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True Story

By: Danielle J. Lindemann
Narrated by: Libby McKnight
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Publisher's summary

Named a Best Nonfiction Book of 2022 by Esquire

A sociological study of reality TV that explores its rise as a culture-dominating medium—and what the genre reveals about our attitudes toward race, gender, class, and sexuality.

What do we see when we watch reality television?

In True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us, the sociologist and TV lover Danielle J. Lindemann takes a long, hard look in the “funhouse mirror” of this genre, from countless rose ceremonies on The Bachelor to the White House and more (so much more!). Beginning with the first episodes of The Real World, reality TV has not only remade our entertainment and cultural landscape—it also uniquely refracts our everyday experiences and social topography.

By taking reality TV seriously, we can better understand key institutions (such as families, schools, and prisons) and broad social categories (such as gender, race, class, and sexuality). These shows have the ability to unveil the major circuits of power that organize our lives and the extent to which our own realities are, in fact, socially constructed.

Whether we’re watching conniving Survivor contestants or three-year-old beauty queens, these “guilty pleasures” underscore how conservative our society remains, and how steadfastly we cling to our notions about what counts as legitimate or “real.” At once an entertaining chronicle of reality TV obsession and a pioneering work of sociology, True Story reflects our society back to us: what we see in the looking glass may not always be pretty, but we can’t stop watching.

©2021 Danielle J. Lindemann (P)2021 Recorded Books
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What listeners say about True Story

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I opening insight into history, bias, and reality TV

Read this book for a book club. Surprisingly I enjoyed this very much. I learned a lot about reality TV and how it gives us a glimpse of our culture, our beliefs as a society, and reflects our history as a nation. I have to say, I will not be watching reality TV in the same lines any longer. I had to say that the narrator sounded to me a lot like Siri.

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some interesting ideas

the narrator mispronounce common names and words. some of the conclusions seemed specious and far flung as well.

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Entertaining

Very insightful but no real thesis. A fun way to look at reality tv for those of us who are fans.

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