Reality TV

Annette Hill is a Professor of Media at Lund University, Sweden. Her research focuses on audiences, with interests in media experiences, everyday life, genres and cultures of viewing. Her most recent book is Paranormal Media (2011). Her forthcoming title is Media Experiences (2016).

• 1. Introduction 2. Big Brother Moment 3. Performance of the Self 4. Reality TV Experiences 5. Reality and Sports Entertainment 6. Connclusion

‘Reality Television’ is the loose label used to cover a very wide range of popular programmes, including work of creative intelligence and of exploitative distortion. Hill concisely reviews existing research and debate in order to explore further how diverse forms of factual entertainment actually work as viewing experiences and to ask what kind of values are involved.John Corner, Professor in Communication Studies, University of LeedsIn Reality TV Hill takes us through the key moments of this definition-defying form. From the Big Brother house, to the Pro-Wrestler arenas, Hill questions our fascination with the ‘performance of the real’ and our continued search for authenticity. This timely analysis puts Reality TV in the centre of the debate about contemporary culture.Jane Roscoe, Director of the London Film School and former Head of International Content, SBS... Hill discusses the development of reality TV up to Big Brother, and the uses the theory of Erving Goffman to examine performance of the self by participants in reality TV formats... This is a volume for those collecting the rest of the series or who do now own Ouellette's edited collection.S. Clerc, Southern Connecticut State University, USA, in CHOICE