Do you think talk shows allow marginalised people to be heard or are they just turned into spectacle?

It's just the modern day version of the Victorian freak shows. It's not politically correct to laugh/gawp at deformed people anymore so instead they gather some mentally subnormal unfortunates from trailer parks/council estates (I'm not implying that everyone who lives on an estate or in a trailer has 'gone wrong upstairs'. They just always seem to live in these places.) and stick them on stage to tear lumps out of each other in the name of entertainment. It's unpleasant but I think it's human instinct to want to see people behave like this. Think it makes insecure people feel better about their own lives. Otherwise they wouldn't pick the stupidest people to be guest on the shows.

The Maury show.

Enough said.

Sometimes they help people with the counselling they get, but Jerry Springer?? Spectacle for sure!!!!! I swear they're all actors on that show!!

Personally, I think they are ridiculed and shown up for the benefit of tv viewing figures. I have noticed that some of the guests appear to act for the camerq to make themselves look even more extreme, hoping that the audience will warm to them, but really people are mainly laughing at them and looking down at them. They seem to get a lot of people from Swindon.

It is a little of both. now it seems to be more of a spectacle and often times the guests are aware of this fact and add to the spectacle aspect of the shows. When people like Donahue were first getting started they did a better job of going over the unusual lives and problems of marginalised people. Oprah turned from a spectacle show into a more dignified forum for thought. Maury went the other way.

Really, I think that a lot of the talk shows are just turning people into spectacles. Jerry Springer and Maury do not give respect to the people on the show and their stories. They just want to exploit people to make money.