This course surveys the historical development and shifting definitions of documentary and reality television. We explore the ways in which television has understood and utilized non-fiction formats at specific historical moments; trace the formations and deployment of realist aesthetics; explore the ethical obligations/problematics of these forms and their practitioners; understand the impacts on and relationship to both their participants and viewers; examine the implications and meanings of documentary/reality hybrids; and consider the reception of and cultural meanings derived from particular documentary and reality texts and subgenres.
