Reality TV

Susan Murray

ISBN 10: 0814757332 / ISBN 13: 9780814757338

Published by New York University Press, US, 2008

About this Item

A collection of eight essays that parse out the seemingly unprecedented rise of reality television The Apprentice. Project Runway. The Bachelor. My Life on the D-list. Extreme Makeover. American Idol. It is virtually impossible to turn on a television without coming across some sort of reality programming. Yet, while this genre has rapidly moved from the fringes of television culture to its lucrative core, critical attention has not kept pace. Beginning by unearthing its historical roots in early reality shows like Candid Camera and wending its way through An American Family and The Real World to the most recent crop of reality programs, Reality TV, now updated with eight new essays, is one of the first books to address the economic, visual, cultural, audience, and new media dimensions of reality television and has become the standard in the field. The essays provide a complex and comprehensive picture of how and why this genre emerged, what it means, how it differs from earlier television programming, and how it engages societies, industries, and individuals. Topics range from the blending of fact and fiction, to the uses of viewer labor and "interactivity," to issues of surveillance, gender performativity, hyper-commercialism, and generic parody. By spanning reality television's origins in the late 1940s to its current overwhelming popularity, Reality TV demonstrates both the tenacity of the format and its enduring ability to speak to our changing political and social desires and anxieties.

Seller Inventory # LU-9780814757338

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Reality TV
• Publisher: New York University Press, US
• Publication Date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0814757332
• ISBN 13: 9780814757338
• Binding: Hardback
• Edition: 2nd Edition
• Condition: New
• Weight: 635 grams

About this title

Synopsis

A collection of eight essays that parse out the seemingly unprecedented rise of reality television

The Apprentice. Project Runway. The Bachelor. My Life on the D-list. Extreme Makeover. American Idol. It is virtually impossible to turn on a television without coming across some sort of reality programming. Yet, while this genre has rapidly moved from the fringes of television culture to its lucrative core, critical attention has not kept pace.

Beginning by unearthing its historical roots in early reality shows like Candid Camera and wending its way through An American Family and The Real World to the most recent crop of reality programs, Reality TV, now updated with eight new essays, is one of the first books to address the economic, visual, cultural, audience, and new media dimensions of reality television and has become the standard in the field. The essays provide a complex and comprehensive picture of how and why this genre emerged, what it means, how it differs from earlier television programming, and how it engages societies, industries, and individuals. Topics range from the blending of fact and fiction, to the uses of viewer labor and “interactivity,” to issues of surveillance, gender performativity, hyper-commercialism, and generic parody.

By spanning reality television’s origins in the late 1940s to its current overwhelming popularity, Reality TV demonstrates both the tenacity of the format and its enduring ability to speak to our changing political and social desires and anxieties.

About the Authors

Susan Murray is Associate Professor of Media, Culture and Communication at New York University. She is the author of Hitch Your Antenna to the Stars: Early Television and Broadcast Stardom.

Laurie Ouellette is jointly appointed as Professor of Communication Studies and Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature. She is the author of Lifestyle TV (2016) co-editor (with Jonathan Gray) of Keywords in Media Studies (2017), co-author of Better Living Through Reality TV: Television and Post-Welfare Citizenship (2008), author of Viewers Like You? How Public Television Failed the People (2002), co-editor of Reality TV: Remaking Television Culture (2009), editor of The Media Studies Reader (2012), and editor of A Companion to Reality Television (2014).