I will illustrate how camera angles and editing strategies are used in episode one of ​The

Real World ​to make Julie seem like a white, sheltered America whose misinformation causes her
to appear racist.
“Nevertheless, throughout the seasons Bunim and Murray have consistently cast
innocent, sheltered, and young white rural Americans in houses with two African Americans
from urban areas. Certainly the seeds of a specific type of racial conflict and misunderstanding
are in the house. In focusing on the culture shock these rural Americans face, the show suggests
that racism is primarily a problem of misinformed individuals.” (Kraszewski, p. 184). When
Bunim and Murray were first creating reality television shows, they knew there needed to be a
conflict within the shows’ casts that gave viewers a reason to watch. Their immediate instinct
was to put people of two very different racial backgrounds into a close proximity to evoke
conflicts of a racial nature. They figured that people with white rural American backgrounds
would be closed minded enough to offend African Americans from urban areas. They strove to
set up a culture shock for these rural Americans in order to create racial conflicts and
misunderstandings that would increase ratings and views. Once these issues were created, these
shows would stress the notion that this racism was created primarily because these individuals
were misinformed and essentially sheltered.
In episode one of the first season of ​The Real World​, Julie is used as the white rural
American, discussed above, to provoke issues of race based on her misunderstandings. The
editing of Julie’s first appearance on screen is compiled of multiple shots showing her hometown
of Birmingham, Alabama. She is shown sitting on a park bench and states where she is from. The
editing cuts to a few different shots around the city, and includes a shot of a Confederate flag.
This was shown specifically to give viewers the first impression that Julie is narrow-minded, and
most likely a racist. The camera angles on Julie are almost always sideways or crooked, to give
her a questionable persona. Even based off of a first impression, she already seems like quite a
character, with a ditzy personality. The editing sequences add to this impression when she tells
the camera that her father wants her to be a computer operator, and the next scene cuts
immediately to Julie dancing in a provocative and colorful outfit. Her dancing also gives off
almost a ditzy quality as it is fast paced and almost spazztic. The viewers’ first sight of Julie’s
culture shock in New York occurs when the entire cast of the first season is sitting together
around the dinner table. Heather’s beeper goes off and Julie says, “Do you sell drugs? Why do
you have a beeper?” The camera angle is far away from Julie when she first says it, but it zooms
in close as she finishes the sentence, almost isolating her from her roommates. The editing then
freezes on Julie’s face, and cuts immediately to an interview with Heather. This cut insinuates
that what Julie said was offensive and Heather should have an opinion on it. I believe that Julie’s
questions might have gone unnoticed if not for the emphasis that the editors placed on her. This
scene placed her in the exact role that the producers wanted her to be in. She appeared to be
nothing more than a sheltered white rural American who did not understand different races. At
then end of the episode, the narrative of Julie’s racism falls right into place with the show’s
claims that racism is just based on misinformation. Julie, the young white rural American, spends
the day with Heather and Kevin, two African Americans from urban areas, and they have a deep
conversation about racism and impressions. The editing cuts back and forth between a
conversation between all three roommates at dinner, and narratives of Kevin and Julie discussing
their acceptance and respect for one another. The camera angles are extremely close up, showing
that the cast members are being their authentic selves, and the viewers feel close and personal
with them. Kevin admits that Julie is most likely just misunderstood and and she discusses how
smart he is. Julie’s part as the sheltered white American falls perfectly into place and all issues of
racism seem to be solved, just like producers had set them up to be, with the help of angles and
editing strategies.