Authenticity Industries

Michael Serazio is a journalist and Associate Professor of Communication at Boston College. In addition to writing for The Washington Post, The New York Times, and elsewhere, he is the author of The Power of Sports: Media and Spectacle in American Culture (2019) and Your Ad Here: The Cool Sell of Guerrilla Marketing (2013).

"This book offers a compelling, important inside view of how professional image-makers perceive and attempt to manufacture authenticity. An ambitious survey of the rising currency of 'authenticity' in contemporary life."—Laurie Ouellette, author of Lifestyle TV "This book is crisp and often playful, yet theoretically and historically robust. The interviews with the people who work to produce authenticity make this a truly unique and compelling book—a must-read for those in the media and cultural industries."—Sarah Banet-Weiser, coauthor of Believability "An incredibly engaging, deeply researched book that details just how our taken-for-granted mediated realities are strategized, constructed, and managed—and provides necessary solid ground for understanding how perceptions of authenticity shape 21st-century American life."—Emily Hund, author of The Influencer Industry "Serazio adds a crucial industrial perspective to the growing literature on authenticity in contemporary culture. He pulls back the curtain on fascinating, tension-filled considerations that drive industry practitioners to craft and parade various versions of authenticity in the media."—Joseph Turow, author of The Voice Catchers "Written with Serazio's trademark eloquence and drawing on insights from politics to pop music, and from industrialists to influencers, this timely and incisive book reveals why the ideal of authenticity animates so many spheres of social and civic life."—Brooke Erin Duffy, author of (Not) Getting Paid to Do What You Love "A fascinating, commended academic exploration of the ways in which products and experiences are marketed to consumers."—Library Journal "The internet now feels like a place whose sole purpose is selling you something. And it's not going to change—in fact, it's going to get much, much worse... [Serazio] explores the commodification of identity, why 'selling out' has no meaning anymore, and why amateurs—that is to say, regular people on social media—make the most effective salespeople."—Rebecca Jennings, Vox "Merriam-Webster selected 'authentic' as 2023 Word of the Year, and Serazio's timely text about the reality industries that invent the indexes of 'authenticity' is prescient.... Recommended."—S. Lenig, CHOICE "The Authenticity Industries is a lively, analytical exploration... and a skillful merger of reportage and academic analysis."—Ross Barkan, Political Currents "Serazio's monograph breaks new ground in its expansive cross-industrial focus...The Authenticity Industriesprovides a novel perspective on the ways authenticity has crept into the underlying logics of a diverse range of cultural industries in the United States. By juxtaposing analyses of seemingly disparate industries such as music and politics, Serazio both encourages readers to make cross-industrial connections, and creates a compelling, sophisticated argument about the inescapability of authenticity in contemporary American culture."—Ellie Homant, Television & New Media

• Introduction: Our Enduring Quest for Authenticity1. Casting Reality Television: Stages of Self-Disclosure2. Social Media Designs: The Amateur Ideal3. Pop Music's Sponsorship Play: The Art of Selling Out4. The Commercial Brand Sell: Humanizing the Corporate5. The Rise of Influencers: Corporatizing the Human6. Performative Politics: Unscripting the Identity Show7. Populist Politics: Technologies of InformalityConclusion: The Business of Keeping it 'Real'