The rhetoric of reality television

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Reality programs have transformed televison, pushing many traditional narratives such as miniseries, sitcoms, and movies of the week off the dial. Because of the genre’s roots in documentary, many scholars and critics have condemned reality televison for its perceived lack of formal appropriateness and for how it uses documentary conventions for sensational purposes. Examining four representative programs, this book takes a different position, arguing that reality television has more in common with traditional narrative programs than with documentary: its rhetoric is a narrative rhetoric. Whereas documentaries tend to use argument as a primary mode within which narration may figure, reality programs operate within a primarily narrative mode, telling dramatic stories about “real” people. And the success of the reality television phenomenon may be due to those very narrative structures it employs to order and construct its reality. This book will interest those in the fields of Communications, Rhetoric, Film Studies, Television Studies, Media Studies, and Popular Culture Studies.