Big Brother: Reality TV in the Twenty-first Century

Preface and Acknowledgements - Introduction - PART 1: GENESIS - Introduction - The Documentary Heritage - The Possibilities of Production Technologies - Television Institutions - Risking Reality TV - Reality TV as the End of Documentary History - Case Study: Wife Swap - PART 2: THE WORLD IS WATCHING - Introduction - Reality TV and Theories of Globalization - International Programmes and Formats from Britain - The Globalization of Privacy Publicized - Reality TV and Television Scheduling - The Globalization of Insitutional Forms - Local Regulatory Cultures - Case study: Big Brother as a Transnational Property - Conclusion - PART 3: REALITY TV - Introduction - Generic Conventions and Docusoap - Docusoap, Ordinariness and Celebrity - The Aesthetics of Reality TV - Reality TV and the Public Sphere - The Passion and Revelation of the Real - Narration and Mediation - Case Study: The House Series; Simulation, Recreation and Education - Conclusion - PART 4: DRAMA - Introduction - Narrative Forms - Performance and Genre - Characters - Melodrama - Dramatizing Gender - Reality TV and the Displacement of Drama - From Docusoap to Drama - Case Study: The Cruise, Performance and Authenticity - Conclusion - PART 5: SURVEILLANCE - Introduction - The Prison of Real - Spaces of Surveillance - Discipline and Confession - Rights and Regulations - Threat and Reassurance - Car Crash TV - Case Study: Witnessing and Helping in Crimewatch UK - Conclusion - PART 6: BIG BROTHER CULTURE - Introduction - Cross-platform and Intermedial Texts - Audience Composition and Modes of Address - Audience Perceptions of Reality TV - Television Institution and Reality TV Audiences - Television Talk and Gossip - Poaching and Fandom - Case Study: The Osbournes, Celebrity and Multi-accentuality - Conclusion - CONCLUSION - Bibliography - Index

JONATHAN BIGNELL is Professor of Television and Film at the University of Reading, UK, and is Director of the Centre for Television Drama Studies. He has written many books and articles, including British Television Drama: Past Present and Future, 2000 (edited with S. Lacey and M. MacMurraugh-Kavanagh).