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Sam Brenton
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Shooting People: Adventures in Reality TV Hardcover – 17 May 2003

by Reuben Cohen (Author), Sam Brenton (Author)
5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 5 ratings
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In the late 1990s the television landscape underwent a seismic change as the reality game shows Big Brother and Survivor won unprecedented audiences across Europe and the US. Subjecting their contestants to protracted seclusion from the outside world, the shows offered up a novel combination of mundanity and extremity, and bred a host of imitations which ranged from the absurdly inept to the outright sadistic.
Shooting People explores the emergence of the form, its relation to documentary and its significance in a globalized TV industry. Sam Brenton and Reuben Cohen draw parallels between some of the methods employed to control contestants and techniques of incarceration and psychological interrogation, and expose the nefarious influence of psychologists and psychotherapists in the business of reality TV. This 'ultimate form of light entertainment' is also shown to be a perfect propaganda vehicle for an anti-political culture in which, in the absence of grand narratives, the personal focus, the detritus of selfhood, has become seen as the only story worth telling.
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  1. Print length
    184 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Verso Books
  4. Publication date
    17 May 2003
  5. Dimensions
    14.15 x 1.85 x 19.76 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    1859845401
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1859845400
  8. See all details
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Product description

From the Author

Immensely topical, given the rash of car-crash TV that infects the schedules, this sustained polemic considers the history of the form, the TV industry's nervous wranglings over it, the often devastating psychological effects participation in a reality TV environment can have on the 'contestants', and the nefarious and ethically questionable influence of psychologists involved in the shows. The propaganda of the ordinary, elevated in an anti-ideological age to the role of prime narrative, also proves to be the perfect vehicle for the bullying assertions of heroism now pouring out of the military-industrial complex.

About the Author

Reuben Cohen has been a researcher and production assistant on a number of documentaries and feature films. He is working on his first novel.

Sam Brenton lives and works in London. He has written several collections of poems, including The Honky's Guide to Wet Dreams and Telephone Voices.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Verso Books (17 May 2003)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 184 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1859845401
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1859845400
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 14.15 x 1.85 x 19.76 cm
  • Customer reviews:
    5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 5 ratings

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Sam Brenton

Sam Brenton

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Customer reviews

5 out of 5 stars
5 global ratings

Top reviews from United Kingdom

Diana Higham
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 August 2014
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great product
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Reality Exposed
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 31 May 2003
Is this the first book to think really toughly about Reality Television (Big Brother, Survivor, etc.)? It's interesting on the origins and aesthetics of the genre, but is most telling in its analysis of what participation does to people. It points out how the makers use techniques like disorientation and sleep-deprivation in just the same way that interrogators and torturers do. It asks some very awkward questions about the psychologists who lend their professional prestige to this kind of programme, and who use gobbets of pseudo-science to justify treatment that could have permanent ill-effects on the subjects.
Anyone watching Big Brother this summer should have this book beside them, to help understand how the programme-makers are deliberately creating tension, disorientation, unhappiness. All for our entertainment.
3 people found this helpful
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Mark Seldon
5.0 out of 5 stars Look inside reality TV
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 August 2003
This book is an absolutely great read. I was amazed by the amount of inside information and historical perspective. The writing style is clear and concise. They seem to have interviewed many of the key people involved in the genesis of reality TV and have many insights into the inner workings of the genre.
I would highly recommend this book to anybody interested in reality TV.
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T. J. La Tourette
5.0 out of 5 stars A Scathing, Spot-On Indictment of the Plague of Reality TV
Reviewed in the United States on 1 October 2003
Verified Purchase
Cohen and Brenton's book is a scathing, spot-on indictment of the sickness that is reality television. It provides a detailed look at the genre and shows its twisted roots in torture tactics and behavioral experimentation. A deliciously arch tone and rich use of language make this book a pleasure to read.
The authors eloquently point out just how deep the global culture level has sunk into the trivia of the self, "the sprawling self-obsession now so omnipresent as to go unnoticed," and how this is the all-but-inevitable birthplace of reality TV. They describe one show as "a viewing experience not unlike being trapped in an elevator with two hysterical boy bands and an angry dog", just one example (and not even the best one) of the razor-sharp sarcasm found throughout the book.
The authors' conclusion is scary and, quite possibly, prophetic. Keep an eye on reality shows from politically-driven media moguls like Murdoch for their potential impact on future elections! We need more voices such as those of the authors. They may be shouting into the wind considering the popularity of so many reality TV shows, but our society and self-knowledge is richer for them nonetheless.
4 people found this helpful
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