It Doesn't Have to be All About "GTL": New Reality Show, "BULLIED" Promises to Entertain AND Educate

Reality television is taking over the world. The popularity of this genre of television continues to increase in society. Viewers loyally watch their favorite reality shows even when they get repetitive. Face it. Previously on Jersey Shore: Snooki got wildly intoxicated and woke up somewhere she didn’t belong. Sammi and Ronnie had another fight and Sammi struggled with the difficult decision of whether or not to leave the house. The guys teamed up on their quest to avoid grenades. The entire cast went tanning, and the show’s ratings skyrocketed. Viewers love to watch the same plots weekly. Watching reality TV has become a lifestyle; people have even coined the phrase “Jersday” since Jersey Shore airs on Thursdays. While people take a lot from programs like this, including hilarious quotes, they don’t really take in educational content. GTL is not a prerequisite for life. White Light Productions has decided to use the reality television genre and its popularity as a method of spreading the word about important issues to the public.

The CEO of White Light Productions, Albert Harris Jr., has a goal of spreading the word about bullying actively instead of sitting around and waiting for tragedies to happen. Harris Jr.’s original inspiration behind creating the docudrama, “BULLIED” was the Tyler Clementi tragedy. Albert Harris Jr. expects the shocking and inspiring stories in “BULLIED” to create and spread awareness. It will broadcast real-life stories of bullying as well as reenactments.

This show will be a representation of a large bulk of society, and families will benefit from watching it together, unlike with other reality TV shows. Often, when children are victims of bullying, their parents don’t fully understand what they are going through. The reenactments in “BULLIED” will make it easier for parents to grasp what is really happening to their children and why they are coming home in tears.

“BULLIED” will also display many ways that different people have overcome bullying. This will inspire viewers that are victims of bullying that they can overcome it too. This TV show will give viewers real people to look up to and relate to. Albert Harris Jr. also hopes that the show’s stories and reenactments will be uplifting for parents who have lost loved ones to bullying and moved forward in a positive way; they will have the opportunity to see how some kids have learned to turn bullying around to make the best of their lives.

Albert Harris Jr. Provided me with some examples of stories we can look forward to seeing when they are covered on “BULLIED,” which will be airing soon. The show will also tell the story of a disabled woman who was bullied by her school administrators throughout college. With a doctor on her side, she fought back and won a settlement against the school.

Additionally, Kevin Epling, a father who lost his 13 year old son Matt Epling to suicide, will do narrations through reenactments of his son Matt’s life from the beginning of it to the end of it. Matt was attractive and popular, but also a victim to severe bullying. He reported the bullying to the school, but no action was taken. Kevin Epling will tell his son’s story on “BULLIED” so that others can learn and benefit from it.

White Light Productions is choosing stories from all parts of life, because they don’t think only one side of bullying should be featured. The world needs to know everything about bullying. Using reality television’s popularity as a tool, White Light Productions will spread the word about bullying. I know that I will be one of the many interested, loyal viewers.

For more information on White Light Productions and their inspiring endeavors, please see their Facebook page.

Bullies Versus Victims: War with Words

In the famous rapper, Eminem’s song “Words are Weapons,” he declares, “my words are weapons, I use ‘em to crush my opponents.” In this song, he is describing his tactic of dealing with people who doubt his talent. However, these lyrics can also apply to the way bullies treat their victims. Mean spirited words and actions may not seem a big deal to the people who aren’t the victims of them. When a group of girls wears black on one of their classmates birthdays as a “joke” for example, they might not think about the outfits ever again. Their classmate will remember the hours spent crying in the guidance office forever. People remember avoiding the cafeteria because they weren’t welcome at any of the tables. It doesn’t go away like school goes away after graduation. People remember every piece of food thrown at them when they dared to venture into the cafeteria. It’s the people doing the throwing who are quick to forget. Bullying behavior like this used to be limited to happening in person or during the dreaded prank and devious 3-way phone calls. 


The arrival of the Internet and the social-networking pages has made bullying into a widespread epidemic. When people are online, they can take on personas that are completely different from their real identities. This means if they were already acting mean in person, the comments will get more vicious, the jokes will get more cruel and the victims will get more hurt. A computer screen is like a shield for bullies; it makes them feel invincible. Suddenly, instead of having the burden of saying their abhorrent comments out loud, all they have to do is furiously type these verbal atrocities on a keyboard without facing any person or any consequences. As soon as people recognized the power that the Internet had given them, it became evident that bullying in person and over the phone was merely the calm before the storm. Hurtful instant messages and emails only take a few minutes to send, but people who receive them keep them forever. The publicness of the Internet allows bullies to broadcast their tormenting to further humiliate their victims. Not only have these victims suffered severe damage to the ego, but everybody knows about it.

The technological advances in bullying caused people to fear showing their faces at school. It’s enough that they already have been called a loser, or whatever creative insult some bully managed to come up with, online. Having to see the people who have been tormenting you when you have been disarmed of your confidence can be traumatizing. The severity of this emotional damage goes unnoticed by most; most people can be found hysterically laughing through the genocide of their peers’ self esteem.

Most of the bullies barely even know their victims. They have no idea if they are torturing someone who already suffers from depression. The worse kinds of bullies know that they are dealing with someone who has depression and use the depression as a weapon. It reaches the dangerous point of bullies knowingly or unknowingly taunting people who are suicidal, causing them to have even less of a desire to live.

This became more disastrous with the advent of Facebook, a page that may have been paved with good intentions, but created a whole new world for bullying. Facebook profiles contained a wall where friends could publicly communicate with each other. Unfortunately, bullies had a different use for this wall than friendly conversation. The wall welcomed bullies to taint their victims profiles with public, painful insults. People have the opportunity to comment and contribute to these epithets. More recently, Facebook users were given the opportunity to click “like” on Facebook postings. This means that even if one mean person has the idea to post “you have no friends in real life, so it’s funny that you have so many Facebook friends,” on somebody’s page, 50 other people can click “like,” indicating that they agree. The comment and “like” features also are available for people’s pictures that they have posted on their profiles. A person can log onto Facebook in a perfectly good mood and log off feeling ugly, friendless and worthless. It’s a wonder many people have difficulty succeeding in English classes, but can come up with such creative adjectives to use when publicly abusing someone. As if the verbal abuse is not enough, bullies have also discovered the art of exploiting their victims’ pictures to deepen the wounds that they have already inflicted.

Facebook is not the only place on the Internet where behavior like this occurs. The bullying epidemic became more contagious when people started to use pages such as formspring.me. Those pages allowed users to either make comments or ask questions anonymously. Although this may seem like it has potential to bring people closer together, it got ugly very quickly. People asked invasive, personal questions and posted heinous lies on these pages. This may seem harmless or juvenile, but it really is a war with words. People have resorted to suicide due to unnecessary bullying, and bullying remains an ongoing battle. People have started to take legal action as a result of irreparable damage caused by bullying. It may sound like the days of kindergarden tattletales, but it’s a serious matter. Without increased legal involvement, bullying will continue to damage and destroy innocent lives.