Laurie Sheflin '97 interns on Geraldo and comes to some surprising conclusions

By John Marchetti

Special to the Gazette

Last year, the Jenny Jones daytime talk show taped a special episode on "secret crushes." A 24-year-old man agreed to join the show's guests, lured by the promise that an unknown admirer would be revealed to him on the air. To his and the studio audience's surprise, his admirer turned out to be another man. Claiming that he was humiliated, and that the public revelation had "eaten away" at him, the guest later drove to the man's home and killed him.

The incident, since dubbed the "Jenny Jones Murder," has prompted droves of cultural critics to condemn the daytime talk show genre. "Trash TV" they call it, embracing "sensationalism," "exploitation," and "exhibitions of dysfunction." But Laurie Sheflin '97 is looking beyond daytime television's sensational and lurid aspects to find out what these shows really offer their viewers. With help from the Harvard College Research Program, she is investigating the social function the programs serve.

Sheflin's interest in talk shows grew from her exposure to them while "channel-surfing." "I'll admit it," she says, "I've watched the shows before. And as a sociology concentrator, I tend to have an instinctual urge to ask, 'What's going on here? Why is this so interesting to me and to so many other people?'" With an eye toward her senior thesis, Sheflin began to research the talk show phenomenon. Deciding to enter the belly of the beast, she landed an internship on the Geraldo show this past summer. "I told the producers about my research interests right from the start," Sheflin explains. Among her goals, she hoped to survey the show's studio audience. "As long as I filed things and made the coffee, they really didn't care what I did on the side," Sheflin smiles.

Her Geraldo experience was certainly eye-opening. Tonya Harding stopped by for a show, as did transvestite RuPaul, several soap opera stars, and the usual array of social deviants. But most important, it was valuable. From her perfect vantage point, Sheflin gained fascinating insight into the talk show's place in American society.

For starters, she learned that Geraldo's producers saw the show as little more than an entertainment commodity. "The pace was hectic," Sheflin says, "with little time for contemplation of the social ramifications of the programming." On occasion, shows traveled from initial concept to completion in a matter of days.

"I never heard any discussion on ethics, even in an informal sense," continues Sheflin. "I compare that to my past experience at a newspaper, where people were always talking about ethics and their craft. At Geraldo, it was more like, 'Let's put on a show!' The quality of the content was not the biggest issue for the producers." Nor is it a big issue for thrill-seeking audiences, most critics would argue. But Sheflin thinks that the talk show audience is looking for more than mere thrills. She believes instead that the shows offer their viewers a unique therapeutic experience.

"My hypothesis is that through listening to discussion of 'other peoples' problems,'" Sheflin explains, "viewers actually acquire information which helps them to deal with their own problems, problems which may not necessarily be addressed by the mainstream media or political agendas."

To test her theory, Sheflin surveyed a Geraldo studio audience. "Demographically, the audience very much resembled the nation as a whole," she says. (It was a highly diverse crowd, with great variance in age, race, and education.) "I have to wonder how many other forums exist where you'd find a group as diverse as this in the same room discussing issues.

"Now, from a home viewer's perspective, this diversity is pretty important," she continues. "Most viewers can find someone in the studio audience who looks like them -- who they can relate to. I'd hypothesize that this would draw people in more than, say, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer.

In further research, Sheflin discovered that talk shows attract people with limited affiliations. "People who are members in fewer community organizations tend to watch more talk shows," she says.

In the lives of many individuals, talk shows appear to have taken on a huge importance. Sheflin made this discovery while answering viewer mail, one of her regular duties as an intern. "The quantity of mail was not surprising to me," she says. "What shocked me was the nature of the mail itself. The majority of the letters were pleas for some sort of assistance -- a loan for a man who cannot support his children, legal assistance for a woman's brother on death row. . . . The flood of these letters was relentless."

Some people would write every day. Others would send photos of their kids. But all of them displayed what Sheflin calls "a real quality of desperation." For these people, Sheflin believes, Geraldo is "a last resort . . . their only tenuous connection to society." The show represents an institution that can help them where others have failed, she says. "In most cases, these people were simply seeking attention that had not been granted to them by other social institutions." The show is less important to other viewers, Sheflin says, but it still provides them with a link to a larger community. Moreover, Geraldo and other talk shows make these viewers feel that issues of personal importance are being addressed. Sheflin came to this conclusion after evaluating the data from her survey. "I questioned audience members about which personal and national issues are most pressing in their opinion, then asked them whether or not talk shows relate to these issues."

The results of the survey strongly suggest that viewers feel "served" by talk shows. Most respondents indicated that the shows regularly touch upon the issue or issues most important to them. As Sheflin explains it, "This suggests that people do find personal relevance in the content of the shows."

Her work is far from complete, but she is well on her way to providing a new understanding of the talk show's function in society. She has moved beyond the simplistic dismissal of the shows as "trash." She expresses gratitude to the Harvard College Research Program for its financial support of her research, and to Professor Mary Waters for her guidance. "I had enjoyed Professor Waters in class, and found her very approachable," says Sheflin. "She was excited about my project, and has since agreed to be my thesis adviser. She offers me support and advice, but leaves the ideas up to me, which makes me do more thinking."

A native of Bedford, Mass., Sheflin is unsure about her plans after graduation. "Academically, I am focused upon the completion of my thesis," she says. Her summer with Geraldo has greatly enriched the work, and she calls it an experience she could never forget, "even if I wanted to!"

This article was originally published in The Harvard-Radcliffe Undergraduate Research Programs Newsletter.