Television tweaks language. Stay tuned.

We ran across TruTV in our channel surfing the other day and locked on to the slogan — Not Reality. Actuality. After I recovered from distant memories of philosophy classes, I actually spent a little time thinking about it. The it’s-not-a-but-a strategy of sloganeering is time tested, of course, (I remember the slogan “It’s not a car. It’s a Volkswagen” came to mind every time I paid to have CV boots replaced) but this particular version from TruTV is a little more profound than most, and a little scary. Considering common definitions it would seem to be one of those distinctions without a difference.

reality |r??al?t?|
noun ( pl. -ties)
1 the world or the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them : he refuses to face reality | Laura was losing touch with reality.

actuality |?ak ch o??alit?|
noun ( pl. -ties)
actual existence, typically as contrasted with what was intended, expected, or believed : the building looked as impressive in actuality as it did in magazines | a mission was sent to investigate the actuality of the situation.

But we know what TruTV is trying to communicate — that so-called “reality” TV is not real. It’s generally scripted in terms of setting and circumstance, even if the people aren’t actors and provide their own chatter. So because the genre was generally misnamed, now we have “Actual” TV — for those times when your actual life just isn’t enough, I guess.

But the point is, television the medium, specifically through the genre of “reality TV” has actually created an Orwellian, contradictory meaning for the word, and TruTV’s sloganeering makes it official.