Die Freiheit, seine Geschichte zu erzählen. Über den Zusammenhang zwischen Talkshows und Biographisierung

Abstract

In der Vielzahl und breiten Vielfalt von Genres heutiger Fernsehsendungen nehmen die Talkshows eine herausragende Stellung ein. Ihre Zahl hat sich in den letzten Jahren geradezu explosionsartig vermehrt; offenbar kommt kein Sender mehr ohne solche Produktionen aus, die oft in ein und derselben Sendeanstalt in breiter Palette angeboten werden. Weitaus überraschender allerdings wirkt die breite Akzeptanz dieser oft auf Affekte und Emotionen ausgerichteten Talkshows. Sie finden offenbar besonderen Zuspruch und großes Gefallen, und zwar sowohl bei denen, die aktiv darin auftreten, als auch bei denjenigen, die solche Talkshows am häuslichen Bildschirm verfolgen, also bei den "Akteuren" ebenso wie bei den "Konsumenten". (...)

English

Arno Schilson: The freedom to teil your own story. The connection between talkshows and construction of biography 

In daily television broadcasting you can currently find a considerable number of talk.shows which are aimed at feelings and emotion, at the performance as weil as the controversial treatment of the most intimate aspects of life. The interest in these is not only there from the amazingly large number of viewers who obviously more or less explicitly want such broadcasts. It appears even more amazing that surprisingly many people, both average characters as weil as outsiders and those who hardly correspond to the average, virtually throng as talkshow guests to this genre of emotional television. One could put the question whether we are dealing with "voyeurs" on the one band, and on the other band with "exhibitionists". The article examines this superficial assessment in the light of newer and the latest studies. The presentation of their very own life-stories by the talk.show guests reveals itself to be work on their own biographies. Here they obviously find, at least subjectivly in their own minds, a free space opened up where they can teil their very own stories. This space is typically experienced as different from other social, clerical, family and friendship circles. This dimension of constructing a biography leads at the same time to a parasocial action and to communication with the viewers. These can now evaluate anew and determine their own lives and dealings through a clear comparison with the biography presented, as a result of which a stabilisation and a critical certainty about their own
identity can be reached.