Includes bibliographical references (pages 229-240) and index.
Between the new medium and the old -- The promise of digital revolution -- Rediscovering reality -- The kinder, gentler gaze of Big Brother -- Access to the real -- It's all about the experience -- Reality TV and voyeurism -- Survivor and uncanny capitalism.
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Drawing on cultural theory and interviews with fans, cast members, and producers, this book places the reality TV trend within a broader social context, tracing its relationship to the development of a digitally enhanced, surveillance-based interactive economy and to a savvy mistrust of mediated reality in general. Surveying several successful reality-TV formats, the book links the rehabilitation of 'Big Brother' to the increasingly important economic role played by the work of being watched. The author enlists critical social theory to examine how the appeal of 'the real' is deployed as a pervasive but false promise of democratization.
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002.