For my Webpage Project, I chose the topic of Religion and Reality Television. As French writer Charles Peguy once said, "The world has changed less since the time of Jesus Christ than it has in the last thirty years" (qtd. in King 135), referring to the massive changes in technology, communications, and even people's sense of identities and their beliefs, and the way in which they are presented to the world." Today, we are at a point in popular culture where it seems like almost everybody has their own reality show. As annoying as that can be, it does mean that people of all occupations, religions, walks of life, and, yes, religions are being represented in the media. While some shows, such as "Sister Wives" or "All American Muslim" explicitly show religious content, others are more subtle, and some have religious symbolism that perhaps the cast members themselves have not even noticed. My goal was to analyze all of these types of shows, as well as the history of reality tv itself, and how the genre has influenced our culture overall.
