Between exploitation and autonomy: How participants position themselves within reality television production in the post-socialist Czech Republic

This article explores how Czech amateur participants in reality television programmes interpret their position within production relations. The research is theoretically informed by the notion of value as understood in Critical Marxist theory and the study of extraction of surplus value through capitalizing on unpaid work in reality television production. The principal aim of the research is to circumscribe the narratives produced by the cast members to expound on their provision of their labour for free. Qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews reveals that participants in reality programmes do not construe their performance on reality television as work, and that the exploitative nature of the reality television production model stays out of their sight.