Tuning in Trouble: Talk TV′s Destructive Impact on Our Mental Health: Talk Tv's Destructive Impact on Mental Health (JOSSEY BASS SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE SERIES) - Hardcover

Heaton, Jeanne Albronda; Wilson, Nona Leigh

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0787901067 ISBN 13: 9780787901066

Publisher: Jossey Bass, 1995

Synopsis

This investigative report exposes the harmful and destructive impact that popular TV talk shows have on their guests and viewers alike. Tuning in Trouble reveals how talk TV
makes a mockery of the mental health profession and denigrates its hapless participants.

About this title

About the Author

JEANNE ALBRONDA HEATON is a psychologist at Ohio University′s Counseling and Psychological Services and in private practice in Athens. In addition, she is a mediator for the domestic relations court in Athens County and serves on the Ohio Psychological Association′s Peer Review Committee on Ethical Practices. NONA LEIGH WILSON is an assistant professor in counseling and human resource development at South Dakota State University.

From the Back Cover

This investigative report reveals the harmful and destructive impact that popular TV talk shows have on their guests and viewers alike. The book shows how attention–grabbing segments designed exclusively to bolster ratings often leave guests emotionally devastated. Tuning in Trouble convincingly shows how "talk TV" makes a mockery of the mental health profession by obscuring the fact that recovery is almost always a long, painful process.

From the Inside Flap

Television talk shows entertain their enormous viewing audience with a steady stream of wounded guests, self–serving gurus, and manipulative hosts who offer quick and easy solutions to complex problems. But can we afford to dismiss this drive–by psychology of Donahue, Geraldo, and Ricki Lake as just harmless entertainment? Absolutely not!Tuning In Trouble reveals the harmful and destructive impact these phenomenally popular TV talk shows have on the guests and viewers alike. By sensationalizing issues, staging brutal and traumatic confrontations, exploiting stereotypes of women, men, and minorities, then alleging that such intense ten–minute psychodramas actually help people––these shows create a totally distorted view of our real–life problems and how to solve them.The authors of this well–researched investigative report show how attention–grabbing segments designed exclusively to bolster ratings often leave guests emotionally devastated. Innocent viewers, moreover, often succumb to a "copycat syndrome′′ persuaded that they too not only have the same problem but can also solve it with similar quick–fix, sound–bite therapy. In fact, Talk TV makes a mockery of the mental health profession by obscuring the fact that change and recovery is most often a long and painful process.Can television talk shows be redirected to fulfill their potential as a forum for responsible communication? In this compelling book, Heaton and Wilson also offer specific guidelines and recommAndations for hosts, producers, mental health professionals, and viewers that can dramatically improve TV talk shows′ quality and positive public impact.

Edition details

• Publisher: Jossey Bass
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0787901067
• ISBN 13: 9780787901066
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 284