Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Reality debates
2. Real lives, documentary approaches
3. Just being themselves: from docudrama to new observational documentary
4. Personalising the documentary: from video diary to Errol Morris
5. Therapeutic culture: narcissism and self-revelation
6. Trauma as popular cultural script: from talk show to lifestyle programming
7. Video justice: reality crime television
8. Man in a glass box
Conclusion: 'Reach for the stars': celebrity, social mobility and the future of reality TV
Notes
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Anita Biressi is Senior Lecturer in Cultural and Media Studies at University of Surrey Roehampton. She is the author of Crime, Fear and the Law in True Crime Stories (2001). Heather Nunn is Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies at University of Surrey Roehampton. She is the author of Thatcher, Politics and Fantasy: The Political Culture of Gender and Nation (2002).

Reviews

The theories presented are many, but all cohere around a central and persuasive thesis.
*Times Literary Supplement*

Recommended.
*Choice*