A companion to reality television

"International in scope and more comprehensive than existing collections, A Companion to Reality Television presents a complete guide to the study of reality, factual and nonfiction television entertainment, encompassing a wide range of formats and incorporating cutting-edge work in critical, social and political theory"--

5: Program Format Franchising in the Age of Reality TelevisionOverview; History; Commodifying Commerce and Culture; Program Franchising and Structural Change in the World Television System; Franchising Majors; Researching Format Franchising; Conclusion; References; Part Two: Television Realities; 6: Realism and Reality Formats; Reality and Value; Denotation and Observation; The Significance of Narrative Structure; References; 7: Reality TV Experiences: Audiences, Fact, and Fiction; Reality Television Experiences; Sense and Performance; Cultural Contexts; Conclusion; Research Note.

AcknowledgmentsReferences; 8: From Participatory Video to Reality Television; The Roots of Reality Television: Realism/Participation/Celebrity; Critiques of Media and Culture; Domestic Drama and Simulation; Later Experiments; References; 9: Manufacturing "Massness": Aesthetic Form and Industry Practice in the Reality Television Contest; Historicizing Massness; Qualities of Massness; Massness is aesthetic; Massness is spatial; Massness is demographic; Massness is logical; Implications of Massness; Conclusion; References; 10: God, Capitalism, and the Family Dog; Meeting the Dog and His Family.

Cover; Title page; Copyright page; Contents; Notes on Contributors; Introduction; Studying Reality Television; What Is Reality Television?; Part Overviews; References; Part One: Producing Reality; 1: Mapping Commercialization in Reality Television; Paid Programming: The Branding of Broadcast Content; "Made possible by"; Social television; Merchandising; Commercialization of and by participants; Cutting Costs; Commercialization as Topic; Strategic consumption; Hyperconsumption as spectacle; Business reps; References; 2: Reality Television and the Political Economy of Amateurism.

Making Meaning: The Family DogThe Chapmans: Family, Fiction, and Flexibility; Dog the Bounty Hunter: Family Life and Family Work; Bail Bonds 101; Dog's God: Prayer Circles, Sermons in the SUV, Parking-Lot Rituals; The Family, Capitalism, God, and Dog; References; Part Three: Dilemmas of Visibility; 11: The Bachelorette's Postfeminist Therapy: Transforming Women for Love; An Industry; Setting the Scene; Postfeminism and Therapeutic Transformation; A Strategy for Love: Career on the Back Burner; A Risk for Love: Jobless but at a Man's Disposal; Love versus Career: A Gendered Struggle.

The Assault on LaborA Symmetrical Bargain?; References; 3: When Everyone Has Their Own Reality Show; Getting Real; The Work of the Real; Experimental Reality; Productive Surveillance; "Attention Capital" in the Information Economy; Total Information Awareness Resurrected; References; 4: Cast-aways: The Plights and Pleasures of Reality Casting and Production Studies; The Labor of Studying Reality Labor; Casting Work and Commodity Exchange; Casting in "New Economy" Contexts; Cultural Dynamics in Emotion Work; Unwrapping the Wrap; References.