Sustaining Power Through Reality TV Discourse

Abstract

(Department of Sociology, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut)Reality TV: Remaking Television Culture , edited by Susan Murray and LaurieOuellette. New York: New York University Press, 2004. 352 pp. $65.00(cloth). ISBN: 0Ð8147Ð5687Ð5. $22.00 (paper). ISBN: 0Ð8147Ð5688Ð3.Talking Trash: The Cultural Politics of Daytime TV Talk Shows , by Julie EngelManga. New York: New York University Press, 2003. 264 pp. $60.00(cloth). ISBN: 0Ð8147Ð5683Ð2. $22.00 (paper). ISBN: 0Ð8147Ð5684Ð0.The Money Shot: Trash, Class, and the Making of TV Talk Shows, by LauraGrindsta . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002. 325 pp. $65.00(cloth). ISBN: 0Ð226Ð30909Ð6. $20.00 (paper). ISBN: 0Ð226Ð30911Ð8.While scholarly analyses of reality TV and its daytime talk show vari-ants are increasing, research has just begun to examine how guests, pro-duction sta , and viewers make sense of these shows. Research on talkshows and reality TV usually focus on their content Omaking claimsabout what the shows OareO or the possibilities they represent, taking arange of positionsO (Manga, p. 7). GamsonOs (1998) study on talk showsand sexual nonconformity exempli “es research in this area with its con-tention that talk shows facilitate the development of new discursive prac-tices when they publicize the lives of marginalized groups. Speci“cally,he argues that reality TV provides people who are largely excluded fromthe public sphere with a communal venue for normalizing their beingand cultural identities.The three works under review o er a more extensive critique of real-ity TVOs discursive production using various approaches. The “rst assesseshow reality TV viewers make sense of these shows, the second investigates