Fooling with the Amish: Amish Mafia, Entertaining Fakery, and the Evolution of Reality TV PDF
Preview Fooling with the Amish: Amish Mafia, Entertaining Fakery, and the Evolution of Reality TV
Fooling with the Amish Young Center Books in Anabaptist and Pietist Studies Steven M. Nolt, Series Editor Fooling with the Amish Amish Mafia, Entertaining Fakery, and the Evolution of Reality TV DIRK EITZEN Johns Hopkins University Press Baltimore © 2022 Johns Hopkins University Press All rights reserved. Published 2022 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1 Johns Hopkins University Press 2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363 www.press.jhu.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Eitzen, Dirk, author. Title: Fooling with the Amish : Amish mafia, entertaining fakery, and the evolution of reality TV / Dirk Eitzen. Description: Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022. | Series: Young Center books in Anabaptist and Pietist studies | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2021045398 | ISBN 9781421444185 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781421444192 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Amish Mafia (Television program) | Reality television programs— Social aspects—United States. | Television viewers—Social aspects—United States. | Deception. | Gossip. Classification: LCC PN1992.77.A5265 E38 2022 | DDC 791.45/72—dc23/eng/20220105 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021045398 A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Special discounts are available for bulk purchases of this book. For more information, please contact Special Sales at [email protected]. Contents Prologue 1 1. Enquiring Minds Want to Know 11 2. The Roots of Reality Entertainment 50 3. A Chronicle of Contrivance 73 4. The Pleasure in Being Deceived (and Its Limits) 99 5. Gossip and Lies 140 6. Rights and Wrongs 170 Epilogue 197 Acknowledgments 209 Notes 211 References 219 Index 231 This page intentionally left blank 349-99188_Rothfels_ch01_3P.indd 6 Fooling with the Amish This page intentionally left blank 349-99188_Rothfels_ch01_3P.indd 6 Prologue A Puzzle 1. Most reality TV shows—the dramatic ones, in particular, like Survivor, The Bachelor, and Keeping Up with the Kardashians—are full of fakery.1 They deliberately and routinely deceive audiences about the reality sta- tus of things they show. 2. Fans of these shows know that they are being deceived. They are well aware that there is a lot of covert manipulation and sleight of hand involved in the shows’ making, even though they are blind to the par- ticulars. 3. When people find out that they have been deliberately lied to or de- ceived, they are typically upset or angry. It makes them feel manipu- lated and taken advantage of. And yet . . . 4. Many, many people love tricked-up reality TV shows and watch them avidly. All four of these facts seem, on their face, to be fairly self-evident. Yet they don’t line up. At least one of the four propositions must be false. But which one, and why? One could easily make reasonable guesses. For example, one might argue, with respect to the second proposition, that if you know you are being de- ceived, it is not really deception. But with just a little Googling, you will dis- cover that people really are deceived by a lot of the fakery on reality TV.
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