Full Description
Trans-Reality Television: The Transgression of Reality, Genre, Politics, and Audience offers an overview of contributions which engage with the phenomenon of reality television as a tool to reflect on societal and mediated transformations and transgressions. While some contributors delve deep into the theoretical issues, others approach the topic at hand through empirical studies of specific reality television formats and programs. The chapters in this volume are divided into four sections, all of which deal with how we see the fluid social at work in reality television through the trans-real, trans-politics, trans-genre, and trans-audience. The first section stresses the concept of the trans-real. These chapters go into the complexity of the construction of reality in reality television. The second section, which deals with the concept of trans-politics, offers a diversity of perspectives on the articulation and re-articulation of politics and the political. In the third section, trans-genre, the chapters analyze how the modern conceptualizations of genre and format are transcended. Finally, the last set of chapters articulate the concept of trans-audiences, using case studies of particular audiences and a study of reality celebrities. Trans-Reality Television concludes by returning to the sense and nonsense of the use of these 'post' concepts.
Contents
Part 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Trans-reality TV as a site of contingent reality Part 3 I: Trans-Reality Chapter 4 1: A Short Introduction to Trans-Reality Chapter 5 2: The Spectacle of the Real and Whatever Other Constructions Chapter 6 3: On the Media Representation of Reality: Peirce and Auerbach-two Unlikely Guests in the Big Brother house Chapter 7 4: Reality TV and Reality of TV. How Much Reality is there in Reality TV Shows? A Critical Approach. Chapter 8 5: Trans-Professionalism Undone? The 2007 British TV Scandals Part 9 II: Trans-Politics Chapter 10 6: A Short Introduction to Trans-Politics and the Trans-Political Chapter 11 7: Post-Democracy, Hegemony and Invisible Power. The Reality TV Media Professional as Primum Movens Immobile Chapter 12 8: Punitive Reality TV. Televizing Punishment and the Production of Law and Order Chapter 13 9: After Politics, What is Left is the Police. Police Videos and the Neo-Liberal Order Chapter 14 10: Hijacking the Branded Self. Reality TV and the Politics of Subversion Part 15 III: Trans-Genre Chapter 16 11: A Short Introduction to Trans-Genre Chapter 17 12: Genre as Discursive Practice and the Governmentality of Formatting in Post-Documentary TV Chapter 18 13: Trans-National Reality TV. A Comparative Study of the UK's and Norway's Wife Swap Part 19 IV: Trans-Audience Chapter 20 14: A Short Introduction to Trans-Audience Chapter 21 15: Trans-Audiencehood of Big Brother. Discourses of Fans, Producers and Participants Chapter 22 16: Reality TV and "Ordinary" People. Re-visiting Celebrity, Performance and Authenticity Chapter 23 17: Lifestyle TV. Critical attitudes towards "banal" programming Chapter 24 18: The politics of the prefix. From "post" to "trans" (and back)? Chapter 25 Index 27 About the Authors
