Toward a Sociology of Reality Television

Reality television has become a standard genre of programming in the twenty-first century. The popularity of these unscripted programs merits investigation. Reality shows can be seen as significant cultural objects whose production and consumption reflect and reveal norms and ideologies of contemporary culture. Although what is currently conceived as the reality television genre is perceived as novel, this type of programming has a long history, with its foundations dating back to the early days of television. Despite the popularity of reality television and its solid roots in Western media, sociology has been underused in its analysis. In this essay, I review the research on reality television. Its definition, history, and issues of classification in the genre are addressed. Then, I summarize the major themes in the research: production; analysis of content, presentations of race, gender, and sexuality; and audience response and interaction. I conclude with a discussion of what sociology might add to the existing research. What are sociologists to make of the current wave of reality television? What do these shows and their popularity tell us about society? Despite the editing and packaging of these shows and the way people are turned into television-friendly characters and prototypes, these programs bear similarities to social research. Many are explicitly or implicitly promoted as ‘social experiments’. Reality shows often cast relatively diverse groups with the intention of seeing whether conflict or harmony will result. Success in reality competitions is often achieved through the development of alliances and strategic relationships and the process by which these unions form can be sociologically fascinating to watch. Yet, sociology, in method and theory, has rarely been applied to the analysis of reality television. This is not to say that reality television has not been examined academically. In fact, there is a growing body of research, primarily conducted by communication studies scholars, that takes this type of television seriously. Research on reality television examines the production and reception of programs. Additionally, there are studies that document the significance of the popularity of this genre in television and popular culture. Other research analyzes the content of reality television, aiming to make sense of communication norms depicted on shows like Survivor and Big Brother. Although many of the articles and books about reality television investigate themes with which sociologists are quite familiar (e.g., identity, stereotypes, social structure), missing from most of the current analyses is systematic use of rigorous sociological methodology, perspective, and theory. Sociology could contribute a great deal to the study of reality television. Certainly, a microsociological, symbolic interactionist analysis of both the content of reality shows and the ways viewers interact with them would be a useful extension to the existing literature. Sociologists have done rich ethnographic research in the study of talk shows (e.g., Abt and Mustazza 1997; Gamson 1998; Grindstaff 2002), and it would be beneficial to have an in-depth, inside look at the production of reality television, particularly given that its reality is contested. Additionally, sociologists could provide important perspective regarding how reality programming reflects, challenges, and perpetuates existing inequalities, particularly with respect to race, class, gender, and sexuality. A critical understanding of the impact of social structure on popular culture, from a sociological point of view, would add another dimension to the study of reality television, continuing the strong tradition in research on culture that demonstrates how cultural objects have much to tell about social life, values, and ideologies. Sociology has been used to make critical contributions to the study of television. As Grindstaff and Turow (2006) note, sociologists have been instrumental in documenting the significance of television as an industry and important part of the economy, and as a primary medium of distribution of mass cultural products. television has unified generations of Americans, creating media events and spectacles, shaping and reflecting changing norms and conceptions of reality (Dayan and Katz 1994). Despite changing technologies and the threat of Internet and other media as means of disseminating information and entertainment (Grindstaff and Turow 2006), television is still the primary source of mass culture, with most Americans having at least one television in their home. Reality television can be conceived as both innovation and replication, with at least a foundational relationship to the traditions of documentary filmmaking (Andrejevic 2004; Biressi and Nunn 2005; Clissold 2004; Corner 2002; Kilborn 1994). Its popularity, its ability to draw record numbers of viewers, merits exploration as media event (Biressi and Nunn 2005; Ticknell and Raghuram 2004) and significant cultural object in the early twenty-first century.