Talk shows' representations of interpersonal conflicts

In the past ten years, daytime talk shows became very popular among television programmers and viewers alike. Given the large audiences to whom talk shows communicate, it is important to analyze the messages contained in the programs. Remarkably little academic attention has been paid to this phenomenon, however. The present study focuses on the presentation of interpersonal conflicts, particularly regarding the behaviors exhibited by women and men. Gender represents a fundamental way of categorizing individuals. Our goal was to determine how women and men argued in the context of daytime television talk shows. By content analyzing forty randomly selected talk shows, we found that the female/male dyad was most likely to be involved in an argument, and that women were more likely to dominate the conflict. Otherwise, women and men manifested similar behaviors during interpersonal arguments, which is inconsistent with gender communication research. Possible explanations for these findings are addressed.