Social Reality

Reality TV's influence is seismic: twenty-five years ago, the concept didn't exist. Yet today, it is one of the most powerful cultural forces on earth; a multi-billion-dollar machine. Despite that, it is often derided as "trash"; a cultural McDonalds not worthy of examination. The truth is that reality TV offers a profound insight into who we are as human beings, questioning the very nature of what we deem to be entertaining. Writer, broadcaster and reality TV-obsessive Jacques Peretti goes behind the scenes of a world that has entranced and consumed him for two decades.

Second Lives takes us on a revelatory journey through the electronic looking glass as Tim Guest investigates one of the most bizarre phenomena of the 21st century: virtual lives.

This edited volume by the MSAC Philosophy Group includes a variety of essays by different authors on virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and those computational pioneers and thinkers who have advanced our understanding of a digital future.

In this uproarious memoir/tongue-in-cheek guide to leaving the cool city in which you "found" yourself and moving somewhere far more ordinary, author Erin Clune regales listeners with priceless stories of her own experiences leaving New York for her hometown in Wisconsin and provides a jocular but useful guide - for anyone leaving, or thinking about leaving, their own personal mecca - to finding contentment while staying true to yourself in a place far, far away from The City.

Virtual reality is able to effectively blur the line between reality and illusion, pushing the limits of our imagination and granting us access to any experience imaginable. With well-crafted simulations, these experiences, which are so immersive that the brain believes they're real, are already widely available with a VR headset and will only become more accessible and commonplace. But how does this new medium affect its users, and does it have a future beyond fantasy and escapism? In Experience on Demand, Jeremy Bailenson draws on two decades spent researching the psychological effects of VR and other mass media to help listeners understand this powerful new tool.

This fourth edition of Racist America is significantly revised and updated, with an eye toward racism issues arising regularly in our contemporary era. This edition incorporates many recent research studies and reports on U.S. racial issues that update and enhance the last edition’s chapters. It expands the discussion and data on social science concepts such as intersectionality and gendered racism, as well as the concepts of the white racial frame, systemic racism, and the elite-white-male dominance system from research studies by Joe Feagin and his colleagues.

Between You and the Universe explores the expansive concept of reality by breaking it into three parts: science, symbols, and experience. You can explore what these distinct parts are and how they interweave to stitch everything around you. The goal is to present three mental models that explain how your reality emerges, from your idea of self to your understandings of the universe.

In Appearance in Reality, John Heil addresses a question at the heart of metaphysics: How are the appearances related to reality, how does what we find in the sciences comport with what we encounter in everyday experience and in the laboratory? Objects, for instance, appear to be colorful, noisy, self-contained, and massively interactive.

Parenting teenagers is one of the biggest challenges parents face. New realities make becoming independent more difficult. Teens are traveling a different road and are moving at a different pace than those of previous generations. Today's cultural environment is more complicated and confusing than ever. But fear not! Family expert Jim Burns provides a handy guide for parenting teens.

Achieving the American Dream has become increasingly difficult for many Latinos, despite the huge opportunities, because there is a lack of mentorship and inspiration from Latino role models ... but it doesn't have to be that way. This audiobook will tell you how 50 of the most successful Latinos and Latinas in America turned their dreams into reality. These inspirational people share their stories, providing us insight into the mindset, actions, and habits that allowed them to overcome barriers and conquer fears, and to achieve what they once thought was impossible.

Despite the high number of programs and their evident popularity, paranormal reality television has to date received little critical attention. Ghost Channels provides an overview of the paranormal reality television genre, its development, and its place in television history. Conducting in-depth analyses of over thirty paranormal television series, author Amy Lawrence suggests these programs reveal much about Americans' contemporary fears.

Called a “chronicler of a world on the move” by The New York Review of Books, Anna Badkhen seeks what separates and binds us at a time when one in seven people has left their birthplace, while a pandemic dictates the direst season of rupture in humankind’s remembering. Her new essay collection, Bright Unbearable Reality, comprises 11 essays set on four continents—roving everywhere from Oklahoma to Azerbaijan—and united by a common thread of communion and longing.

The Fiction of Our Realities is the first book of our six part series entitled "Perspective Versus Perception"

American Dream Political Reality details important events that occurred in the United States, Europe, and Russia from 1988 to 2023. We participated in the opening of the Berlin Wall in Germany that had separated Communist East and West Berlin for nearly 30 years. It only takes a moment to change your life, and my son Elliot and I witnessed that in the aftermath of 9/11, when the Twin Towers in New York City collapsed from a terrorist attack.

Diese Zeilen sind unverblümte und hässliche Einblicke, informativer und kritischer Kontext, vermeintliche und fragwürdige Weisheiten sowie ketzerische und sarkastische Aussagen über Erlebnisse und Erfahrungen in der Medienlandschaft.

Everyone, at some time in their life, has to deal with a Cop. The outcome of that encounter can be pleasant or a nightmare – all depending upon your frame of mind and the knowledge you possess. How To Deal With COPS is a compendium of tips, street smarts and common sense compiled from the point of view of multiple law enforcement officers with a combined 200+ years of “on the job” experience. Written in plain language and with real-world advice anyone can easily understand How To Deal With COPS explains the ins and outs of a civilian making the best of any interaction with Cops.

Two authors with decades of experience promoting human rights argue that, as the world changes around us, rights hardly imaginable today will come into being.

A new breed of prophet has appeared. Unlike the stereotypical prophets of the past, these modern-day prophets are not looking for the end of the world or the second coming of Christ. Instead, they seek political influence and ultimately control. As one of them has stated succinctly, “There’s no reason why [Christians] should not rule this nation."

Understanding Reality & the Theory of Expression is a remarkable and groundbreaking book that will leave you with a newfound perspective on life and the world around you. This book was written by John Ogunyanwo, a British-born Nigerian man who wrote it while serving a six-year sentence in solitary confinement in a Japanese prison at the young age of 21, just coming into the adult years of his life as a man.

Nothing has changed more in the last few decades than our concept and perception of reality. The effects have manifested in our news, entertainment, and Google searches; we're finding that a lot of things we thought were objective aren't automatically so. Reality is not a concept we want to flush down the toilet with yesterday's food, though. However, we must begin to understand how it works in a world where profit is the driving force.