You want to be on top! Why do we love, and love to hate the representations we see on reality TV? What does the intersection of reality TV with race, gender, class, and sexuality, help us to understand about broad US culture? This course examines the representation and production of race and gender in reality TV and considers how our production practices reflect and resist racialized notions of the world around us. Drawing on work from a variety of fields, this class will consider the production, consumption, and distribution of ideas about race and gender in reality television. IN doing so we will critically engage how our media and consumption and production practices reflect racialized notions of the world around us.

This course is scaffolded in a way to help students develop skills in critical analysis and various media production. Students explore the course material in a hands-on way while also working towards the development and completion of a final media project.