Research Source 3

Tayler Dooley

Bragadottir

English 201

11 March 2015

Research Assignment Source

            The third study that I will utilize in my research paper is and article titled, “Reality Bites: An Investigation of the Genre of Reality Television and Its Relationship to Viewers’ Body Image.” Nicole Egbert and James Belcher co-wrote the article, they aimed to define some of the subgenres of reality television. They then used these findings to study the effects RTV exposure has on perception and body image. The study confirmed that exposure to competitive reality based television did correlate to increased body dissatisfaction and drive for thinness. However, other subgenres of RTV did not correlate to perception and body image.   

            This source was useful for my paper. One of the important organizational tasks involved with my research was defining reality television as a genre. This is not an easy task because there is not set criteria used to define RTV. This source however does a good job roughly defining RTV. The article also has a lengthy reference page that I was able to find some of my other sources from. The source also presents peer-reviewed unbiased information. With that being said, the article will be used in my research paper to define reality television as a genre. In order to have a valid conversation about the interworking’s of reality television, it is important to specify exactly what reality television is. This article does just that.