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 tel