Talking With Television—Women, Talk Shows, and Modern Self-Reflexivity

Wood (media studies, De Montfort U., UK) examines the relationship between TV talk shows and the habits of women viewers, seeing their talk show viewing as a daily ritual and ongoing interaction that effects their lives as they interact with the shows by talking back to them. She combines concepts from social theory, cultural studies, and linguistics to analyze what talk shows do in their communicative relationships with their audience during the process of viewing. She focuses on British daytime television shows This Morning, Good Morning, Kilroy, and others and describes debates and theories about talk shows, the features of watching them, what happens during the process, and their relationship to feminized forms of talk. Two chapters were previously published in earlier versions elsewhere. Annotation c2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)