Reality TV : the work of being watched / Mark Andrejevic.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Andrejevic, Mark, 1964-

Series:

Critical media studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Reality television programs.

Television broadcasting--Social aspects.

Television broadcasting.

Physical Description:

x, 253 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Md. : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, [2004]

Summary:

Drawing on cultural theory and interviews with fans, cast members, and producers, this book places the reality TV trend within a broader social context, tracing its relationship to the development of a digitally enhanced, surveillance-based interactive economy and to a savvy mistrust of mediated reality in general. Surveying several successful reality-TV formats, the book links the rehabilitation of 'Big Brother' to the increasingly important economic role played by the work of being watched. The author enlists critical social theory to examine how the appeal of 'the real' is deployed as a pervasive but false promise of democratization.

Contents:

1 Between the New Medium and the Old 1

2 The Promise of the Digital Revolution 23

3 Rediscovering Reality 61

4 The Kinder, Gentler Gaze of Big Brother 95

5 Access to the Real 117

6 It's All about the Experience 143

7 Reality TV and Voyeurism 173

8 Survivor and Uncanny Capitalism 195.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 229-240) and index.

ISBN:

0742527476

0742527484

OCLC:

51966275