Charity shows are not uncommon nowadays, each raising millions of dollars per show. Charity shows employ different methods to draw audiences and increase viewership as well as the number of calls made to donate. Methods include making artistes perform outrageous stunts, getting choirs (especially children choirs) to sing songs, and lastly, holding marathons for people to join.
Personally, I feel that a charity should revolve around true concern and love; concern of others’ welfare, love for helping the needy. Many people around the world suffer from a diversity of malaises, ranging from cancer to paralysis; on top of this, many people do not have money for lodging, food and clothes, let alone money for treating illnesses. The love to help is something that can be instilled in an individual, but making artistes perform stunts on national television is not the way to do it. Firstly, it does not inculcate the sense of generosity and love in the audience. I do not see how people dangling from harnesses, climbing tall towers, balancing on cartons of eggs and even lying on a bed of nails have anything to do with the needy. Instead, these charity organizations make use of entertainment as a means to “milk” the audience of their money.
Singaporeans are known to be “kiasu” (fear of losing, though in current times, this word is used more loosely), hence making them call in to donate to charity can be hard. This I do not deny, yet there are other acceptable ways of rallying support for the donation. Examples are a choir singing a sad song, relevant to the needy of course, as well as a marathon. These examples show that people actually care and support the needy. Participating in the marathon shows one’s support to the needy; being moved by a sad song also shows one’s feelings for the needy.
Performing stunts on national television reminds me of Fear Factor, though charity shows have nothing to do with it. By calling in to donate after watching your favourite artistes perform acrobatic, somewhat graceful stunts in midair, only goes to show that one does not truly care for the needy, but rather, called in because of the spectacular display happening in the box right in front of them, vaguely like paying for a movie. I feel that the right way to conduct a charity show would be to invite choirs to sing songs about the needy and their sad plight and employ people to perform a skit. A good example of the former would be “American Idol Gives Back”, whereby American Idol candidates and previous winners sing songs to raise money for the needy elsewhere in the world.
There is no need for artistes to perform stunts to milk the public’s compassion and money, as this defeats the purpose of a charity. Indeed, one of the purposes of a charity would be to raise money for the needy, but the main purpose, the purpose that many people do not see, is to help instill a sense of love, care and concern in the audience. There are those who argue that getting artistes to perform stunts is essential, as viewership will shoot up, and the money donated will sharply increase. We cannot deny that artistes will attract audiences, but people donate only because the artistes have put in a lot of hard work, instead of taking pity on the needy.
In conclusion, charity shows should reach out to the hearts of the audience, invoking emotional response. I do not see the point of getting artistes to perform stunts just to increase viewership. I believe that everyone has a heart, and the proper way to conduct charity show would be to melt one’s heart. To put it shortly, the subject of pity should not be the artistes, but the needy.
