Description
This is a collection of essays on the topic of reality television. The essays explore the various implications of reality television for society, culture, and television itself.
"Reality TV" has rapidly come to occupy a place at the forefront of contemporary television culture on an international scale. This collection responds to this shift by analyzing the terrain of this genre--its range of economic, technological and cultural implications for our understanding of television as both an object of study and a contemporary cultural form. Recognizing how definitions of Reality TV are contentious, the collection examines a range of programs which claim a privileged relation to "the real," from: Candid Camera, Big Brother, Survivor, The Osbournes, he Real World and A Wedding Story, to the spheres of "real crime" programming and make-over TV. Adopting an interdisciplinary focus, these essays cover Reality TV in its myriad forms, examining historical precendents, the international nature of its circulation and consumption, and exploring the key debates which Reality TV has put on our social, cultural and televisual agendas. Topics covered include surveillance, the construction of celebrity, temporality in Reality TV, the politics of representation (with case studies considering the construction of community, women, gay identity and "class"), and audience responses and fandom.
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