Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- Commercial participation: post-advertising -- Public relations -- Nation building -- Caring capitalism -- Retail TV -- Mixed blessings -- The body project.

"Consuming Reality examines TV's response to the increasing pressure to brand content in a post-advertising era. Its comprehensive analysis of the commercial practices found in popular reality programming reveals links to larger trends such as the sentimental dissemination of capitalist and nationalist ideologies, the professionalization of social relationships (including conceptions of self), and the mainstreaming of PR techniques in everyday life. Topics include: reality formats as pseudo-events, participation/interactivity, product placement, donorship, TV-web branding, caring capitalism, commercial nationalism, mediation as consumption, consumption as mediation, making over homes/bodies as properties, consumer identity and pathology, gendered consumption, religion, Disney, and the American Dream"--Provided by publisher.