Do talk shows cultivate adolescents' views of the world?
             The purpose of this prolonged experiment was to evaluate the effects of exposure to television talk shows that deal with lesbian or gay male relationships, transsexuality, and tattooing. This study shows how television program formats make their way around the world and influence adolescents all over. If one type or genre of programming is successful or popular in one culture, another place will transform the topics to fit in with their viewing audience and sell it.
             Talk shows exemplify these formats perfectly, although channels make an attempt to differentiate between them. By having a certain persona each talk show will appeal to different audiences. Despite these efforts to create a unique profile, topics discussed on these programs are similar. 60% identified privacy as the main topics (focusing on conflict situations in a family or partnership, while 34% of programs were personal relationships of guests, followed by 11% dealing with sexual or erotic issues, and 10% was lifestyle oriented. Audience data was compiled and showed that including sexual issues does not increase market shares, so why is it such a frequent piece of talk show plot?
             Due to growing competition over recent years topics have begun to deal with more tough issues and critics make similar accusations against them. They say that they present extreme and socially undesirable opinions, bizarre behavior, and social deviance; include bad language, fighting, confrontations, and even use physical force to get their points across, sometimes even encouraging it; do not contribute to positive coping with problems, but leave most conflicts unresolved; are mainly oriented toward sexuality and the depiction of sexual practices and
             preferences; and present the exception as the ordinary. Thus the perception of talk show content may influence their assessment of reality compared with a...