A Look at the Public Sphere in Talk Show Programs in Albania

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyse the daytime audience participating TV talk shows that are conceptualized as new public spheres in terms of the Massive Communication Medias. These kinds of shows with a broad variety of guests deal with different topics such as political, social, economic, etc. And these topics concern the broad public opinion. In the study we will focus on this kind of talk show format in Albania. The research aims at tackling this public sphere created by televisions as well as the involvement of various social groups in the public debate. It analyses not only the involvement that this formats give to the public in the studio but also to the viewers at home, who are active in the social networks. This study is based on the theory of the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas on the public sphere, the transformation and the evolvement of this concept nowdays. We will try to give an answer to the concern of this critical theorist of the Frankfurt School about the creation or not of a new bourgeois class, which rules this mediatic public sphere, and how this is reflected on TV Talk Show in Albania.Besides the theoretical approach of daytime talk shows by the contemporary authors of communication like Bernard Timbering, Sonia Livingstone, Horace Newcomb, Pierre Bourdieu, Jürgen Habermas, this study will also analyse certain daytime talk shows with an audience participating in Albania.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n10p574