Daytime_Talk_Shows

February 12, 2007 Capstone Seminar I slept with my daughter’s boyfriend, 13 men could be my baby’s daddy, and my teen daughter dresses to sexy, have all been titles on daytime talk shows. The article, “Daytime Talk Shows: Ethics and Ordinary People on Television” by Laura Grindstaff discusses issues surrounding daytime talk shows production and broadcasting. The thesis of this article states, akin to other forms of mass media, daytime talk shows specialize in sensational stories, resorting to methods of trickery and deceit to obtain ratings; with their ratings in mind, daytime talk show as did sideshows exploit individual’s weaknesses, hardships, and shortcomings, to produce a profit for their show. After reviewing this article one could evaluate criteria given by the author, and then formulate one’s own criteria and asses whether or not this business is socially responsible. The author inadvertently mentioned several criteria. Criterion one states, the show must not use false pretenses to secure guest participation. The article says producers often use a good cop/bad cop scam, the good cop offers the participants favor and blames them on the bad cop when they never manifest (Grindstaff 120). In the majority of instance the producers are usually fully aware that these favors will never materialize. During these interviews the producers sometimes fell to mention the show’s true intentions. Criterion two states the show must inform guests of their true intent before booking guests. This can be displayed with an example from the Oprah Winfrey show, Fran intended to go on Oprah’s show to bring light to a marketing scam that she was involved in, but when she arrived on the show Oprah had other plans in mind. Instead of bringing to light the necessary information to prevent the scam from occurring again, she wanted to discuss the negative shameful aspects of the situation (Grindstaff 125). This kind of situation may occur because the participant was not well aware of the situation before they arrived. Criterion three states, the show must give individuals enough information to be as close to informed as possible. There should be little to no surprises as in scientific research. It was stated in the article some participants never seen the shows they appeared on before they arrived on set (128). It was also stated that because of the status of shows like Oprah guests have higher expectation than appearing on show like Jerry Springer (125); because of this they feel they will not suffer from humiliation or manipulation. The only safeguards set up are geared toward the show itself, protecting it from lawsuits (126). These safeguards make it easier to exploit people because they know they will not have to financially pay for their wrong doings. After reviewing the author’s criteria, I put my original criterion to the test. My criterion states, the business must promote positive mental and physical growth in the community the product reaches. Daytime talk shows do not encourage positive mental growth, even though the producers on these shows like to suggest appearances on their show provides an outlet for altruism and provides therapeutic release (Grindstaff 120). These shows rarely provide the help that many guests hope to receive, as in the case of Jack who appeared on a talk show hoping to get the host to pay for the therapy him and his family needed (127). The healing process the producers hinted to never occur. Since the Jenny Jones murder talk shows have made an attempt to ensure this kind of mishap does not take place again (117). In this sense some talk shows have acted in a socially responsible manner, cutting conflict based topics out of their shows. One could not help but to wonder whether this dismissal of conflict based topics were excluded for the well being of their future guest, or were these cuts made to ensure financial safety from lawsuits for the show. Social Responsibility and ethics are two words that are hard to live up to when a media has profits as their first priority. Because people’s wellbeing and safety are not at the top of major corporation’s list they are willing and able to exploit human’s weaknesses, misfortunes, and lack of mental stability as a means to gain a profit. Work Cited Laura Grindstaff. “Daytime Talk Shows: Ethics and Ordinary People on Television,” eds. Gross, Larry, John Stuart Katz, and Jay Ruby, eds. Image Ethics in the Digital Age. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 2003. 115-41.