ABSTRACT
This chapter will take us beyond news to include alternative formats of the burgeoning fields of satire and parody, panel shows, lifestyle and reality programs, talkback radio and letters to the editor, as well as the role played by celebrity and product placement, as we consider the diverse opportunities for public relations in the wider mass media-particularly the area of entertainment. Comedy, drama and modern-day life are all a part of one of the most pervasive of TV genres: the reality program. But while reality TV may be a contemporary TV success, it is not new. Beginning with Candid Camera in 1948, it became a well-entrenched TV genre by the 1990s. The extended format of documentaries can provide the opportunity to tell longer, more complex stories that deal with content as varied as the evening news, but covered in far greater detail. At around the same time as the emergence of reality TV came a boon in lifestyle programs.
