Helping others is very prevalent in today’s culture. One can easily find groups of people in any community who have gathered together to make someone’s life better and/or easier. Although helping others has always been a core value to most, action is taken more often due to public awareness and acknowledgement initiated from the media. For example, there is a television show on Sunday nights that airs on ABC in which a family, who is typically facing some sort of devastation, is chosen to receive a new home makeover. The show is appropriately called Extreme Makeover Home Addition.
The show is not as simplistic as it sounds. First, the show focuses on a chosen family and gives the viewers a synopsis of why they need help. This includes background information on the family, seeing their current living situation, and information on what would happen to the family if they did not receive help (Extreme makeover, 2010). In most cases the family’s situation is devastating, such as the family having a seriously ill child and being overwhelmed with medical bills. Because of this situation, home repairs have been neglected to the point that the house should not be lived in.
This immediately results in the viewer having an emotional connection with the family and wanting to see them receive help. The family is then sent on a week long trip, typically to Disney World, while the house is torn down and replaced with a home that mirrors that of the American Dream. The best part about the show however, is that the entire community in which the family lives, comes together to help build their new home. Not only do the viewers get to see the family receive a new home, they get to watch the show’s cast, and the families community, build it.
Once the home is complete, the family returns. The family’s reactions and looks on their faces when seeing their new home brings much satisfaction and heartfelt emotion to the viewer. At the beginning of the show one feels empathy and sorrow for the family. They are faced with hard times and can barely make it by. At the end of the show, one is elated to see the once broken hearted and down on their luck family receive what everyone wants; a home equal to that of the American Dream.
Shows like these play a major role in influencing others to get involved. Seeing how a community can come together and help an entire family live a better life in a matter of days is motivating. Shows like this help turn thoughts into actions. More important, shows like this help create popular culture that is worth talking about.
ABC. (2010). Extreme makeover home addition. Retrieved from
http://abc.go.com/shows/extreme-makeover-home-edition/
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