An Evaluation Paper About the Showbiz Talk Show: Startalk

STARTALK SAYS IT ALL

(An Evaluation Paper about the Showbiz Talk Show: Startalk)

In the world today, we can't ignore the fact that our lives are affected by Mass Media so much. "Mass media play a significant role in shaping public perceptions on a variety of important issues, both through the information that is dispensed through them, and through the interpretations they place upon this information. (According to the article, "The role of feedback in assessing the news on mass media and the Internet" by Newhagen, J.E. -1999.-)

Reading through this article, I have decided to evaluate one of Mass Media's branches, which is the TV Media. We all know that in our society today, Showbiz talk shows influence our lives so much that we fail to notice some of its negative effects. These shows affect their viewers in different ways and these effects must be monitored and evaluated. People might say that these kinds of shows are indeed, a foundation that exists to give life to show business. Yet, as we go on this evaluation we will notice that some of their ways of giving life to the business are wrong and improper.

To make the evaluation more specific, I have decided to choose one Showbiz Talk Show that is known by many and has been in the industry for years already --- STARTALK.

Startalk is a long running showbiz oriented talk show in the Philippines, aired every Saturday in GMA 7 from 2pm to 4pm. It is also simulcasted over Super Radyo DZBB. The show started on October 1, 1995, on its original Sunday timeslot, as GMA Network's answer to ABS-CBN's top-rating Sunday showbiz talk show "Showbiz Lingo". A new and improved Startalk was introduced on April 24, 2010 with a new set as part of the combined forces of The League of Intrigues, Startalk and Showbiz Central. The show was named now as Startalk TX. The four hosts: Butch Francisco, Joey De Leon, Lolit Solis and Ricky Lo are promising to bring Three Times (TX) more aggressive at getting the hottest and Totally Xplosive showbiz news, and Three Times more fun to the viewers.

Found on the show's website are the old and new (revised) objectives of the show, the following are their revised objectives --- their first objective is (1.) to be a talk show where intrigues and exposes can be beneficial both for the stars and the viewers, depending on the show's ability to handle issues with utmost sensitivity and responsibility, (2.) to have the guts and the gall of covering important news and issues about the lives of the celebrities as the Showbiz Authority, (3.) to continue serving the public with its untainted credibility and its unbridled reputation of providing the most daring reportage and tackling the juiciest issues in tinsel town, without entering the private lives of the shining stars, and (4.) to be a showbiz institution who is known for their weekly dose of relevant showbiz news that are delivered hot, fast and right.

These objectives are important to the evaluation; for this will be referred to as the evaluation goes on. To start the evaluation, the first thing we should take in consideration is their way of approaching showbiz news, the relevance of the issues they cover.

Observing the issues in the show, I believe that there are lots of irrelevant issues they cover yet, the problem here is that the show failed to explain what kind of 'relevant' and 'important' news they want to deliver, and in show business it is definitely hard to differentiate what is relevant from what is not. However, if we base the definition of relevance to an educational level, it is stated by the Webster's dictionary that relevance describes how pertinent, connected, or applicable something is to a given matter. A thing is relevant if it serves as a means to a given purpose.

Given this definition we should look at some of the examples of the issues they cover that I found irrelevant, some examples of these irrelevant issues are, In the July 17th episode, Justin Bieber following KC Montero on twitter was an important event in history, having a celebrity being followed by another celebrity cannot be considered relevant even though JB is an international star, as observed in the internet world, celebrities follow each other in twitter all the time, thus another happening of this kind doesn't make any difference. At the same episode, the events before and after the marriage break-up of Kris and James were even plotted in a timeline, as if pointing out that everything that happened was that important, it is important to know that a celebrity couple broke up but covering every event of their break up is somehow exaggerated. In the February 12th episode, Jennica Garcia was bitten by a dog, seriously? Yes, it was part of their news coverage, in this issue nothing serious even happened to Jennica, the dog was her pet and they were just playing when this happened, maybe if Jennica was bitten by a stray dog with rabies and was brought to the hospital with serious condition, this health issue may be considered relevant.

One issue covered by the show that I found relevant was during the January 15th , 2011 episode, when Charice Pempengco was reported to come back to Hollywood to shoot a couple of episodes for the international television show series Glee: Season 2. A local celebrity, turned international icon now international actress is a pride to our country. Thus, this issue is relevant to the society.

Another problem here is that, the administration of the show fails to consider the time of their viewers, there are lots of irrelevant issues covered that are just a waste of time for some viewers who want to focus on main issues only. To make matters worse, they even delay the most important issues for the viewers to stay tune and end up watching the entire show.

These irrelevant issues defy their objective of covering important news and issues about the lives of the celebrities, and delivering weekly dose of relevant showbiz news. Also in the examples given above, covering the happenings before and after the marriage break-up of Kris Aquino and James Yap, defies their objective of providing the most daring reportage and tackling the juiciest issues in tinsel town, without entering the private lives of the shining stars. Some people may say that these issues don't make any sense and is just broadcasted for the purpose of prolonging the show.

The next important thing we should assess is their way of talking,