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- Title
The Revenge of the Simulacrum: the Reality Principle Meets Reality TV.
- Authors
Kroes, Rob
- Abstract
The central ingredient in the process, widely studied, of Americanization may well be the power of American mass culture to turn everything into spectacle and entertainment. If well over a hundred years ago the appeal of William Cody/Buffalo Bill lay in his power to turn recent real-life events on America's frontier into the mass entertainment offered by his Wild West Show, today we witness the further development where spectacle and entertainment have in fact taken the place of real-life events. No more need of fine distinctions between reality and its entertainment version; spectacle and entertainment are the new reality. America's president now seems simply to continue performing his reality-TV persona, which had already turned him into the simulacrum of an authentic American hero. This paper will analyze current trends and give recent examples where the virtual world of mass entertainment has come to set the parameters for our sense of what is reality and what its fake version. It also analyzes the effects on political life and political traditions.
- Subjects
UNITED States; AMERICANIZATION; POPULAR culture; WILD west shows; ANTISEMITISM; CITIZENS United v. Federal Election Commission; CORPORATE personhood; SOCIAL media
- Publication
Society, 2019, Vol 56, Issue 5, p419
- ISSN
0147-2011
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s12115-019-00395-0