The Hunger Games

"Eternal glory! That's what awaits the student who wins The Triwizard Tournament, but to do this, that student must survive three tasks. Three extremely dangerous tasks."

-          Albus Dumbledore

While doing the reading response homework the related media that I thought of was the tri-wizard cup in the Harry Potter series.  During the tri-wizard cup a wizard is picked at random to represent their school in a tournament against the other wizarding schools.  The tournament is designed to test magical ability, intelligence, and courage.  The tri-wizard cup’s playing field reminds me of a maze and it is different for each competitor.  Each player faces their biggest fears while trying to reach the cup.  It is possible for students to die while playing this game, but it is played each year anyway and everyone gets really excited for it – just like in the Hunger Games.  I think the quote by Dumbledore really relates to the things that occur in the Hunger Games.  The participants in both events will receive eternal glory if they win, but they also run the risk of not coming out alive.  Harry Potter has some of the same characteristics as Katniss does, both of them are genuine people and I think that may be why we feel such a connection to them. 

I was also really interested in the idea of everyone getting their 15 minutes of fame.  It is possible for anyone of us to become famous in today’s world.  For example, Laguna Beach simply filmed the everyday lives of a group of friends.  The only difference between them and myself was that they are rich and live in California and I’m not so rich and I live in Pennsylvania.  Now that I think about it I’m not so sure why I watched the show every week.  However, I did watch it and now these people are even more rich than they were to begin with because of me.  It is unfortunate that we never see any intelligent people, or people with exceptional talent on TV; most of the time all we see are people that know how to act like idiots.  What kind of message is that sending to us as viewers? It seems that it is telling us that the best way to become famous is by binge drinking, partying, cheating on your significant other, or having some type of problem that majorly interferes with your life. 

Reality TV

I have found myself asking this same question to myself before this blog assignment was assigned.  Why did I need to spend an hour of my night watching the bachelorette, when I could just watch the last 10 minutes to find out which bachelor did not get a rose.  My roommates and I always watch reality TV, so I just chose my favorite reality show to blog about.  The bachelorette is focused on what so many young women want – the fairytale story about falling in love and getting married.  However, this show is more than just about falling in love.  It shows the ups and downs of falling in love, and there is also heartbreak along the way.  The bachelorette from last season’s name is Ashley and the last two men standing were Ben and JP.  Ashley absolutely adores JP and she can’t keep her hands off him, Ben on the other hand makes her laugh and she has a blast with.  She is stuck making the decision between two great men.  In the beginning she started out with a large number of bachelors and each week gave away roses to the men she liked the most.  Whoever did not receive a rose was forced to go home without a wife. 

 Almost every young woman can relate to dealing with relationship trouble, so you really feel for the people on the show.  I always felt so bad for the people that got their heart broken, because I felt like I knew them.  But, what did I really know?  I only saw hour long clips of their life each week.  In the end, I probably knew more about my high school teachers than I did about the people on the bachelorette. 

 I think this particular show was so entertaining because I could really relate to all of the people on the show.  Sometimes I just wanted to shake the bachelorette for making the decisions she did.  Last season there was a jerk named Bentley who was a candidate for being her husband.  He talked badly about her behind her back and was rude to her, but she kept going back to him.  This is a relatively common occurrence in young relationships, so I could feel for what she was going through.  Another reason people watch these shows is because they are unpredictable.  The viewer makes their prediction of what they think will happen, but no one actually knows what the end result will be.  It is almost like playing a game with their lives.  In a sports game, you don’t know what will happen and that is part of the fun in watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I_NbXEPVYw&feature=related

This clip is of Bentley talking about making Ashley cry, and he feels absolutely no emotion for breaking her heart.  All he is concerned with is making sure his hair looks okay while he is doing it.  I think this clip shows that some characters on reality shows are only on the shows for their own selfish, they do not care about how they affect the people around them. 

Producers would not air a program if they did not believe it was going to get viewers.  Most reality shows are centered around either something people can relate with, or something abstract that we as viewers are curious about.  For example, sister wives is so obscure that most people are like “Wow, I can’t believe people live like that.”  My personal opinion is that I would never want to share my husband with multiple other women, so this show has a factor that really shocks people.  Other reality shows like the bachelorette, and the real world are focused around ideas that people can understand and viewers can really form relationships with the people on the show.  However, I am surprised to see people dressing up for Halloween as characters from shows like the Jersey Shore.  After seeing their behavior on the show, I can’t imagine wanting to look or act like them.