Adolescent Motivations for Reality Television Viewing: An Exploratory Study

With the recent growth of reality television programing and its appeal to adolescent viewers, marketers, advertisers, and public policy experts need to understand what motivations drive adolescents to watch reality programs. By understanding adolescent viewer motivations, professionals will be able to craft effective marketing strategies and develop public policy programs for improving the welfare of adolescents. This research involves an exploratory study that examines adolescents' motivations for watching reality programs through a content analysis of free-response data from a national sample of 800 adolescents in the United States, members of a Harris Online panel. Theoretical, managerial, and public policy implications of the findings are discussed. (c) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.