Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2009
Publisher
New York University Press
Abstract
From the sea change in American television in the 1980s emerged a programming trend variously described as “infotainment,” “reality-based television,” “tabloid TV,” “crime-time television,” “trash TV,” and “on-scene shows.” The welter of terms created by television critics to describe these new programs masked their underlying connection as a response to economic restructuring within the industry. In this essay I offer a rough categorization of these programs, sketch the industrial context from which they emerged, and point to the economic problems they were meant to solve. I focus mostly on the distinctive conditions of prime-time series, putting aside made-for-TV docudramas and entire cable channels (such as Court TV) that may have similar production practices and genres.
Chapter of
Editor
S. Murray
L. Ouellette
Recommended Citation
Raphael, C. (2009). The political-economic origins of Reali-TV. In S. Murray & L. Ouellette (Eds.), Reality TV: remaking television culture, 2nd Edition. (pp. 123-140). New York: New York University Press.
Comments
1st edition published in 2004.
Copyright © 2009 New York University Press. Reprinted with permission.