1. Kendall Kardashian has a secret: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPZVedAm22Y &feature=showob

2. Is it normal for a character on a TV show or in a movie to talk directly to the audience? In this clip, we learn Kendall Kardashian has a secret … what’s the effect of her speaking to us, her audience? Is the secret really a secret? Why/why not? How does it make you feel as an audience member? Is it different when the Family Guy does it versus someone on a reality TV show? How?

3. The Fourth Wall Who knows what the Fourth Wall is?

4. The Fourth Wall The fourth wall is the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set. It takes away the boundaries normally set up between works of fiction and their audiences. Does a Fourth Wall exist in reality TV? What about memoir? Blogging?

5. The fourth wall is part of what allows audiences to suspend their disbelief, allowing them to enjoy the fiction as if they were observing real events.

6. The question we’re exploring the first four weeks of this class is: What is the reality genre? Part of this is, ‘How is reality depicted/portrayed in these texts?’ This is what we’re interested this week. After watching this next clip, I want you to name the ways in which this reality show tells us it is real versus fiction. http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/a rticle/0,28804,2063886_2063809_2063832,00.html

7. Would a scene like this appear in a TV sitcom? If so, how would it be different? Does the reality version connect more with the viewer than fiction? One more clip … on why reality TV is so popular: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAnAoM96 wxE

8. Money and wish-fulfillment … So is that it? Agree on the left/Disagree on the right

9. So If We Tell Stories … To inspire Raise awareness of issues Learn about the world/other cultures Explain things we don’t understand Teach moral lessons Reinforce or push back against cultural norms Help us heal Connect with others Explore our identities/who we are and who we want to be … Do ‘reality’ stories do these things?

10. What’s Good, What’s Problematic about Reality Stories? Every other week, you will pick one reality text to review. This text can be a reality TV show, a blog, a memoir, a social media Website (such as Facebook or Twitter), or another reality storytelling text. You must pick a different kind of text for each one-pager. If you watch a TV show one week, you must choose a blog or a memoir or social media for the next, and so on. I will provide a list of resources on our class Wiki, http://realitycheck2012.wikispaces.com. http://realitycheck2012.wikispaces.com You will take notes using your Reality Log handout. Provide the text name, a short description, and notes on something that is either “good” about the text, or “problematic.” In your One-Pager, you will write your formal review and elaborate on why you believe what you observed/experienced is either good or problematic or both. You must turn in your Reality Logs with your One-Pagers.

11. Housekeeping Wiki: Blog projects: Surf the Web for blogs! Explore Technorati and Tumblr (or other places, such as Blogger) to find a blog format(s) and/or concept(s) that you like and could possibly use as a model(s) for your project. You’ll have time to do this tomorrow in class.Technorati Tumblr Wednesday: Will go over your responses to Who is Saying What to Whom, and you will analyze a new text.

12. Questions?