Consuming Reality

Engaging in a comprehensive examination of reality TV's advertising and promotional strategies, as well as the commodification of viewers, Consuming Reality dissects the unique and startling relation between mediation and consumption.

TIMELY: Reality TV has been around for more than a decade and continues to garner tremendous ratings through such shows as Jersey Shore, Dancing with the Stars, and The Bachelor. UNIQUE: No previous study on Reality TV addresses Deery's sustained argument about the commercial and PR dimensions of RTV and its position in a new media economy. CONTROVERSIAL: Argues that Reality TV needs to be taken more seriously as an indicator of, and participant in, the contemporary sociopolitical scene.

Autorentext
June Deery is Associate Professor of Media at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA, and is the author of Reality TV (2015) as well several articles on television and new media.

Klappentext

Consuming Reality examines TV's response to the increasing pressure to brand content in a post-advertising era. June Deery's comprehensive analysis of the commercial practices found in popular reality programming reveals links to larger trends such as the sentimental dissemination of capitalist and nationalist ideologies, the professionalization of social relationships (including conceptions of self), and the mainstreaming of PR techniques in everyday life. Examining topics such as reality formats as pseudo-events, product placement, donorship, TV-web branding, making over homes/bodies as properties, consumer identity and pathology, Disney, and the American Dream, this book engages in a comprehensive examination of RTV's advertising and promotional strategies, as well as the commodification of viewers, of TV participants, of ideologies, dreams, and ideas.

Inhalt
Commercial Participation: Advertising and Beyond
Public Relations
Nation Building
Caring Capitalism
Retail TV
Mixed Blessings
The Body Project