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Fooling with the Amish - Amish Mafia, Entertaining Fakery, and the Evolution of Reality TV (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R1,411
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Fooling with the Amish - Amish Mafia, Entertaining Fakery, and the Evolution of Reality TV (Hardcover)
Series: Young Center Books in Anabaptist and Pietist Studies
Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days
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Using Amish Mafia as a window into the interplay between the real
and the imagined, this book dissects the peculiar appeals and
potential dangers of deception in reality TV and popular
entertainment. When Amish Mafia was released in 2012, viewers were
fascinated by the stories of this secret group of Amish and
Mennonite enforcers who used threats, extortion, and violence to
keep members of the Amish community in line-and to line their own
pockets. While some of the stories were based loosely on actual
events, the group itself was a complete fabrication. Its members
were played by ex-Amish and ex-Mennonite young adults acting out
scenarios concocted by the show's producers. What is most
extraordinary about Amish Mafia is that, even though it was
fictional, it was cleverly constructed to appear real. Discovery
Channel, which aired it, assiduously maintained that it was real;
whole episodes were devoted to proving that it was real; and many
viewers (including smart reality TV fans) were fooled into
believing it was real. In Fooling with the Amish, Dirk Eitzen
examines the fakery in Amish Mafia and how actual viewers of the
show responded to it to discover answers to two questions that have
long puzzled media scholars: What is it about the so-called reality
of reality shows that appeals to and gratifies viewers? How and why
are people taken in by falsehoods in the media? Eitzen's ultimate
answer to these questions is that, in taking liberties with facts,
Amish Mafia works very much like gossip. This helps to explain the
workings not just of this and other reality TV shows but also of
other forms of media fakery, including fake news. The book winds
through numerous fascinating case studies of media fakery, from P.
T. Barnum's famous "humbugs" of the nineteenth century to recent TV
news scandals. It examines the social and emotional appeals of
other forms of entertaining fakery, including professional
wrestling and supermarket tabloids. It explains how and why
conventions of contrivance evolved in reality TV as well as the
ethics of media fakery. And, for readers interested in the Amish,
it tells how the ex-Amish "stars" of Amish Mafia got involved in
the show and the impact that involvement had on their lives.
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