Are contemporary talk shows an extension of democratic debate or an instance of 'dumbing down'?

Bethany Dumville A224675

Word count=2135

Are contemporary talk shows an extension of democratic debate

or an instance of ‘dumbing down’?

The ‘talk show’ has become an increasingly popular genre of television programme. Although the definition of a talk show on a dictionary website is “a television or radio show in which noted people, such as authorities in a particular field, participate in discussions or are interviewed and often answer questions from viewers or listeners.” (), there are, on television more variations of talk shows than this. In a more general sense the Enyclopedia Of Television describes how a talk show “is as a show that is quite clearly and self-consciously built around its talk”. It is based on conversation, in different forms; between presenter and guest, guest and audience member, guest and ‘expert’, which is transformed into a low cost programme that brings in a large television audience. This essay will explore the history of the talk show, and how as it has changed it has examples of being both an extension of democratic debate and evidence of the dumbing down of television.

As a television format talk shows were originally developed in the United States, developing out of decades of various different traditions, from radio, television, theatre, etc., with the first hosts, or presenters stepping out of news and entertainment. The original talk and this style still exists today was based on interviewing famous people but the man who is widely credited with creating the talk show as we know it today, more issue orientated, was Phil Donahue who hosted his show by the same name, and the sole reason for focusing on issues rather than interviewing famous people was that there was a severe lack of funding from the network. His first guest was an atheist woman who was arguing that religion encouraged dependence and was fighting to get prayer banned in schools. Donahue’s interest in feminism and controversial issues attracted a large female audience, and this was the beginning of things to come. Many other talk show hosts have copied this style, e.g. Oprah Winfrey, ‘Sally-Jesse Raphael’ and ‘Ricki Lake’

In the United Kingdom there are a few talk shows which focus on interviewing ‘stars’ such as Parkinson but this essay is more interested in looking at the audience-participation shows, in which there is huge interest amongst the public, i.e. viewers. Trisha Goddard has taken over from Vanessa Feltz on ITV, her main rival being Kilroy on BBC1. I can be easily seen that nearly all of the audience-participation style talk shows go by the name of the presenter giving huge importance to that one person. This need for a central character demonstrates the emphasis put on entertainment; it can be seen throughout the history of talk shows that the success of any one particular programme is often determined by the character and popularity of the presenter. The issues are repeatedly exhausted across the different programmes so that is not relied on to bring in the audience, more significant is the way in which the presenter deals with the issues, and also the guests and participating audience members. For example in an online review of the show ‘Kilroy’ one mum describes Robert Kilroy-Silk as a “highly professional debate show host, who demonstrates humour, congeniality, compassion and a genuine understanding of the participants in his show…although this was already my opinion, after taking part in a recent show, I now have even more respect for this very, very lovely man.” (http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/tv/tv_programs/kilroy/_review/321438) This is a very personal review, the writer is impressed with the character and style of the presenter, and it is him that makes the show a success. Similar is this review of ‘Trisha’; the presenter is described as having “all the attributes you’d expect from a talk-show host. Primarily she has the ability to have everyone at ease and asking some really probing questions and she gets answers. Equally if a guest gets on the wrong side of her se can really get stuck in, it can be quite fascinating viewing.” (). As stated in ‘Talk on Television’, in ‘…issue-type talk shows, based on group discussion…the personality of the host is…important.’ (Livingstone, 1994:p38) This emphasis on the presenter, their personality and skills provides evidence that the talk show is mainly about entertainment; it is of little importance to public debate whether the person leading and directing the talk is a ‘very, very, lovely man’ or not.

Talk shows are seen to be made up of spontaneous conversation, or indeed ‘debate’, but on closer inspection it can be observed that this is not quite the case. Jane Shattuc looked in on the production of 4 American talk shows, Sally Jesse Raphael, Donahue, Oprah, and Geraldo. (Shattuc, 1994:66-83). Both the guests and the audience of all four of these shows were warmed up; in the case of the guests they were ‘focused’, going over their story and encouraging them to ‘jump in to the discussion’. Similarly, ‘the producer joked with the audience…[it] was somewhat aggressive in that ...