Talking Trash: The Cultural Politics of Daytime TV Talk ShowsWhen The Phil Donahue Show topped the ratings in 1979, it ushered in a new era in daytime television. Mixing controversial social issues, light topics, and audience participation, it created a new genre, one that is still flourishing, despite being harshly criticized, over two decades later. Now, the daytime TV landscape is littered with talk shows. But why do people watch these shows? How do they make sense of them? And how do these shows affect their viewers' sense of what constitutes appropriate public debate? |
Contents
1 Talk Shows Public Discourse and Cultural Politics | 1 |
2 The Business of Talk | 23 |
3 Talk Shows and Everyday Life | 58 |
Discerning Legitimate Discourse | 94 |
Talk Shows as Entertainment | 157 |
6 Utopian Hauntings? | 196 |
Appendix A Methodology | 205 |
Appendix B The Women Who Participated in the Study | 209 |
Notes | 219 |
227 | |
241 | |
About the Author | 255 |