Example research essay topic: Didnt Understand Daytime Talk - 1,300 words

NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote

A couple of weeks ago I came home from a hectic day as usual and decided to relieve my tension by sitting on the couch for some quality television. As I turned on the tube and began channel surfing, I unconsciously stopped at a commercial for a daytime talk show. Clips of many different women fighting over men were being shown sporadically. Then the narrator of the commercial announced the title and I about fell on the floor laughing. Black women who want their white friends to stop dating black men because they are taking up all the good ones! I couldnt believe that a whole one-hour show was going to be dedicated to this subject.

I was instantly consumed by the thought of what kind of people would actually want to watch such an outrageous show. It was at that moment that I realized that this show related to a certain type of audience that didnt include me. In fact, every television show relates to many different people. Its not necessarily the topic of the show that gets people addicted; it is most often the language within the show that draws them in.

I thoroughly enjoy shows in which I can affiliate with the language. If my schedule allowed me, I would come home every night and watch Judge Judy. I love every aspect of the law and can watch court television programs without giving any of the language said a second thought. This situation isnt the same for all people. There are many people who would feel as if they were being tortured by being made to watch five minutes of Judge Judy.

Over the next few weeks I decided to pick a couple of daytime talk shows to watch. Through watching these shows I discovered just how much of a role language played in different television shows. I chose to watch Ricki Lake and The Rosie Odonnel Show, two shows that I had never seen a full episode of. Both of these shows appear during the daytime, one right after the other. They are both female talk show hosts in their thirties. Both of these women performed in live plays or appeared in many movies before they became talk show hosts.

With so many similarities I found it shocking that the shows were so different. Ricki Lake is always formatted around one main subject that is definitely not aimed towards children. Ricki invites many different guests that have personal insight pertained to the subject. Her audience plays a huge part in the show by asking multiple questions or making personal comments. Appearing in almost every show is a surprise guest that always has to come out and make some sort of a scene. There are always mixed emotions and bad feelings between the guests.

I was constantly waiting for a fight to brake out and I felt as if the audience only added to the fire. Some of the things that happened on the show seemed unreal. A majority of the characters were within my age group, in their late teens and early twenties, and I still couldnt relate to anything that was happening in their life. At times I was lost in the show because I basically couldnt understand the language.

There were other times when I found humor in the show, laughing at the situations these people had gotten themselves into. The Rosie Odonnel Show is a completely different story. Rosie sits up at a desk and invites her guests to sit up next to her. She usually has a single guest at a time unless she has a family or two co-stars together. Many of her guests are famous and are on the show promoting a new album or movie that is about to be released. Her guests often perform for the audience, which takes up a lot of the talking time.

When they arent performing, Rosie asks them a few common questions as if she was making up time lost with an old friend. The audience never asks questions but one lucky member introduces the guests that will be appearing on the show that day. Her show has a very personal approach and the language is fit for people of all ages. I never was lost in the language but I did hear quite a few new words that Rosie herself had made up. Since language was constantly being spewed out of the guest mouths, I chose to tape a select few episodes to monitor the language. The first time around I wrote phrases that caught my ear or that I didnt understand.

I found myself working my pen out a lot harder with Ricki Lake than with The Rosie Odonnel Show. I also noted on how many guests used hand gestures and made faces to back up their comments. There were times when more language was in the movements they were making than actual words coming out of their mouths. When watching Ricki Lake I found myself concentrating on the language that I didnt understand.

I often had to rewind because I had missed so much while I was trying to translate what had been said. My personal opinion was my biggest problem when taking notes. I wasnt paying attention to the language being used; instead I was making a mockery out of it. I had to get past my personal opinions to see what was really being said and it was a big struggle for me. I often got lost in the language and became easily uninterested. I had to rewind the Ricki Lake episodes countless times to pick apart the language being used.

It wasnt until I started looking for certain types of language that my notes became useful. After working through the Ricki Lake episodes I found The Rosie Odonnel Show to be a piece of cake. The language expressed on Rosie's show was almost always at a level that children could understand. She kept her shows clean and the language definitely was inviting to me. At first I didnt have many notes because nothing seemed to catch my ear.

It was as if I was listening to an everyday conversation between friends. My notes fell short of what I expected until I went back and viewed the show a few more times to really see beyond the simple conversations. The main struggle was that I quickly adapted to the show that I liked and disoriented myself from the one I didnt like. I did what every viewer does when they watch TV. I enjoyed the show that pertained to my speech community and disliked the show that was an uncomfortable speech community. In order to really take good notes I had to force myself to try to understand the different types of communication involved in each of the shows.

As Paul Roberts states in Speech Communities, a speech community is a group of people steadily in communication with one another, steadily hearing one anthers speech. (p. 232) It was obvious to me that the two shows I watched represented completely different speech communities. It was very apparent that the speech communities found on Ricki Lake were greatly shaped around education. Many of the guests had dropped out of high school or were going to some sort of continuation school. Their profiles revealed similar jobs, if they had one, which included exotic dancers, homemakers, and secretaries. The guest sages, ethnicity, and where they were from also took a part in forming the speech communities. On the other hand, the speech communities represented in The Rosie Odonnel Show reflected social positions.

A majority of the guests were famous and already known by many people. Elton John, Jennifer Odonnel, and Linda Lavin were just a few that appeared. As I monitor...

Research essay sample on Didnt Understand Daytime Talk