Can We Talk? The Power and Influence of Talk Shows explores the talk show genre and how it affects society. Dr. Scott, a noted expert on social issues and a sometime radio talk show host, provides a savvy overview of how and why today's talk shows and their hosts have become so controversial, compelling, and powerful (especially if they own part or all of their own show). The first half of the book focuses on radio talk shows, the second on television talk shows. These two sections start with detailed histories of how talk shows began with the birth of each of these media over a half century ago. Subsequent chapters highlight the big movers and shakers in these arenas, with brief looks at how top hosts, e.g., Oprah Winfrey, Barbara Walters, Larry King, Howard Stern, David Letterman, and Rush Limbaugh, found professional and financial success. Can We Talk? is a remarkably fair and balanced look at a profit-driven industry for which critics and supporters have become adversarial in arguing their competing claims, such as advocating free speech and free markets versus upholding social and community values. Anyone interested in talk shows and their impact on society, as well as social scientists, behavior therapists, and psychologists, will benefit from Dr. Scott's incisive comments as a social scientist, host, and panelist.
A 1993 study by the Times Mirror Center for the People and the Press revealed that only about 11% of the American population has ever tried to call a talk show and just 6% of that number was heard on the air. Yet TV and radio talk shows have become the focus of scrutiny in the last few years as politics and "hate radio" have been brought into the spotlight by the outrageous behavior seen and heard daily on those shows. Scott, author of Mind Your Own Business and a former talk-show host herself, takes a look at the "big three" of radio?Rush Limbaugh, Larry King and Howard Stern?and traces how the pleasant talk show of the 1960s evolved into the blab of today. Scott argues that the baseness came about because Americans are virtually encouraged to become professional victims: "instead of taking responsibility for their own difficulties, they blame and project their sense of guilt onto others." On the TV side, she goes back to the days of Mike Wallace and Joe Pyne and how that kind of confrontational television begat Phil Donahue, who eventually begat Geraldo. Scott also takes an interesting look at the career of Barbara Walters and the blur that has been created between network news and entertainment. Although somewhat academic in tone, this is an informative look at one of today's controversial subjects.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Talk show producers should take note: when a media phenomenon starts to engender dry, self-consciously serious tomes aimed at analyzing the meaning of it all, the bloom is definitely off the rose. Actually, this particular analysis of radio and TV talk, while certainly dry and self-consciously serious, is not without merit. Scott, a consultant and workshop leader on social-issue topics (and, ironically, a frequent talk show guest), offers a serviceable history of talk shows, profiles four of the biggest stars (Oprah and Letterman, among them), and reflects perceptively on the free speech versus bad taste debate that continues to rage over what should be allowed on the air. The allure of Howard Stern and Rush Limbaugh also receives enlightening treatment, along with an uncharacteristically lively rehash of trash TV at its trashiest (heavy women sitting in melted chocolate on the Richard Bey Show). Expect this information-rich, style-poor study to be popular with students writing reports on contemporary media. Ilene Cooper
