ABSTRACT
Imagine a world where celebrity chefs campaign for better children’s school meals, or a politician stars in a ballroom dance competition. This is the mixed-up world of factual and reality television. News struggles to exist in a commercial marketplace; celebrities back political cam paigns; and politicians become celebrities writing autobiographies and Twitter feeds. It is a story of the survival of the ttest. The traditional public service genres of news, current affairs and documentary ght for survival as novel forms of popular factual genres like lifestyle and reality TV take over. These trends in factuality highlight a drive to hybridise content, mixing reality TV with current affairs, or politics with light entertainment. Hybridisation is good news for reality TV. This is a feral genre that is aggressive in the marketplace, crosses boundaries between the public and popular, and is resistant to re-containment. But, such a trend is bad news for journalism or documentary.
