Traditionally, democratic thought assumes that there must be an independent public arena where political opinion can be formed freely. This world should be separate from the taint of government control as well as that of corporate capitalism. But such direct communication is becoming less tenable in the age of information technology and global communications. Our culture is hyper-conscious that talk shows are involved in the political arena. They are highly popular programs that depend on social topics and participation from average citizens.
American culture feels uncomfortable describing the content of talk shows as political.
Citizens are defined by their allegiance to the state. Obviously, talk shows, with their dependence on spectacle, individualism, and sensation, deviate radically from traditional political discussions about social policy that define citizenship, such as Oxford debates, Congressional deliberations, union hall meetings and even the networks news which emphasizes established political institutions. Even though the practice of debate has shifted from the Aristotelian model of speaker and listener to the modern form of coordinated discussion, talk shows are still more personal and emotional in their content and vertiginous in their structure. TV talk shows are not simply progressive or regressive. First, they do not represent the death of the public sphere.