Journalism-based Reality TV

I was looking at Mr. Rewrite earlier, and noticed his post about a new reality show on MTV called "The Paper." It's about a high school newspaper and the students who put it together. Despite the fact that I hate admitting it, I like reality TV, so I went on mtv.com and checked the show out. I know I shouldn't have expected much, but I was really disappointed with what I saw.

Now obviously, MTV doesn't care about showing what really goes on with that newspaper; they simply want to show a ton of drama so they get good ratings. However, this show is so far off base that I'm not even sure they should be able to call it "The Paper." The first episode was about the teacher naming the Editor-in-chief of the paper, and all of the drama circulating the girl who was chosen (who by the way was probably a horrible choice because everyone is refusing to listen to her because they hate her). Now, as far as high school newspapers, all we did at mine was sit around and eat and talk and then throw everything together at the last minute, so I don't think this show will be a good example for aspiring journalists.

However, this did get me thinking: they should have a reality show about journalism, but make it about a professional newspaper, preferably one that is struggling a little bit. I think there are a lot of people out there who would be interested in what goes on behind the scenes of a newspaper and how stories are picked and the angles the reporters take. If Flavor of Love can be on its third season, I'm pretty sure this show could at least be picked up for a trial run.

Also, it could help the newspaper. If the paper is struggling, being on a TV show could garner interest and therefore improve readership. I'm not saying it will increase dramatically, but the publicity the paper would get would at least help a little. With the way newspapers are struggling across the country, maybe one of them will have this same idea. I know I would definitely watch the show to see what things are really like.