Desperate Citizens and Good Samaritans
- 25 February 2008
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Television & New Media
- Vol. 9 (4), 305-332
- https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476408315115
Abstract
This article considers the emergence of makeover reality TV, including Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (EMHE), within the cultural and political economic context of neoliberalism, which advocates corporate benevolence, individual volunteerism, and personal responsibility as principle means for solving serious social issues. Four contexts include (a) the integration of corporate philanthropy and product marketing since the 1980s; (b) the proliferation of goodwill reality TV in a post-9/11 reality television economy; (c) home improvement reality TV's connections to the housing boom, shifting domestic gender roles, and the neoliberal ideals of an “ownership society”; and (d) EMHE's representational engagement with neoliberal frameworks for addressing social inequalities with particular attention to race and the Katrina disaster. The article concludes with thoughts on how noncommercial reality TV might broaden the frameworks for addressing social problems beyond commercial TV's neoliberalism.Keywords
This publication has 8 references indexed in Scilit:
- Queens for a Day:Queer Eye for the Straight Guyand the Neoliberal ProjectCritical Studies in Media Communication, 2006
- What Women WatchedPublished by University of Texas Press ,2005
- A METROSEXUAL EYE ON QUEER GUYGLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 2005
- TelevisionPublished by Informa UK Limited ,2004
- One Nation, UnderprivilegedPublished by Oxford University Press (OUP) ,2004
- Upon This Rock: The Black Church, Nonviolence, and the Civil Rights MovementPS: Political Science and Politics, 2000
- Selling the AirPublished by University of Chicago Press ,1996
- Make Room for TVPublished by University of Chicago Press ,1992