Tele-Advising - by Mimi White (Paperback)

About the Book

Tele-Advising: Therapeutic Discourse in American Television

Book Synopsis

Drawing on feminist, postmodern, and psychoanalytic theories, White traces the impact of television's therapeutic and confessional discourses on family construction and consumer culture. In a comprehensive analysis of cable, network, and syndicated programming and both daytime and prime-time shows, she reveals how the therapeutic and confessional mode functions on television, relating it to broader questions of social identity and power.

Originally published 1992.

A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

From the Back Cover

White uses several television programs as case studies, demonstrating their explicit or implicit confessional nature and arguing that viewers are active participants in the narrative and the narrational strategies of the shows.

Review Quotes

"White approaches television in an interesting new way, foregoing the customary generic focus (on the sitcom or news programming, for example), working instead from the premise that the psychotherapeutic experience has become a dominant one in twentieth-century American culture and that television enacts that experience in a wide range of broadcast venues. . . . Throughout, White is careful to argue the complexity of the communication process in very compelling ways." -- Cecelia Tichi, Vanderbilt University