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Disaster news: the use of trauma and therapy as entertainment tools in popular talk shows Submitted by: Lisanne Bosch Student number: 10712550 Supervisor: Sudeep Dasgupta Second reader: Jaap Kooijman Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Master degree Television and Cross Media Culture Date: 29/06/2018 1 Abstract: Inspired by the use of memory and trauma in the 2008 film Waltz with Bashir by Ari ​ Folman, and the idea that trauma narratives play a large role in the media industry, this thesis looks at how national tragedies are portrayed through talk shows. Technological changes within the media landscape are creating a rise in events being filmed directly by victims or onlookers. This adds further shattering of an already fragmented media news landscape. While this thesis deals largely with talk shows, they make extensive use of this wider media landscape for newsgathering and sharing. Many talk shows combine disaster narratives and serious news with the sensationalist nature of raw emotions as affective entertainment tools. For the research of this phenomena I have used the Framing theory, the Affect theory and notions of memory and trauma in relation to therapy. Using two man-made disasters as objects of analysis: the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight 17 and the Las Vegas shooting. Framing shows that the combination of official news, mobile and the talk show’s own footage will lead to a high level of credibility. The affect theory reveals that the use of visuals also create more personal, emotional and memorable news stories. It is encouraged to share emotions more openly in public spheres, and it has been demonstrated that shared affectivity results in a feeling of national identity. Even though it is in the talk show’s own interest to use trauma narratives and striking visuals to get more views, it also generates a wider debate and encourages the process of healing. While small differences exist between the coverage of the two events in The USA and The Netherlands, the conclusions largely apply to both. 2 Table of contents: List of illustrations: 4 Chapter 1: Introduction 5 Research question 6 Objects of analysis 7 Chapter 2: Framing, affect and trauma in talk shows 9 Entertainment news 9 2.1 Disaster media coverage 10 2.2 Talk shows 11 Framing theory 13 Affect theory 15 4.1 Affect of imagery 16 4.2 Affect in the news 17 Trauma and Therapeutic discourse 18 5.1 Trauma 18 5.2 Memory 20 5.3 Therapy and talk shows 21 Chapter 3: Analysis 24 6.1 Narrative surrounding MH17 25 6.1.1 I am no longer anybody’s daughter, I am no longer anybody’s sister 28 6.1.2 MH17-slachtoffer Karlijn krijgt postuum haar bul 32 6.1.3 Nabestaanden willen meer international druk 35 6.2 Narrative surrounding Las Vegas Shooting 39 6.2.1 Ellen Meets Las Vegas Survivors Jesus Campos and Stephen Shuck 39 6.2.2 A Young Couple Tells Megyn Kelly How They Survived Las Vegas Shooting 43 Chapter 4: Conclusion 44 References 47 3 List of illustrations: Figure Page ​ 1: The procession of hearses from Eindhoven to Hilversum with victims of MH17 26 2: RTL Summer Late Night interview Katja Renkers 30 3: Katja Renkers and international flags half mast at Eindhoven airport. 30 4: Karlijn and her boyfriend on holiday 32 5: Robby on the balcony of his hotel room listening to shooting and bombings. 36 6: Robby at the crash site looking for Daisy and Bryce’s belongings 37 7: Stephen Schuck (left) and Jesus Campos (right) shown looking at floor plan. 41 ​ 8: Nick and Olivia posing in front of handmade poster 43 ​ 4 Chapter 1: Introduction Almost everyone has experienced some type or form of emotion that was triggered, enhanced or even produced by the media. Media uses emotion, something so intrinsically human, to create affective communities by paying specific attention to such emotions that bring people together. Disaster reporting, for instance, is very emotional in nature by covering stressful scenarios and focusing on the emotions of an individual directly affected, or the collective emotions from a larger group of people. Emotional reporting, through which there is a rise in public expression of feelings, has become more popular in recent years and plays a part in the social trend that is shifting public discourse from factual and informational to being more affective and personal. Television has played “a notable and controversial role in integrating and assimilating ‘trauma’ as a mode of experience into the broader psychic economy” (Biressi, 401). It has been shown that negative news stories, no matter if they are with or in absence of video, simply obtain increased attention (Pfau et al. 305). However, as Williams and Solomon have said: “emotional expression can never be seen as pure raw emotion” (qtd. In Pantti & Wahl-Jorgensen, 5). Instead they say it is influenced by ritual forms and are masked by “the trappings of culture and experience, constrained and complicated by the ‘display rules’ of society” (5). An event is seen as a ‘media disaster’ once it has taken over most media outlets and is portrayed as being large scale, often traumatic and perhaps even a historical happening that “circulate potent symbols and invoke/or mobilize solidarities” (qtd. In pantti, Wahl-Jorgensen, 7). Shocking news, especially when it affects a large community or nation, will make the event a high priority story that is the most important for the public to know. Shared emotions, which are expressed in public spheres and felt in large communities, help to form and maintain a sense of national belonging. As a nation, a community, or simply as humans, [w]e are concerned with meanings and values as they are actively lived and felt, and the relations between these and formal or systematic beliefs are in practice variable, over a range from formal assent with private dissent to the more nuanced interaction between selected and interpreted beliefs and acted and justified experiences. (Williams, 132) 5 This quote presents that it is common for people to try and find meaning behind everything, and the media has played a large part in a circle of influence, as they have been impacted by society's ideas and belief systems, all the while at the same time influencing these same systems. Using specific framing techniques that are designed to garner affective engagement from an audience, the media can define the collective sentiment and memory of a community. Frames provide a certain perspective on either issues, people or events to make them more meaningful. With constant changes in modern technology, come changes in the way that people engage with information and the news as well. Newsgathering has become increasingly fragmented through the rise in social media platforms and mobile media. This trend continues and creates a lot of competition for traditional news forms, such as newspapers and television news channels. In recent years it has become very popular to get news from social media platforms such as Reddit or Facebook, as well as entertainment news shows such as The Daily ​ ​ ​ ​ show with Trevor Noah. The latter is a news satire television program that draws inspiration ​ from actual news stories, political figures and other media organizations. Talk shows and other forms of ‘therapeutic television’ such as reality TV, have formed “an entire culture of confession and witnessing, of exposure and self-exposure”, using these well known notions of trauma as forms of entertainment (Biressi, 401). Research question This thesis aims to look at how national tragedies are portrayed through talk shows, by way of framing, use of trauma and therapy as entertainment tools. This thesis will focus on the literature read, providing connections made between the Framing theory, the affect theory and trauma, which will be the theoretical lenses through which the production of national traumas in talk shows will be analysed. Within the current media system, framing is an important tool to analyse a news story in terms of format and when connected to affect can lead to a greater understanding what the reasons are behind the spectacularization of certain stories. Generally, a sense of relationship is built between the audience and the news tellers and traumatic events, ​ both nationally and personally, create an emotionally intense experience which the media can use as a tool to connect and affect an audience. Thus, dealing with emotionally charged media content requires an understanding of how such images and visual aids of disasters affect their viewers. Lastly, therapy culture is a concept that is applicable to trauma studies, especially when looked through a talk show lense. Trauma literature and psychoanalysis have become increasingly popular, and these narratives of the past have frequently been structured surrounding the themes of victimhood 6 and trauma, as well as healing and therapy. The theories will be used to show how these are all related within the concept of therapy news, and in chapter three be applied to the object of analysis. To clarify, the object of analysis are two man-made disasters, firstly the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, otherwise known as MH17 or MAS17. I will be referring to the crash as MH17. Secondly the Las Vegas shooting in the United States. These events will be analysed by looking at a variety of fragments from the American talk show The Ellen Degeneres Show, and ​ ​ the Dutch show RTL Late night, using the concepts and findings made in relation to the formats ​ ​ of the TV shows. Objects of analysis The crash of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 is seen as one of The Netherlands’ most severely impactful events in recent years.

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