Television talk shows : discourse, performance, spectacle

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Title:

Author:

Tolson, Andrew.

ISBN:

9780805837469

Publication Information:

Mahwah, N.J. : Erlbaum, 2001.

Physical Description:

p. cm.

General Note:

"Four of the chapters were first presented as papers at a conference on "Identity and Performance in Broadcast Talk" held in September 1988 [sic] at the Media Research Institute of the University of Sterling"--Introd.

Includes studies of three American talk shows (Sally Jesse Raphael, Ricki Lake, and Jerry Springer), two British (Kilroy and Trisha), and one Israeli (With Meni).

Contents:

Talking about talk : the academic debates / Andrew Tolson -- Performing talk / Louanne Haarman -- "No YOU rioted!" : the pursuit of conflict in the management of "lay" and "expert" discourses on Kilroy / Helen Wood -- The many faces of With Meni : the history and stories of an Israeli talk show / Shoshana Blum-Kulka -- "Has it ever happened to you?" : talk shows as mediated performance / Joanna Thornborrow -- "It makes it okay to cry" : two types of "therapy talk" in TV talk shows / Raina Brunvatne and Andrew Tolson -- Confrontation as spectacle : the argumentative frame of an American talk show / Ian Hutchby -- "I'm out of it, you guys argue" : making an issue of it on the Jerry Springer show / Greg Myers.

Subject Term:

Talk shows -- United States.

Talk shows -- Great Britain.

Added Author:

Tolson, Andrew.

Copies:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Copy	Status
Searching... 1:IIEMSA	1:GEN-BOOK	33168016065621	791.456 T654T 2001	1	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

The "talk show" has become a ubiquitous feature of American and European television. The various examples have been frequently discussed by academic commentators, as well as journalists in an attempt to place them in a cultural setting. Ultimately, the conclusion is reached by both academics and non-academics that talk shows matter because they are a focus for considerable public debate and are crucial to the landscape of popular television.

All the variations of talk shows, from chat shows to celebrity interviews, have key elements in common: They all feature groups of guests, not individual interviewees, and they all involve audience participation. The studio audience is not only visible, but is given the opportunity to comment and intervene.

Other books have applied academic analysis to the phenomenon of these shows, but this is the first to analyze the actual "talk" of the talk shows, and in that sense it is closer to discourse analysis than to other forms of analysis. This book provides a systematic empirical study of the broadcast talk in talk shows and maps out the range of formats that appear in the major American and British television shows. The contributors are members of an international network of researchers interested in the study of broadcast talk.