Overview
Named a Best Nonfiction Book of 2022 by Esquire
A sociological study of reality TV that explores its rise as a culture-dominating mediumāand what the genre reveals about our attitudes toward race, gender, class, and sexuality.
What do we see when we watch reality television?
In True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us, the sociologist and TV lover Danielle J. Lindemann takes a long, hard look in the āfunhouse mirrorā of this genre, from countless rose ceremonies on The Bachelor to the White House and more (so much more!). Beginning with the first episodes of The Real World, reality TV has not only remade our entertainment and cultural landscapeāit also uniquely refracts our everyday experiences and social topography.
By taking reality TV seriously, we can better understand key institutions (such as families, schools, and prisons) and broad social categories (such as gender, race, class, and sexuality). These shows have the ability to unveil the major circuits of power that organize our lives and the extent to which our own realities are, in fact, socially constructed.
Whether weāre watching conniving Survivor contestants or three-year-old beauty queens, these āguilty pleasuresā underscore how conservative our society remains, and how steadfastly we cling to our notions about what counts as legitimate or āreal.ā At once an entertaining chronicle of reality TV obsession and a pioneering work of sociology, True Story reflects our society back to us: what we see in the looking glass may not always be pretty, but we canāt stop watching.
This book title, True Story (What Reality TV Says About Us) - 9781250862945, ISBN: 9781250862945, by Danielle J. Lindemann, PhD, published by Picador (February 14, 2023) is available in paperback. Our minimum order quantity is 25 copies. All standard bulk book orders ship FREE in the continental USA and delivered in 4-10 business days.
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