The topic of my Webpage Project is religion in reality television. Reality TV is a fairly modern phenomenon, but, despite it’s only recent boom in popularity, it suddenly seems as though everyone has their own show, from Alaskan crab fisherman (The Deadliest Catch), aspiring chefs (Top Chef, Masterchef, Iron Chef), and, yes, those inescapable Kardashians (Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Kourtney and Kim Take New York, Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami, Khloe & Lamar, and reportedly several more upcoming spinoffs). (I know, right?).
The fact that there are so many reality TV shows does, however, mean that all kinds of people are being represented on television, along with their religion. Rev Run of Run DMC fame and his family have a show on MTV chronicling their lives that focuses heavily on their religious faith, and TLC’s Sister Wives made headlines all over the world for it’s intimate look at a polygamous family in the Mormon Church in Utah. TLC also has a new show, called All American Muslim, which has been highly criticized for it’s attempt to show the lives of Muslims in an attempt to discredit the stigmas they have faced in post-9/11 America. Along with this revealing look into the religious beliefs of (relatively) normal and everyday people, reality television also has some interesting religious parallels in itself. Survivor, which is widely regarded as the original reality competition series, a genre which has spawned an incredible amount of similar challenge-based programs about everything from modeling (America’s Next Top Model) to weight loss (The Biggest Loser), has an infamous initiation ceremony. Furthermore, many shows share the ‘makeover stage’, which some argue follows the model for a Christian testimony.
We have discussed in class the idea of shows like Judge Judy and Jerry Springer as being modern forms of purgatory, where people can go, confess their sins, and be properly punished for them. This is a situation seen regularly on shows like Intervention and Hoarders, where participants share their stories and their real-life horrors with the audience before seeking help for their problems. Many shows, such as Jersey Shore, or MTV’s long-running The Real World, feature a “confessional” where cast members can go to talk about their housemates, share their feelings, and basically not be judged by the others. Sound familiar?
In addition to those topics, I will also compile a history of reality television, dating back to 1973, when PBS filmed a documentary series entitled An American Family, which is one of the earliest examples of the documentary-style reality TV that is so popular now. Overall, I hope that my project will analyze the phenomenon of reality television that we are unfamiliar with, while interpreting the religious content, some of which is very unexpected.
Preliminary Bibiography
Academic Books
- King, E. Frances. Material Religion and Popular Culture. New York: Routledge, 2010. Print.
This particular book focuses on actual religious materials, and their significance in popular culture, and how those artifacts fit into modern society.
- Deacy, Christopher. Exploring Religion and the Sacred in a Media Age. England: Ashgate, 2009. Print.
In an era of complete globalization, I’d like to use this book to study religious experiences and how they are transmitted across cultural borders thanks to that globalization.
3. Thistlewaite, Susan. Dreaming of Eden: American Religion and Politics in a Wired World. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2010. Print.
Thistlewaite’s book focuses on how temptation has increased with the massive growth of technology and the spread of communication.
Articles
- M. Fishman. “Entertaining Crime: Television Reality Programs.” National Criminal Justice Reference Service (1998).
This was written in the late nineties, and it’s interesting to see what people thought of reality TV several years before it started becoming massively popular. This article focuses mostly on crime but the beginning makes some interest points about the culture impact of reality shows.
- Randall L. Rose, Stacy L. Wood. “Paradox and the Consumption of Authenticity Through Reality Television.” Journal of Consumer Research. Volume 32, Issue 2 (2005) Pages 284-296.
Focuses on the authenticity in reality television and how it is interpreted by it’s broad audience, which is particular interesting considering the recent revelation that a lot of reality programming is suspecting to be at least somewhat staged.
- Hugh Curnutt. “A Fan Crashing the Party: Exploring Reality Celebrity in MTV’s Real World Franchise.” Media, Culture & Society. Volume 33 (2011) Pages 1061-1076.
The expansion of reality television has brought with it a wave of reality “stars”, who’s only claim to fame would be their appearance on television. The Real World is one of the longest-running reality shows ever, and has spawned a large group of such people who are simply famous for being famous because of MTV.
- Jeremy Stolow. “Religion and/as Media.” Theory, Culture & Society. Volume 22 (2005) Pages 119-145.
Stolow examines the relationship between religion and the increasingly present media and rapidly developing technology and how they have affected one another.
4. Bailey, Martha, "Polygamy And Plural Marriage", Les ateliers de l’éthique. Volume 2 (2007) Pages 18-22.
Polygamy is a very stigmatized part of Mormon culture that was highly publicized by Sister Wives, which I hope to talk about in this assignment.
- James L. Furrow, Pamela Ebstyne King and Krystal White. “Religion and Positive Youth Development: Identity, Meaning, and Prosocial Concerns.
The target audience of most reality shows is, arguably young people, and what does religion mean to them and their sense of identity? How does this correlate with their social experiences and exposure to media?
Online Sources
- The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club writes about all types of entertainment, and they also have a TV club that focuses on, naturally, television. They satirically recap many reality shows, including Jersey Shore and Top Chef, and conduct interviews with “reality stars”.
- EW.com
The Entertainment Weekly PopWatch bloggers often analyze popular reality shows, recently comparing the housemates on Jersey Shore to the great American directors, and they recap a lot of shows as well, like The Voice and The Amazing Race.
- Fans of Reality TV
A compilation of message boards, which I would love to check out to see what people are posting about their favorite shows and what they think about them, whether or not they take them seriously, etc.
- religionmeetsnewmedia.blogspot.com
A blog that discusses the effect the media revolution is having on religion.
- CNN.com
A little broad, but they’re always first with breaking news on world affairs and entertainment, and therefore, the intersection between them.
- Reality TV World
A site dedicated to reality TV, with up to date news on all of the shows.
- usreligion.blogspot.com
A blog focused on the history of religion in American with journal articles. They also have a pop culture section.
- Museum of Broadcast Television website
The entire archives of American Broadcast Television, with a section focused especially on religion.
- popculturemadness.com
A website devoted to pop culture and the less serious aspect of the entertainment industry.
- Reality TV GIFs
I would probably use this mostly for images, they have a huge collection of really hilarious screencaps from different reality shows.
