Andrew Tolson - Television Talk Shows: Discourse, Performance, Spectacle (Leas Communication Series)

Cover

Page i

TELEVISION TALK SHOWS

Discourse, Performance, Spectacle

Page ii

LEAs COMMUNICATION SERIES
Jennings Bryant and Dolf Zillmann, General Editors

Selected titles include:

Ellis Crafting Society: Ethnicity, Class, and Communication Theory

Heath/Bryant Human Communication Theory and Research:
Concepts, Contexts, and Challenges, Second Edition

Leeds-Hurwitz Semiotics and Communication: Signs, Codes, Cultures

Olson Hollywood Planet: Global Media and the Competitive
Advantage of Narrative Transparency

Penman Constructing Communicating: Looking to a Future

Zillmann/Vorderer Media Entertainment: The Psychology of Its
Appeal

For a complete list of titles in LEAs Communication Series please contact Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers

Page iii

Discourse, Performance, Spectacle

Edited by
Andrew Tolson
De Montfort University

Page iv

Copyright 2001 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of the book may be reproduced in
any form, by photostat, microfilm, retrieval system, or any other
means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers
10 Industrial Avenue
Mahwah, New Jersey 07430

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Television talk shows: discourse, performance, spectacle / edited by Andrew Tolson.

p. cm.

Four of the chapters were first presented as papers at a conference on Identity and Performance in Broadcast Talk held in September 1998 at the Media Research Institute of the University of StirlingIntrod.

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).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents: Talking about talk : the academic debates / Andrew TolsonPerforming talk / Louanne HaarmanNo YOU rioted! : the pursuit of conflict in the management of lay and expert discourses on Kilroy / Helen WoodThe many faces of With Meni : the history and stories of one Israeli talk show / Shoshana Blum-KulkaHas it ever happened to you? : talk shows as mediated performance / Joanna ThornborrowIt makes it okay to cry : two types of therapy talk in TV talk shows / Raina Brunvatne and Andrew TolsonConfrontation as spectacle : the argumentative frame of an American talk show / Ian HutchbyIm out of it; you guys argue : making an issue of it on the Jerry Springer show / Greg Myers.

ISBN 0-8058-3746-9

1. Talk showsUnited States. 2. Talk showsGreat Britain. I. Tolson, Andrew.

Books published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates are printed on acid-free paper, and their bindings are chosen for strength and durability.

Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Page v

Page vi

Page vii

Shoshana Blum-Kulka is Karl and Matilde Newhouse Professor of Communicationat the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research interestsare in the fields of discourse analysis, pragmatic development, interlanguagepragmatics, ethnography of communication, language education,family discourse, and media discourse. She is co-author and co-editor of Cross Cultural Pragmatics: Requests and Apologies (Ablex, 1989) and Interlanguage Pragmatics (Oxford University Press, 1993). Her most recentbooks are Dinner Talk: Cultural Patterns of Sociability and Socialization (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1997) and Talking With Adults: TheContribution of Multiparty Talk to Language Development (co-authoredwith Catherine Snow, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, in press).

Raina Brunvatne is a graduate of Communication Studies at Queen MargaretUniversity College, Edinburgh, UK, and a postgraduate student inCultural Studies at Goldsmiths College, University of London.

Louann Haarman teaches English at the University of Bologna, Italy. Hermain research interests are in research methodology in applied linguisticsand television studies. Recent publications include Talk About Shows: laparola e lo spettacolo (CLUEB: Bologna, 1999) and Television Talk in Massed Medias: Linguistic Tools for Interpreting Media Discourse (LED:Milan, 1999). She is currently engaged in a large-scale research project onlinguistic characteristics of political reporting and commentary in Englishprint, broadcasting, and electronic media.

Page viii

Ian Hutchby is Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Communication at BrunelUniversity, West London. He has research interests in broadcast talk, thetechnological mediation of interaction, and childrens communicative competencies.He is the author of Confrontation Talk: Arguments, Asymmetries,and Power on Talk Radio (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1996), Conversation Analysis (Polity Press, 1998) and Conversation and Technology:From the Telephone to the Internet (Polity Press, 2000). His articleshave appeared in Sociology, Discourse and Society, The Journal of Sociolinguistics,Discourse Processes, Text , and Research on Language and SocialInteraction .