surgery, exercise. Recall that the data for the study (simulated based on statistics reported in the journal article) are saved in the file. Consider the interaction model, $E(y)=\beta_0+\beta_1 x_1+\beta_2 x_4+\beta_3 x_1 x_4$, where $y=$ desire to have cosmetic surgery (25-point scale), $x_1=\{1$ if male, 0 if female $\}$, and $x_4=$ impression of reality TV (7-point scale). The model was fit to the data and the resulting SPSS printout appears below.

Find the predicted level of desire $(y)$ for a male college student with an impression-of-reality-TV-scale score of 5 .