Attitudes Of Consumers Towards Reality TV Shows

Quantitative Data Analysis

I totally agree with R2 when s/he says that to have a real-life show like she described you would have to get scripts and acting...so what's the point? I don't know maybe something more like that movie EDTV would be fun to watch. The cameras had to follow him everywhere he went 24hs a day. During that time he would be interacting with a lot of people that could never appear on the show again. Basically he would do what he does in his everyday life but there would be cameras shooting everything. That would probably make the show more interesting and realistic once that you would not have the same people going around all the time.

These shows depict real-life, direct and true reactions of the people participating in them. I do agree with the fact that in most shows everybody's simply playing roles, however for the above two  shows  which  are supposed to be live, I feel that the focus is taken away from the real-life element of what they were meant to be. Partially perhaps the participants give me the impression that they do acknowledge the fact that they are on the show evidently most of the time for a negative reason.

I don’t think that you would not fit into society if you did not watch this kind of shows but you probably would feel left out in some conversations. Then again I would not be that interested in hanging around people that only talks about what happened in  yesterday's big brother. What was that about two women kissing and the naked showers?

One of the major things about Real Life TV vs ordinary shows is that ordinary people are the participants in Real Life TV. They are not in the show because they are famous or have done something extraordinary. Is this a good or a bad thing? Would it be more interesting to view the "rich & famous" rather than just some guy from somewhere? Or is this a good thing, showing "real people" and how they decide to handle different situations?

Its easy for them to brush aside the responsibilities - afterall its just a show. what about the effects or impacts they have on the general public? first we have the entertainment/excitement 'survivor', then a bit more into the private life of individuals as in 'big brother', then the swedish tv show.what's next?

How would like to have yourself exposed to the public, without your consent! its not just the legal issues wer're dealing, its the moral principles that are at stake. can't the tv stations find something better to boost rating? but then again its more to do with the value system in that society. perhaps they're more 'open' and liberal?

They would probably feel that part of their lives perish with the shows and attempt to make further contacts with the participants, resulting in violation against privacy and rights (or something even worse) of the participants. and by then, who are responsible for these outcomes? The producers of the shows?

‘What are the attitudes of consumers towards ‘Reality TV shows?’’

‘What are the factors of Reality TV that are important to consumers?’

The report is based on the ‘Marketing Manager’ of the reputed television production company, NBN. The company has accomplished research for examining attitudes of the consumers towards Reality TV. The research report consists raw project data that includes both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The qualitative analysis is produced from a focus group transcript retrieved from online focus group (Life, 1994). The quantitative analysis is produced from SPSS analysis of the responses of 300 participants. The quantitative data is collected from an appropriate ‘Survey Questionnaire’.

The ‘Marketing manager’ ordered the researcher to interpret from the analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data (Burns, Bush & Sinha, 2014). It provides recommendations regarding the purpose of decision makers of the company, problems of marketing research problem and objectives of marketing research.

Gender:

Out of 100% students, 29.7% people are males where as 70.3% people are females (Field, 2009).

Age:

Out of all the responders, 38.3% responders are 18-25 years old with maximum percentage, followed by 26-35 years old with 26-35 years old. Only 11% people are more than 30 years old.

Preference of “Reality TV”:

Responders mostly prefer ‘Big Brother’ movie (41.3%). ‘Survivor’ and ‘Jerry Springer’ are equally preferred by people (29.3%).

Preference of Reality TV shows with setups:

66% people prefer ‘Reality TV shows’ with ‘unfamiliar set ups’ such as ‘Tropical Island’ and ‘Isolated House’. On the contrary, 34% people prefer Reality TV shows with staged set ups.  

The attitude of customers observed from the four demographic questionnaire is that- females, 18-25 years old people and the people with unfamiliar set ups like reality TV shows much. Also ‘Big Brother’ TV show is preferred mostly.

The characteristics of reality TV those are crucial to consumers:

The characteristics of real-life TV shows that are crucial to the consumers are-

Relating the participants on ‘Reality TV shows’:

Most of the people are neutral about relating participating participants on Reality TV shows.

‘Enjoy of watching Reality TV shows’:

Most of responders are either neutral or disagreed about watching reality TV shows.

‘Reality TV shows’ represent behaviour observed in ‘real-life’:

A significant number of responders regard that ‘Reality TV shows’ depict behaviour observed in ‘real-life’.

Reality shows are selected on the basis of appearance:

A huge number of people either agree or strongly agree that participants on ‘Reality TV shows’ are chosen on the basis of appearance.

‘Reality TV shows’ are selected on the basis of ‘Personality’:

A lesser percentage of people consider that participants on ‘Reality TV shows’ are chosen on the basis of ‘personality’.

‘Reality TV shows’ are set up:

Very insignificant number of responders informed that they either disagree or strongly disagree that ‘Reality TV shows’ are set up.

The participants of Reality TV shows actually act:

Most of the participants either agree or strongly agree that the participants on ‘Reality TV shows’ are acting.

Scripted Reality TV shows:

Most of the responders cannot comment that the reality shows are scripted. Some responders agree or strongly agree that Reality TV shows are scripted.

Data Display

Watching Reality TV while being bored:

Most of the responders cannot tell that they only watch Reality TV after being bored. Some responders agree or strongly agree that they watch Reality TV shows only after being bored.  

Connection with participants on ‘Reality TV shows’:

Most of the responders disagree that they can connect with participants on ‘Reality TV shows’.

‘Attractive participants on Reality TV is crucial’:

Mixed responses are found about importance of having attractive participants on reality TV.

The significance of depicting real life behaviours on ‘Reality TV shows’:

A significant number of responders agree or get neutral about the ‘Importance of depicting real-life behaviours on Reality TV shows’.

Overall the characteristics of ‘Reality television’ that are important to consumers indicate that-

• ‘Reality TV shows’ fail to depict behaviour observed in real-life.
• Participants on ‘Reality TV shows’ are not chosen on the basis of either appearance or personality.
• Participants consider that most of the ‘Reality TV shows’ are set up and the participants on ‘Reality TV’ shows actually acts.
• The idea of scripted ‘Reality TV shows’ is not false and many of them considered that they watch ‘Reality TV’ while they are bored only.
• Most of the participants depict that ‘Real-life behaviours’ on ‘Reality TV show’ is necessary.

‘Spearman’s correlation coefficient’ are found between two variables that are- enjoyment in watching Reality TV shows and the importance of depicting real life behaviors on Reality TV shows. The Spearman’s rank-order correlation is the nonparametric correlation coefficient (Yue, Pilon & Cavadias, 2002). It helps of measure the direction and strength of association between two ranked variables (Datta & Satten, 2005). The spearman’s rho is greater than 0.103. Therefore, the correlation is very weak. The p-value of Spearman’s correlation coefficient is 0.076 that is greater than 5%. It is the reason why a researcher cannot reject the null hypothesis of insignificant categorical correlation between these two factors. Hence, two categorical factors are uncorrelated to each other (Davies, 1987).

‘Mann-Whitney U-statistic’ is utilized to compare two categorical variables ‘Genders’ and ‘I enjoy watching Reality TV shows’. ‘Mann-Whitney U-statistic’ is the non-parametric substitute test of ‘Independent sample t-test’ (Nachar, 2008). It is a ‘Non-parametric test’ utilized for comparing two sample averages.

The null hypothesis could be stated as, the mean enjoyment level of two different types of genders are equal to each other.

From the analyzed data, null hypothesis is rejected as the p-value (0.0) of the test statistic is less than 0.05. Therefore, it could be interpreted with that the enjoyment of preferring TV shows is statistically and significantly greater for females than males (U = 3444, p = 0.0) (Milenovic, 2011).

The ‘Chi-square’ test is applied to find the ‘association’ between ‘Age-groups’ and ‘Preferred reality TV show’. ‘Chi-square’ test finds the independence or association between two categorical variables (Test, 2009). The p-value of the Chi-square test-statistic (76.258) with 6 degrees of freedom is 0.0.

The null hypothesis could be stated as, ‘Age-groups’ and ‘Preferred reality TV show’ are independent to each other. As, p-value (0.0) < level of significance (0.05), therefore, null hypothesis of independence of two variables is rejected with 95% probability. It could be interpreted that age-groups and preferred reality TV show have significant association.

‘Spearman’s correlation coefficient’ are found between two variables that are- enjoyment of watching Reality TV shows and the importance of depicting real life behaviors on Reality TV shows. The Spearman’s rank-order correlation is the nonparametric correlation coefficient. It helps of measure the direction and strength of association between two ranked variables. The Spearmen’s correlation coefficient between two variables are 0.038, hence, the correlation is very weak. The p-value of the Spearmen’s correlation coefficient is 0.512 which is greater than 5% (Berger & Delampady, 1987). Therefore, null hypothesis of insignificant correlation coefficient between two categorical variables cannot be rejected with 95% probability (Romano & Lehmann, 2005). Therefore, the undertaken two variables are uncorrelated.

Question 1

‘Wilcoxon Sign Rank Test’ is applied to test the association of the importance of depicting real life behaviors on ‘Reality TV shows’ and the importance of having attractive participants on ‘Reality TV shows’. It is a statistical comparison of the average of two dependent non-parametric and continuous variables (Rosner, Glynn & Lee, 2006). It functions with either ranked or ordinal data or metric (interval, ratio) data following multivariate normal (Conover & Iman, 1981).

The null hypothesis is stated as, mean rank of ‘Having attractive participants’ is greater than mean rank of ‘Depicting real life behavior’.

The test generates the z-statistic = (-7.06) with p-value = 0.0. Therefore, null hypothesis of significant difference of these two variables is rejected with 5% level of significance (William, 2000). It could be interpreted that there do not exists significant difference between mean ranks of the importance of depicting real life behaviors on ‘Reality TV shows’ and the importance of having attractive participants on ‘Reality TV shows’.  

‘Kruskal Wallis Test’ is applied to verify the relevance of comparison of the importance of having attractive participants between people as per age-groups that are ‘Under 18 years’, ’18-25 years’, ’26-35 years’ and ‘More than 36 years’ old. ‘Kruskal Wallis Test’ is a nonparametric test that is used for both ‘continuous’ and ‘ordinal-level’ dependent variables (Vargha & Delaney, 1998). The mean rank is found highest for the responders of under 18 years old (177.62) and lowest for responders of more than 36 years old (70.23). ‘Kruskal Wallis Test’ provides the ‘Chi-square statistic’ = 42.118 with degrees of freedom = 3. The p-value of test statistic is 0.0 that is less than 0.05. Therefore, the null hypothesis of independence of two categorical variables could be rejected (Feir-Walsh & Toothaker, 1974). Hence, age-groups and comparison of importance of having attractive participants are dependent to each other.

Findings from Focus group transcript:

The online focus group involves five responders (R1, R2, R3, R4 and R5) and one mediator. They are discussing about the aspects and effective prospects of Reality TV shows. The feelings of R1 and R3 are almost same about watching Reality TV. ‘The big brother’, ‘Survivors’ and ‘Temptation Island’ are the popular TV shows. They majorly focus on entertainment and not give any importance to the authenticity of the TV shows. R2 informed that the focus of ‘Reality TV shows’ is taken away from the ‘Real-life elements’. He/she has same consideration as R4. Both of them are missing test of love in ‘Temptation Island’, ugly truth in ‘Jerry Springer show’ or fugitive, challenges and suspense in the reality shows of recent days.

R3 admits of being not a very fan of real-life TV show. ‘Survivors’ or ‘Temptation islands’ are not too much appealing to the R3. R3 cannot find any real or genuine fact about TV programs. Although all the programs are being telecasted regularly, the reality TV shows get hiked to the customers because of sufferings, frustration and happy moments (occasionally). There is no negativity found in the reality shows running in television. The interesting TV programs as per R2 is dependent up on unpredictable development or outcomes. The involvement to the TV shows is necessary as per R2. The emotions get involved and developed around TV shows such as games till it ends. However. R2 suggests that the shows should be more interesting and realistic. Another form of real life TV commercials such as movies and sitcoms are expected from R2. Creation with the help of skills and technical concepts are expected from the end of R2. The objective is that the real-life TV commercials should not be far from real-life.

Question 2

R1 is interested to put a focus on making a real-life TV program more interesting and entertainment. The unconsciousness about TV commenting especially in TV advertisements must be transparent. Similarly, R4 regards that TV programs must be more enriched with interest, excitement and entertainment. When moderator asked to make the consideration about engaging the viewers and safety of kids, R2 got afraid about it. The satisfaction and curiosity about private life must be kept in mind from the end of producers. The filming and interaction about normal daily life are required to sustain the publicity of real-life TV shows. R3 informed that ethical concerns must be retained. The violation against privacy and rights should be restricted. The misleading participants must not divert to trouble telling reality from fiction. The real-life TV shows must walk in the road of moral principles. More openness and liberty are required to up hold the value system of the society. R1 again highlighted the power of mass media.

Finally, R2 agrees with R1 and R3. He/she concentrates on healthy real-life programs like educational talk or game. It provides the encouraged viewers in the entertainment TV shows. The societies and cultures might be different. Although, violent TV-shows and TV shows of unacceptable level should be avoided. The higher authorities must play a crucial role in inventing conservative societies. The real-life TV programs as per R2, has its own advantage of providing ‘info-attainment’ at times to create much controversy. For the participation of common people in the real-life TV performance, R4 informed that spectators might not be able to distinguishable ‘Reality’ from ‘Fiction’. People of ‘Modern society’ used the ‘Cameras and Movie shootings’ should participate in maturity and appropriateness. The nudity and vulgar elements must be disregarded. However, R5 do not keep same consideration. The quality of profile, entertainment and audiences are the major aspects of a show to rejuvenate.

Conclusion:

From both quantitative and qualitative data analysis about market research, it was found that real-life TV shows must be interesting and entertaining. People generally refuses the nudity and vulgar aspects of it. The fake screen plot and organized screening are not acceptable to the viewers. These make real-life TV shows boring and uninteresting. Also, the personality and appearance of the participants as well as the connection with real-life TV shows are needed from all angles. Spectators are willing to investigate the behavioral challenges of the real-life shows. Therefore, a new real-life TV show should keep these things in mind.

It could be recommended that a newly launching real-life TV show of NBN would keep the customer satisfaction and demand in mind. Any kind of harming or adult motion of the show may not be acceptable. The participants must be presentable and they should keep personality about appearance of the participants. The idea could be education or at least authentic. Nice theme may attract more spectators. Besides, behavioral challenges must be avoided.

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