Stanley Milgram, Allen Funt, and Me

Postwar Social Sciences and the First Wave of Reality TV

Who is Milgram, Funt & Siepmann? First Wave of reality TV Links to the Social Sciences
Chrissy Keeley Genna Preston Antonio Ferrera

Important People
Charles Siepmann: important TV and radio critic in Postwar time, advocate of public service broadcasting
Allen Funt: Created some of the first candid shows including Candid Camera, Children of the UN, and What do you Say to a Naked Lady Stanley Milgram: Social Scientist from Yale who used Funts work as a template for their experimental situations (Milgrams experiment).

First Wave Reality TV

Emerged in the 1950s Different from the normal propaganda films, industrial films to human interest stories

Advocated for social change by examining cultural values and social issues. For example a hidden camera film on the judiciary system: Jury Duty which showed all the ways people tried to get out of jury duty.
Candid Camera was a very funny reality TV show

Omnibus: show that was designed to appeal to minority taste group. Viewers were looking to better themselves in cultural understanding, education, and responsible citizenship

Links to the Social Sciences

Ford Foundation: funded cultural programs and studies
Culture from the perspective of the Ford Foundation, was all about producing an American populace capable of stepping up to the challenge of citizenship in an internationalist United States. In 1955 they paid Funt for his Omnibus films Also in 1955 they gave money to Milgram to finance his research in behavioral sciences

 Reality TV shows like Candid Camera used deception and manipulation.

Links to the Social Sciences

Stanley Milgram who conducted experiments about obedience may have modeled his famously unethical shock experiment after Candid Camera While there is no direct evidence that linked Milgrams work to Funts Candid Camera there is plenty of evidence that suggests that Milgram modeled his experiment on the reality TV series
Both created situations in which unwitting individuals are observed responding to, and performing within, unusual or extreme social situations and even their dependence on ordinary people.

Links to the Social Sciences

Many social scientists became interested in Candid Camera because the predictability of human behavior was heavily funded mainly because of the Cold War Candid Camera also showed the conformity to obedience

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=GlIyD15KS6s

Candid Situations What if a dying relative asked for assistance in Euthanasia?

What if you found a wallet on the floor with $300 and ID? What if you a someone beating their child in public?

Conclusion

1914-1999