Problem: The dating reality show If You Are the One, won the largest audience rating in China after 2 weeks of its debut.  The sudden popularity led to more and more TV stations rushing to produce dating reality shows, and the majority gets even higher ratings from critics, from media, the Chinese government and common Chinese citizens. Method: Quantitative analysis of a multi-question online survey by logistic regression to determine whether certain variables, identified through academic research, correlate with satisfaction and use by audiences. Result: There are three types of audience. One is eager to get married and aims at finding true love through dating shows or getting some guidance for finding their perfect match. The second is already married and consider their relationship with their spouse to be a major life issue.  They will hope to receive beneficial advice from watching dating shows. The third type simply watches for entertainment, to relax after a day of harsh work and study.  All the audiences watch dating shows, more or less trust on the authenticity of TV and dating shows.

This essay aims to investigate how gender is constructed, represented, and reproduced in the reality dating shows Hotell Romantik and Love Island Sverige. Additionally, it explores whether generational differences affect these representations. To investigate this, a critical discourse analysis and a comparative analysis of the programs are employed. Theories used include encoding/decoding theory, gender theory, feminist critical theory, and discourse analysis. Fairclough's three-dimensional framework was utilized to analyze two specific themes: the description of the ideal partner and the selection of a partner. The results indicate that while both programs adhere to traditional gender norms, they also challenge them to some extent. Notably, women in both programs take the initial step in partner selection, contrasting with traditional norms. The study also reveals a strong emphasis on physical attributes among participants, a focus present in both shows that cannot be solely explained by age differences. In the comparative analysis, we found both similarities and differences in the programs that could be related to the age of the participants. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the multifaceted nature of gender representation in reality dating shows, shedding light on their implications for societal perceptions and norms. Our findings reveal that reality dating shows play a crucial role in the construction, representation, and reproduction of gender, simultaneously reinforcing and challenging traditional gender norms.

Romance reality programming has become a major player in the television field, with the most successful shows garnering huge ratings and massive audiences over the course of numerous seasons. But while the concept of finding love in a competitive environment on the national stage is new, romance reality TV programs seem to regenerate outdated stereotypes which work in a retrograde fashion to envisage love in traditional, pre-feminist heteronormative and patriarchal structures. Combining a background of literature on reality TV which gives insight to the manipulative tendencies of the industry; feminist scholarship on the acculturating and indoctrinating nature of classic fairy tales; and writings on the prevalence of postfeminist ideology that emphasizes self-surveillance/subjectification, the rhetoric of self-empowerment, and natural differences between the sexes, this thesis examines one of the most ubiquitous romance reality shows, The bachelor. Through the lens of nine tropes--beauty, passivity, marriage, victimization, vilification, romance rhetoric, gender roles, consumerism, and the male gaze--I analyze a full season of episodes, tallying the occurrences in each category. Using these tally numbers as general indicators and providing examples of each theme, I argue that the lessons conveyed to audiences by The bachelor and other romance reality programs bear a striking resemblance to classic fairy tales morals in which positive outcomes for heroines directly correlate to their perceived femininity, including conventionally feminine virtues like physical beauty, moral turpitude, and adherence to normative gender roles. The presence of postfeminism in the media contributes to making these outdated fairy tales themes seem congruent with female agency and empowerment by uncritically casting the failure to find love as a personal one. At the same time, men are placed in advantageous positions of authority and power, affirming the inevitability and desirability of patriarchal relationship arrangements. / text

Reality TV is a well-appreciated concept in the world of entertainment. The purpose of this study is to approach the viewing of reality television, with the intention to explore if men and women react to and interpret gender roles differently in a chosen reality TV show. Further social factors, such as nationality, age, sexuality and education will simultaneously play a crucial part in the analysis. The Swedish adaption of the well-known format The Bachelor was chosen for this case study to examine if the situations in the show would provoke different reactions and interpretations among the respondents. The thesis delivers two qualitative methodological approaches to capture the reactions and interpretations among the test persons. A focus group discussion with eight Finnish men and women was conducted along with eight individual interviews with Swedish men and women, with the intention of gaining insightful and valuable knowledge regarding how men and women interpret what they see. The study’s findings suggest that there are both differences and similarities among men and women in their reactions and interpretations of gender roles in the chosen show, and that further social factors aid and affect in constructing the different interpretations.