Liveness in Reality Television and Factual Broadcasting

摘要

The emergence of reality TV and the use of live-shot material in documentary programs are salient features of contemporary television, raising a variety of challenges for critical analysis. We present here a number of pieces that reflect on "liveness" in different genres (reality TV, news, and documentary) from diverse theoretical perspectives. In the first paper, Peter Lunt introduces the papers and sets the scene by developing key themes in the analysis of liveness. The papers by Nick Couldry and Jane Roscoe discuss reality TV. John Corner analyzes the use of live-shot material in documentaries. Finally, Thornborrow and Fitzgerald unravel the deployment of devices for representing reports of live events in news.