Reality Shows, a Metastatic Cancer That Invades Everything

It is my firm opinion that 'junk television' is a problem more serious than terrorism or drugs.

(MADRID) - During the first World Television Forum, held in 1996 under the auspices of the United Nations, it was decided that each November 21 will mark the World Television Day, to celebrate the television channels as windows to the world from the different perspectives that animate their information projects.

All countries were invited to promote television events focused on causes such as peace, social and economic progress, security and coexistence among people of different cultures.

But violence, crude morbidity and sex have become the mainstay of many television programs. Competitiveness has not been based on a serious and responsible programming, but in attracting the public through banal and vulgar contents, which are on the border of what is ethically permissible. The 'junk television' seeks to increase its audience through the provocation of instincts, passions and low feelings of the viewer.

The 'junk TV' came from the hand of Big Brother, a reality show where contestants coexist in a mansion, separated from the outside world and being watched 24 hours of each day. They should avoid dismissals decided by the audience and achieve the ultimate reward. This rubbish dump was founded by the Dutch media tycoon John de Mol.

Big Brother's pilot program appeared in 1997. It was first broadcast in the Netherlands in 1999, being adapted by more than 70 countries. Thus appeared the foul and vexatious 'junk TV'. The audacity, the invasion of privacy and the pathetic and despotic irony have been frequent since.

The so called reality TV was also promoted in the United States, through "Real World" on MTV. This program captured the fun menu. The Viewers' and Listeners' Association asserts that the series accused of doing 'junk TV', are "a cancer whose metastases, tends to invade everything".

It is important to take the necessary steps against this epidemic of vulgarity and eroticism that floods the small screen, achieving only the degradation of the viewer.

It is my firm opinion that 'junk television' is a problem more serious than terrorism or drugs. The 'junk TV' degrades the human being.

It is urgent to remove all series grills violent, insolent and erotic, which can obfuscate the children and young people, who, in view of such abuses, can be seriously affected.

We can not allow to become reality the assertion of Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio, one of the most important poets and dramatists of the Spanish Golden Age: "If the common people is foolish, it is fair to talk to him foolish to please him".

He has been Associate Professor of Business Management at the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Navarra and a contributor to the Madrid daily ABC. He also spent several years teaching, both in the Official School of Advertising as the School of Information Sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid. In 1985 he was awarded the Gold Master, granted by the Senior Management Forum and AMPE Prize 1996 to the "long and brilliant career advertising."

You can write to Clemente at this address: clementeferrer3@gmail.com