Seeking papers for a panel proposal for the Society for Cinema Studies conference in Denver, CO, May 23-26, 2002. Reality TV's Appeals "Reality TV" has changed the televisual landscape dramatically in recent years. The genre is not easy to characterize, since the programs that make it up vary widely in form: from highly contrived game shows and pseudo-sports, like "Survivor" and "Battle Dome," to earnest documentaries, like PBS's "American High," and from the improvised soap opera of "The Real World" to programs consisting largely of home videos or surveillance-camera footage, like "The World's Most Amazing Videos." One factor these shows clearly share is their appeal to the voyeurism of viewers. Sometimes this involves actually spying on people, as in the new series "Spy Cam." Often it involves putting non-performers in stressful situations and videotaping them, to see how they "perform." Almost always it also involves sensationalistic elements, like sex, ghosts, or eating bugs. The "reality" factor is also obviously part of the appeal of these programs. For example, they almost always show people in some degree of actual physical or emotional peril. In this way, they tend to validate otherwise fantastic narratives or spectacles via the reality of the body. And the genre may other appeals, as well, such as the discourses of age and/or gender that often strongly inflect the shows. We invite papers for this panel that explore the appeals of Reality TV, by analyzing particular instances, by examining the attractions of the programs in general, or (optimally) by doing both together. Please send inquiries or proposals (in SCS Abstract format at http://www.cinemastudies.org) via email to both addresses below by September 15, 2001: Dirk Eitzen Theatre, Dance, and Film Department Franklin & Marshall College Lancaster, PA 17604 [log in to unmask] David Tetzlaff Film Studies Program Connecticut College New London, CT 06320 [log in to unmask] ---- For past messages, visit the Screen-L Archives: http://bama.ua.edu/archives/screen-l.html