Talk Shows

Bob Edwards’ Edward Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism is a short biography about the man that established and revolutionized broadcast journalism. Bob Edwards has ample experience in broadcast journalism as a radio news and talk show host for over 30 years (Biography.com). It is no surprise that Edwards takes a particular interest in writing about Edward Murrow since he certainly influenced Edwards’ career in radio news. While he conducted most of his research through secondary sources, he relied heavily on books by close co-workers of Murrow. With that said, Edward Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism is a great streamlined tale of Murrow’s journey from a logger, to an education advocate, to broadcast journalism.

After the broadcast appearance on the war in Indochina created newly learned outlook impressions, unknowing at first and blatantly afterward, news media views soon created an all new foundation – the talk show. It was used in order

Through David Letterman, Rudy and Ron’s fear as well as Edilyn’s confusion, Wallace examines television’s role in American culture especially in making pop culture. In fact, this

Television executive Lauren Zalaznick, gave a presentation called “The conscience of television” for TED Talk which she discussed past five decades of the highest standing shows on air. Zalaznick runs studies which go to great lengths on how the topics of television shows changed from decade to decade and how viewers changed the reason of watching based on what was happening in the world. Television’s conscious effects our emotions, challenges our values, and influences our views on the world by what we choice to watch.

On television every night, there are countless late night talk shows. Many people watch these shows because the hosts refer to subjects that are not regularly discussed in public. Between interviews, the hosts often satirize new ideas or beliefs in the society. Because they address

In conclusion, television wouldn't quite be the television we know today if it had a limited, narrowed genre of only realistic programs. Television is there to attract the viewers with what they want to see. They may want to watch the news, a reality show, a game show, or most recently many have tuned in to watch the Democratic Presidential Debate. Barbara's idea of television is that without reality or things people can do in real life, boredom is ensured to happen. Despite her claim, television continues to play a big part in not only American culture, but multiple cultures around the

The power of television is strong and inevitable. Television has the ability to draw people in and view the world through a perspective one would think unimaginable. After the second world war ended in 1945, electronic sales boomed and more families started to gather around the tv at night to view widely famous television shows. Specifically, The Ed Sullivan Show was known for its plethora of celebrities and up and coming entertainers. The shows popularity was able to take a small town artist and make he or she into an enormous success, specifically, Elvis Presley who was, “something new under the Sun” (Altschuler 30). Teenagers, however, viewed the television as an escape and a look into the unknown and intriguing world of African

It wasn’t until the 1960s that the television became an everyday commodity in society. To go along with the already popular dramas and comedies, tv became a major outlet for news as CBS evening news and 60 minutes debuted (Herman). Sports broadcasting also made huge strides during the early 1960s as Wide World of Sports aired on ABC, instant replay became a standard in sports broadcasting, CBS and NBC both broadcasted Super Bowl one in color (Herman). As television gained popularity the range of the topics presented on television shows went to more controversial and relevant topics in hopes to relate with the typical viewer. The subjects of the television shows for the most part have stayed the same over the past 40 years, but some have

In an effort to expose the epistemology of television, which Postman believes has not been effectively addressed, he examines the effects of TV on several important American cultural institutions: news, religion, politics and education.  All four institutions, Postman argues, have realized that they have to go on television in order to be noticed which, in turn, requires them to learn the language of TV if they are to reach the people.  Therefore, they have joined the national conversation not on their own terms, but on TV's terms.  Postman contends that this transformation of our major institutions has trivialized what is most important about them and turned our culture into "one vast arena for show business" (80).  In the case of broadcast news, we see visually stimulating, disconnected stories about murder and mayhem along with a healthy dose of infotainment delivered by friendly and likeable anchors that remind us to "tune in tomorrow".  In the case of politics, we have discourse through distorted paid TV commercials and "debates" in which the appearance of having said something important is

As television viewers, we tend to slouch in front of this electrical box after a long day’s work, many of us don’t think or know about how much television programming has changed since our parent’s childhood. In “Thinking outside the Idiot Box” by Dana Stevens and “Watching TV Makes You Smarter” by Steven Johnson, both writers give their thoughts and opinions about how television programming has evolved over the last three decades. These gentlemen recognize that the days of slap-stick comedy were over and replace by more sophisticated stories. This new brand of programs have provide a step stoning for the evolution of television to gain momentum.

Like many Americans television has become a way of life, from news media, sporting spectacles and even a source of live music at home. The 50’s had a booming stage of live broadcasting to television that was now available for home viewers. This cultivating production to single family homes was a monumental achievement in mass communication to local families in the states. The platform or audience base for political leaders and up a coming powerful figures in history, had a way to reach views who might have never know about them. Taken from author Anna McCarthy words on “the existence of TV’s mass audience provided the powerful people with opportunities to talk about and given form to the amorphous collectivity of the nation”. In other words broad casting was the number one audience for powerful people who wanted to be heard and seen. Mean the voice of the people was very creditable when broadcasting an average

Call me crazy, but watching the talk shows on Wednesday night I noticed something extremely. All of the hosts seemed to be chattering less about the election and had more discussion on things like upcoming movies, TV shows and even music. Yes, there were some political jabs, but nothing like what was seen building up to the debates. What is this technically called in the TV world? Refreshing!

From the perspective of the content discussed in these shows, there seem to be a push to distort the meaning of parenthood whereby children can punish their parents thus placing a burden to the parents. Another symbol that seems to change under the watch of the talk shows is the marital role. In some culture, the man is expected to provide for the family financially while the woman should plan everything in the household. However, these shows promote equal sharing of duties and responsibilities, which may not agree with some cultures. The meaning of divorce has also changed over time as more viewership of the talk shows grows.

In the 1920s, radio was king of the new entertainment world, but by the 1930s television became the new ruler. The invention of television brought a whole new type of culture into the United States and beyond. Television had redefined leisure, bringing what once were typically radio shows to new life. In the late 1940s, news stations such as NBC and CBS sought to turn over their programs to be part of the largely profitable new medium. As popularity quickly rose, where in six years the number of television sets in the US jumped from a mere 6,000 to a staggering 12 million by 1951, the networks attempted to keep up by offering new material. Here enters the ever popular game show.

In this Chapter, I think the most interesting part is that Gamson talks about talk show in the end of this chapter. Gamson states that when celebrities who are selected to the talk show, the basic criteria is their entertainment value. If there is no entertainment value in the talk show, there will be “no necessary connection between achievement and exposure” (Gamson 102). The talk show is to use language to attract audiences, if the language is boring, guests will not pay attention and therefore, the talk show is unsuccessful. A good talk show is like a good story that are “guided by criteria of amusement, interest, and restricted revelation, characterized by choreographed performances and restricted investigation, largely displaces the pursuit