The Transformation of Intimacy: Classed Identities in the Moral Economy of Reality Television

This chapter reports on a project which set out to see if the ethical dramas and emphasis on self-work offered by the expanding number of reality television formats might influence current articulations of identity. Reality television is generally deemed a valueless pursuit, a form of ’trash’ television and is often used to represent a crisis in civic public culture locating participants and viewers at the bottom of a hierarchy of taste classification. 1 By using reality television as a barometer of current moral value, taste and authority, the project explored how television, as part of a wider symbolic process, attaches value both to practices and people. We investigate how circuits of value are mobilised around reality television and theorise their relationship to the changing discourses and practices of class. 2 These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.