The American mirage How reality TV upholds the myth of meritocracy

Review by Choice Review

The distance between such rigorous and respected political commentators and scientists as Walter Lippmann, Philip Converse, Anthony Downs, and John Zaller and such diverting trifles as American Idol, Law and Order, Shark Tank, and The Apprentice might seem greater than half a league. However, in this readable, sharply observed, and engrossing volume, Kim (political science, Columbia Univ.) shows how political analysts' failure to appreciate the phenomenon of "news avoidance" has led them to draw the wrong conclusions about the drivers of public opinion. Referencing Walter Lippmann's still-relevant 1922 book Public Opinion, Kim argues that what Lippmann called "the myth of the omnicompetent citizen" continues to cause many political scientists to limit their search for "media effects" to Americans' consumption of political news. As Kim demonstrates through a combination of online and field experiments, most Americans cling to the liberal democratic promise of upward mobility through hard work and merit because that is what the entertainment industry promotes. These entertainment narratives can even supersede people's lived experiences with structural inequality and police misconduct. Kim deserves plaudits for reminding us that "democratic realists" are best equipped to illuminate the underpinnings of Americans' political attitudes. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels. --Ronald P. Seyb, Skidmore College

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

American Idol and Shark Tank are significantly influencing how Americans think about the economy, according to this eye-opening debut study from Columbia University political scientist Kim. To get to the bottom of why crushing income inequality hasn't significantly deterred Americans' faith in upward mobility, Kim drove "a big box truck equipped with a media lab" to New Jersey and Pennsylvania farmers markets to test her hypothesis that reality TV had something to do with it. Piling volunteers into the truck to watch clips from a slew of popular reality TV shows--from MasterChef to The Great Christmas Light Fight--featuring "everyday Americans" making "visible financial gains" as a reward for high-quality work, and following up the viewings with surveys, she found that "watching a rags-to-riches program, even just for 5 minutes" made people "6.8 percentage points more likely to believe in the prospect of upward economic mobility." Kim astutely compares reality shows' persuasive power to that of Gilded Age dime novels, notably Horatio Alger's "tales of personal triumph," in which protagonists rose "from obscurity to prosperity" by doing good deeds. She also takes aim at her field, asserting that political science's "echo chambers of scholarly assumptions" have led it to ignore how political belief is affected by supposedly "apolitical" media. The result is a troubling assessment of propaganda in pop culture. (May)

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

Bridging the gap betweenAmerican Idol and the American dream. How can the American dream remain a strong undercurrent of the national mythology despite evident structural wealth polarization? Kim, a Columbia University political scientist, writes that the belief that our political and economic system can support rags-to-riches stories might be stronger now than ever. Even while economic mobility lags, these views are propped up as a result of a growing number of reality TV shows.America's Got Talent,American Idol, andShark Tank, among others, exist in a world where anyone off the couch could win a cash prize or become a star. With Americans increasingly indulging in these narratives, Kim urges the political science community to invest more seriously in the role of these narratives to shape political views. "It's a dance as old as time: each generation wrestling with the media that defines it, asking where and how the line between 'politics' and 'clutter' is drawn." With Americans spurning more sober political analysis and news journalism, the author argues, analysts will need to look more broadly in search for insights into political discourse. Americans love entertainment, and Kim convincingly assures us that "within this universal passion lies an uncharted realm of persuasion--or, at the very least, the cipher to the many lingering puzzles of American public opinion that an exclusive focus on news media or elite-driven political communication cannot unravel." An insightful inquiry into America's enmeshed political and entertainment landscapes. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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