Binding: Paperback
Description: Named a Best Nonfiction Book of 2022 by Esquire A sociological study of reality TV that explores its rise as a culture - dominating medium and what the genre reveals about our attitudes toward race gender class and sexuality. What do we see when we watch reality television? In True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us the sociologist and TV lover Danielle J. Lindemann takes a long hard look in the funhouse mirror of this genre from countless rose ceremonies on The Bachelor to the White House and more (so much more!). Beginning with the first episodes of The Real World reality TV has not only remade our entertainment and cultural landscape it also uniquely refracts our everyday experiences and social topography. By taking reality TV seriously we can better understand key institutions (such as families schools and prisons) and broad social categories (such as gender race class and sexuality). These shows have the ability to unveil the major circuits of power that organize our lives and the extent to which our own realities are in fact socially constructed. Whether we re watching conniving Survivor contestants or three - year - old beauty queens these guilty pleasures underscore how conservative our society remains and how steadfastly we cling to our notions about what counts as legitimate or real. At once an entertaining chronicle of reality TV obsession and a pioneering work of sociology True Story reflects our society back to us: what we see in the looking glass may not always be pretty but we can t stop watching.
Title: True Story What Reality Tv Says About Us
Author(s): Lindemann Danielle J.
Publisher: St Martin's Press
Barcode: 9781250862945
Pages: 352 Pages, Notes, References, Index
Publication Date: 2/14/2023
Category: Media Studies