"Meal'n'Real". Is It Worth Watching A Talk Show?

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Talk shows are one of the most popular and dynamically developing formats of the modern TV screen. Talk-show programs have made an invasion of the air and have become a hit in Russian mass culture in recent years. We are treated, fed, married, bred, DNA tested, someone's private life is turned inside out, talked about politics, and all this in a “conversational genre” format. What makes half of the country follow with interest what is happening in someone else's life?

“Let them talk”, “Let's get married”, “Male and female”, “The fate of a man”, “Tonight with Andrey Malakhov” are just some of the representatives of this genre.

A special caste is political talk shows that multiply and grow like mushrooms on television. During the day you can watch: "Sunday evening with Vladimir Solovyov", "The right to vote", "Time will show", "Meeting place", "60 minutes", "First studio", "Trial". There are enough spectators for everyone - a paradox? No, a well-studied pattern.

It is necessary to understand that any talk show or reality show is not journalism, but rather a theater or business, which has a clear goal and a specific target audience. As a rule, these are housewives, retirees, the disabled and the unemployed. This is the most vulnerable part of the population, because often their life is rather meager and monotonous, and the excess of free time is conducive to watching TV programs in which the topics discussed are similar to their life problems. The viewer easily draws a parallel with his own difficulties, while at the same time reassuring himself that the problems are not only with him, but possibly “the whole country”. Some psychologists even believe that programs of this kind help to live unresolved personal and family situations, talking about the problems of strangers, they seem to find a solution to their own. The key word here is "as if". But the point is that programs of this kind blur the boundaries between reality and fiction, between the play of the participants, often actors, and real living people. Viewers take at face value the actions and statements of on-screen characters who are ready to transgress moral values in order to attract attention to themselves. It is on such a presentation, dictated by the genre, that the so-called "black PR" is based. Moreover, not tactful, often boorish and aggressive behavior of the participants in the show gradually "eats" into our consciousness, cultivates the level of aggression and deforms the boundaries of the moral norms of human communication. I'm not even talking about the detrimental effect on the psyche of passive viewers, our children, whose parents watch from morning to evening and then discuss what is happening on the screen "zombie".

In order for a talk show to be interesting, there are certain rules for writing a script for it. Yes, there is such a profession - a screenwriter of a social and political show. Two opposing teams are selected, between which, with the help of the “beloved” leader, a conflict is artificially inflamed. The theme of the conflict can be really taken from life, for example, the divorce of a popular star, or a topical political problem in myrrh. The higher the degree of the dispute, the more anger on the faces, turning to shouting voices, unwillingness to respect the interlocutor, attempts to take his word from him, offend him … the higher the guaranteed TV rating of the program, and, accordingly, the salaries of all its participants. Moreover, there are special, well-paid "boys to fight", for example, "bad Ukrainians" who throw a couple of provocative statements at the audience, thereby further inflating the intensity of passions. “In fact, we often find ourselves witnessing just a bazaar type of squabble. Its form destroys the credibility of the content even in cases when the content deserves to be trusted,”says political analyst and publicist Mikhail Demurin.

Why is a psychological dependence on such programs formed? It's that simple! For example, if you are watching a feature film in which there is also a bloodthirsty game between the persecutor and the victim. But there is a line of development in the film: intrigue - outset - climax of events - denouement and end. All bad heroes are punished, good ones are rewarded, all emotions and experiences have come to their logical conclusion. The deed is done - the gestalt is closed! Remember how we do not like it when the ending of the film remains blurry, for the viewer's thoughts, so to speak. This is a kind of manipulation by the director so that the film leaves a “aftertaste” for a long time. This phenomenon is based on the well-known classical experiment of BV Zeigarnik, during which a well-known psychologist proved that interrupted actions or situations really acquire a certain special "status" in memory. So the waiter will never forget an order that has not yet been paid, he easily keeps it in his memory, without even writing it down. Having received the payment, he immediately "throws out" the order from the "RAM" because it is unnecessary and irrelevant.

The same thing happens on talk shows. The foundation of the transmission is a conflict without a solution! They argue about him, swear, argue, but in the end, they never come to any conclusion, solution to the problem, leaving "splinters" in the head of the viewer, who unconsciously strives for completion and rushes to the next release of the program, as if to the next episode of some some TV series. This is how a kind of dependence is formed!

Here are a few questions, the answers to which will help you determine if there is an emerging addiction to this type of transmission:

1. Do you watch talk shows every day? Maybe more than once?

2. Does it irritate you if someone in your household asks you to turn down the volume or change the channel while you are watching a talk show?

3. Do you prefer to eat while sitting in front of the TV, so as not to miss an interesting topic?

4. Do you continue to discuss the topic, even after the show ends?

5. When you see familiar faces of the hosts, do you have a sense of kinship and familiarity with them?

6. Are you interested in the personal, on-screen life of talk show TV hosts?

7. Do you feel bored, monotonous and lack of interest in other entertainment, educational programs?

8. Outside your apartment: at work, on vacation, on a visit, would you be happy to keep up a conversation about yesterday's topic raised in your favorite show?

9. Does your interlocutor evoke involuntary respect in you if he shares your love for such programs?

10. Do you prefer watching talk shows to any other activity?

If you answered yes to these questions at least 5 times, congratulations - you have every chance to form an emotional, psychological dependence on reality projects. What to do? - you ask. Understand that reality and talk shows themselves are neither harmful nor useful, it all depends on their quantity and quality. From your attitude to these programs, from the desire to escape from real life, from your problems and, possibly, from communicating with your loved ones. This article may be for you the first sign in diagnosing this problem and will make you think and ask yourself the question: is everything good with me? After all, as you know, a successful, happy and busy person will not waste precious hours of his life, solving and living other people's problems. Live your life and be happy!