Katie blog post 8

Mike Van Elser’s article is a review of Misha Kavka’s book about Reality tv for Edinburgh University Press TV Genres series. In this article Van Elser discusses how Kavka proves that reality tv is a genre through her own genealogy of the shows. Kavka splits the genre into 3 time periods: historical precursors; first generation, or 'camcorder generation' (1989-99); second generation, or 'competition generation' (1999-2005); and the third generation, or 'celebrity generation' (2002-).

In the article from Popular Culture Universe by Bob Batchelor, he does an overview of some popular reality tv shows. He mentions the different types of reality shows such as competition, everyday life, talent, and makeover shows. The article provides examples in each sort of “sub-genre” of reality tv. It mentions the big one in each then goes on to other shows that came from it. For example, it mentions The Real World, and how that went to shows like Laguna Beach and the Hills, then to today’s popular The Real Housewives.

James Buckley's article is specifically about talent reality tv shows. He explains what it means to be on a talent type show and gives some examples, like American Idol, and So You Think You Can Dance which are performing arts based. He then goes to non performing arts shows such as Iron Chef, and Project Runway. Buckley includes what every talent reality tv show has in common, sort of the guidelines each talent show has.

In the article What’s Right About Reality TV, Poniewozik’s talks about the evolution of reality tv shows starting with Survivor. This article provides a lot of information on the genre and persona of reality tv. It also discusses why we are into reality tv.

This article talks about reality tv and how it gives back. It mentions shows like Biggest Loser and The Apprentice. It’s an interesting article about the good side of reality tv and how they positively affect people in the U.S.