Daily Talk as Self-Realization: An Empirical Study on Participation in Daily Talk Shows

Abstract

In this study, I examined the reasons why television audiences want to be on television and why they want to participate in shows as talking guests. To answer these questions, I assessed German daily talk shows and their audiences. The theory of symbolic self-completion (Wicklund & Gollwitzer, 1982) was applied to explain the wish to participate in a show. Self-realization is suggested as a higher order motive, including goals such as getting therapy and confessing in such a show. Two empirical studies were conducted. In the first study, 66 viewers of daily talk shows were interviewed with a qualitative procedure to explore if and why they would attend a talk show. Clues to lay participation as an act of self-symbolizing were deduced. Furthermore, the results of the study show that viewers engaged one of two viewing modes, distanced or involved. A follow-up experiment with 33 research participants was carried out. The findings support the hypothesis that people who are considering media participation strive for self-realization and self-symbolizing.

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