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Addresses the economic, visual, cultural, audience, and new media dimensions of reality television

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction Laurie Ouellette and Susan Murray Part I Genre * 1 "Stanley Milgram, Allen Funt and Me" Anna McCarthy * 2 Performing the Real: Documentary Diversions (with Afterword) John Corner * 3 "I Think We Need a New Name for It" Susan Murray * 4 Teaching Us to Fake It Nick Couldry * 5 Extraordinarily Ordinary Derek Kompare Part II Industry 6 The Political Economic Origins of Reali-TV Chad Raphael * 7 Television 2.0 Ted Magder * 8 Hoaxing the "Real" Alison Hearn * 9 Global TV Realities John McMurria Part III Culture and Power * 10 Country Hicks and Urban Cliques Jon Kraszewski * 11 "Take Responsibility for Yourself" Laurie Ouellette * 12 Belabored Reality Heather Hendershot * 13 Cinderella Burps Jonathan Gray * 14 The Comedic Treatment of Reality: Kathy Griffin Heather Osborne-Thompson Part IV Interactivity * 15 Melancholy, Merit, and Merchandise Amber Watts * 16 Visceral Literacy Mark Andrejevic 17 Buying into American Idol Henry Jenkins About the Contributors Index

About the Author

Susan Murray is Associate Professor of Media, Culture and Communication at New York University. She is the author of Hitch Your Antenna to the Stars: Early Television and Broadcast Stardom. Laurie Ouellette is Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota, where she teaches media and cultural studies. She writes about television, media culture, social theory, and consumer culture, and is the co-author of Better Living Through Reality TV: Television and Post-Welfare Citizenship and editor of A Companion to Reality Television, among other books.

Reviews

Praise for the First Edition: "Offers the most insightful and significant scholarly analysis to date of the changes taking place in the economic 'globalization' of television production. A delight to read, laced with wit and humor." Choice Praise for the Second Edition: "Provides both the record of a strange moment in history and a contribution to contemporary cultural politics. This second, revised edition brings the story right up to the present with a compelling blend of the ancient and the modern." Toby Miller, editor of Television & New Media