Tv Talk Shows

Baring Our Souls: TV Talk Shows and the Religion of Recovery, by KATHLEEN S. LOWNEY. New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1999, xii + 159pp. $42.95 (cloth), $21.95 (paper).

Trash TV. The talk shows, with their well-deserved reputations as sumps of sex, violence, and sensationalism, usually elicit sneers from intellectuals and outrage from moralists. Kathleen Lowney has chosen to analyze them instead. Beneath a breezy, first-person style (which would appeal to the most jaded undergraduate) is a solid analysis of over 325 transcripts and videotapes of eight different TV talk shows. The result is a fascinating study of both the inner workings and cultural significance of what she argues is an implicitly religious phenomenon.

The talk shows, Lowney contends, are the direct descendants of both 19th century carnival "freak shows" and revivals and combine elements of each. Like the circus, the talk shows put those who violate the normative order on display, and like the revival, these violations are condemned in the name of conventional morality and the redemption of the sinner is sought.

Very little is left to chance on these shows. Each broadcast is a carefully scripted morality play in which everyone on the set plays a pre-determined role. Victims are portrayed sympathetically and given time to tell their tearful story. Victimizers are condemned and urged to repent (and frequently do). The host is the barker/revivalist who both puts the freaks on display and speaks for conventional morality. The "expert" is there towards the end of the show to give a veneer of professional credibility to how the host has constructed the problem of the day. Even the audience is selected and coached for the day's script -- Greek chorus one day, sympathetic congregation the next. The aim of this careful construction of deviance is the conversion and redemption of the "sinner." By the time the show is over, says Lowney, "We can vicariously enjoy the badness and then rejoice in the on-air transformations" (p. 86).

What people are converted to is the "religion of recovery." Therapy is equated with salvation, and the solution for nearly every problem is counseling or a support group. Lowney discusses the central beliefs of recovery religion and traces its historical origins, paying particular attention to the "medicalization" of sin, the rise of Alcoholics Anonymous as the model for dealing with all social problems and focuses on the self to the exclusion of everything else.

Lowney's analysis is insightful and convincing, as far as it goes. However, she leaves a few questions unanswered. First, critics of talk shows frequently focus on the "immorality" of the shows' content which, it is argued, will desensitize and debase the audience. Lowney dispatches the first part of this argument, but does not address the second. There is a big difference between a circus (or revival) which only came to town once a year and watching the same kind of thing in your home every day. Why wouldn't the sheer quantity of the talk shows make a qualitative difference in terms of the effect they have on the audience?

Second, Lowney describes the history of the recovery movement, but she could probe more deeply into why it arose. Long ago de Tocqueville noted that Americans were individualistic, but he distinguished between individualism and mere selfishness. Throughout most of their history, community was as strong a word for Americans as was individualism. So while the recovery movement may indeed have deep roots in American society, its rise was not inevitable nor is it obvious why selfishness should have come to dominate contemporary culture. Who were the social actors that made it happen?

This leads to the third question. Lowney notes in passing that the recovery movement is big business, and TV obviously is, but she does not discuss the business side of either. She observes how the talk shows' emphasis on "bad" people and individual conversion has helped to shape social policy, but doesn't make any further connections.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Association for the Sociology of Religion
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group

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