What Reality TV Teaches Us About Russia’s Influence Campaign<br />“The way we generate drama on reality TV is to put someone in the most extreme environment possible and then watch for their genuine reaction,” said Troy DeVolld, a longtime producer and the author of “Reality TV: An Insider’s Guide to TV’s Hottest Market.” In fact, he said, reality TV would be boring if<br />that wasn’t the case — the whole reason we watch is “we can tell how seriously everyone is taking what’s going on, even in the most absurd of circumstances.”<br />I’m not here to adjudicate this debate.<br />On the one hand, it’s clear that there are cases — like the Houston protest — where<br />the Russian campaign prompted real people to take real action in the real world.<br />Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, a former producer on “The Bachelor” who later created “Unreal,” a scripted show about the reality industry,<br />said the key to manipulating contestants into acting a certain way is to “tap into their fears, passions and ego.”<br />On reality TV, producers can do that because they keep detailed dossiers on everyone on set.<br />On a show where the action stems from the interplay of people living in close quarters — like “The Bachelor” — there are often producers on set who subtly,<br />and sometimes less than subtly, prod the contestants into acting in certain ways.<br />Jennifer L. Pozner, a media critic and author of “Reality Bites Back: The Troubling Truth About Guilty Pleasure TV,” said<br />that reality producers go to fantastic lengths to manipulate contestants, denying them food and communication, plying them with alcohol, and ultimately chopping up footage to make it look like they have said and done things that they haven’t.<br />Over the past few days, I reached out to several reality show producers, asking them<br />to compare the Russian digital influence campaign to the world of unscripted TV.
