Reality TV: Realism and Revelation

by Anita Biressi, Heather Nunn

Overview

This book analyses new and hybrid genres of television including observational documentaries, talk shows, game shows, docu-soaps, dramatic reconstructions, law and order programming and 24/7 formats such as Big Brother and Survivor.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781904764045
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	05/11/2005
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Anita Biressi is senior lecturer in cultural and media studies at University of Surrey, Roehampton. She is the author of Crime, Fear and the Law in True Crime Stories (2001).

Heather Nunn is senior lecturer in cultural studies at University of Surrey, Roehampton. She is the author of Thatcher, Politics and Fantasy: The Political Culture of Gender and Nation (2002).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Reality debates
2. Real lives, documentary approaches
3. Just being themselves: from docudrama to new observational documentary
4. Personalising the documentary: from video diary to Errol Morris
5. Therapeutic culture: narcissism and self-revelation
6. Trauma as popular cultural script: from talk show to lifestyle programming
7. Video justice: reality crime television
8. Man in a glass box
Conclusion: 'Reach for the stars': celebrity, social mobility and the future of reality TV
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

The theories presented are many, but all cohere around a central and persuasive thesis.

Times Literary Supplement - Matt Warman

Recommended.

Choice

The theories presented are many, but all cohere around a central and persuasive thesis.

— Matt Warman

Times Literary Supplement