ABSTRACT
This introductory chapter is divided into four sections. The first section is comprised of a personal narrative that introduces and draws readers into my tense and complex relationship with mediated images of white working-class people. The second section introduces the purpose of the project. I also justify the importance and cultural relevance of the work given the increased presence of white working-class people in reality television and the recent election of Donald Trump, which was fueled by the white working class, and has subsequently made this population a central subject of U.S. cultural discourse. The third section provides succinct descriptions of the four methods used for this project: critical autoethnography, interviews, interactive focus groups, and close textual analysis. The chapter concludes with a preview of the remaining chapters.
