UNDERSTANDING REALITY TELEVISION / Edition 1

by Su Holmes, Deborah Jermyn

Overview

'Popular Factual Programming' has rapidly come to occupy a place at the forefront of contemporary television culture on an international scale. Tracing the history of reality TV from Candid Camera to The Osbournes, Understanding Reality Television examines a range of programmes which claim to depict 'real life', from reality formatted game shows to 'real crime' programming and make-over TV. Contributors discuss the phenonenon of reality TV in the context of the debates it has introduced to our social, cultural and televisual agendas, such as the construction of celebrity, fandom, surveillance and the politics of representation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415317955
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/11/2003
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

'Su Holmes is a Lecturer in Media with Cultural Studies at Southampton Institute. She has published widely on the early relations between British television and film culture in journals such as Screen, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television and Journal of Popular British Cinema. She is currently writing on a book on the early cinema programme on British television, and is working more widely on the subject of Reality TV'.
Deborah Jermyn is a Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at University of Surrey, Roehampton. She has published widely on crime and the media, and women and popular culture, including articles in Screen, Feminist Media Studies and The International Journal of Cultural Studies. She is also the co-editor of The Reader in Audience Studies (Routledge, 2002) and The Cinema of Kathryn Bigelow: Hollywood Transgressor(Wallflower Press, 2003)

Table of Contents

Introduction: Su Holmes and Deborah Jermyn
1. Candid Camera and the Origins of Reality TV: Contextualizing a Historical Precedent: Bradley D. Clissold
2. From Ozzie Nelson to Ozzy Osbourne: The Genesis and Development of the Reality (star) Sitcom: Jennifer Gillan
3. "This Is About Real People!": Video Technologies, Actuality and Affect in the Television Crime Appeal: Deborah Jermyn
4. Reality TV, Troublesome Pictures and Panics: Reappraising the Public Controversy Around Reality TV in Europe: Daniel Bilteryest
5. "All You've Got to Worry About is the Task, Having a Cup of Tea, and Doing a Bit of Sunbathing...": Approaching Celebrity in Big Brother: Su Holmes
6. Temporalities of the Real: Conceptualizing Time in Reality TV: Misha Kavka and Amy West
7. In Search of Community on Reality TV: America's Most Wanted and Survivor: Gray Cavender
8. "The New You": Class and Transformation in Lifestyle Television: Gareth Palmer
9. Gender, Class and Race in TLC's A Wedding Story and A Baby Story: Rebecca L. Stephens
10. The Household, the Basement and The Real World: Gay Identity and the Constructed Reality Environment: Chris Pullen
11. "It Isn't Always Shakespeare But it's Genuine": Cinema's Commentary on Documentary Hybrids: Craig Hight
12. Big Brother: Reconfiguring the "Active" Audience of Cultural Studies?: Estella Tincknell and Pavrati Raghuram
13. "Jump in the Pool": The Competitive Culture of Survivor Fan Networks: Derek Foster
14. Afterword: John Corner