Disaster news: the use of trauma and therapy as entertainment tools in popular talk shows

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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

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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.

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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

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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)

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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

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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 showThe 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. This was a scheduled passenger flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur that was flying over the Ukraine when shot down on the 17th of July 2014, resulting in the death of all 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board (Mullen, CNN). The aircraft was found near Hrabovein Donetsk Oblast which is 40 km from the Ukraine-Russia border (Alexander, The Daily Telegraph), and was shot down during the ‘Battle of Shakhtarsk’ during the ‘War in Donbass’. According to Olga Lopatynska reporting from a publicly available preliminary report from the Dutch Safety Board, MH17 was shattered in the air likely because of the high-energy object that penetrated the aircraft and caused significant structural damage (6). A “high-energy object” is described to be a Buk missile system created by the Russians that can shoot down moving aircraft from high altitudes with precision (_{Lopatynska, 6). This is the only ‘valid’ explanation because there are no other indications that} the crash was caused by either actions of the crew or a technical difficulty. However, because of numerous rumours and disinformation, many tend to believe the Dutch government has not been forthcoming with credible information.

One year after the accident, many news organizations such as _{RTL Nieuws, NOS Nieuws} and the_{Volkskrant appealed separately to the “Government Information Act” to gain insight into} the documents. The ministry decided to make them public partially, but the organizations found this not enough. According to _{NOS News editor-in chief Marcel Gelauff, the organizations have} joined forces because_{"we want to underline that publicity is so crucial in this case. It is not just} about the surviving relatives, but also about the actions of the Dutch government and the political relations in Europe" (“Nederlandse media naar rechter”). It is deemed the seventh-deadliest aviation disaster and the deadliest airliner shootdown. Making sense of such a tragedy and seeking comfort in the midst of national panic and sadness can help the public

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move forward with their mourning process. The Dutch government and the news responded quickly, providing what they knew to be facts at the time, which helped the public a tremendous deal to understand the unimaginable. However, providing news so quickly went at the cost of truthfulness because there was simply too much that was unknown (Joost Niemoller).

Even now, the truth behind the shootdown is still a topic of debate amongst scholars, the public and the news because many conclusions were formed by circumstantial evidence (Joost Niemoller). Joost also mentions on his blog that because death is often not unexpected, when it is it can cause a great deal of shock. This shock can be dealt with by providing answers to questions as to why and how, and this happens both in the personal and public spheres around the world. He brings forth 9/11 as an example of national trauma resulting in strong feelings like panic and anger because of the shock when hundreds of people die in one instance, people resort to continuously and obsessively following the news in the hope that answers will be provided. With these answers, the nation’s sorrow is given, in colloquial terms, a ‘space’ in the hearts or minds of the people by accepting the facts and moving forward.

The second object of analysis, the Las Vegas shooting, is the deadliest mass shooting in the United States by an individual, during which a gunman fired into a crowd of concert goers at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival on October first, 2017. Both the gunman and the concert were located on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada, which left 851 people injured and 58 people dead. The gunman, Stephen Paddock of Mesquite, Nevada was 64 years old when he fired 1,100 rounds into the concert crowd from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel. He was found and pronounced dead at his hotel room one hour after the shooting had stopped, by a self-inflicted gunshot wound which made it impossible to know what his motives were for this horrible crime. This event re-sparked debates about the gun laws in the USA and it can be argued that shootings in general have become an important part of the American national identity because of their frequency. Community-based trauma’s tend to receive much more media coverage and the news of this horrific event spread quickly across multiple media outlets that are used daily

Both events had a very significant impact on not only the countries directly affected, as it caused worldwide shock, but also emotional outpour and sparking many debates. The flight resulted in such turmoil and unrest in The Netherlands that to this day, Dutch talk shows such as_{De Wereld Draait Door}

,_{RTL Late Night and Jinek}discuss the event whenever new information

is released or to commemorate. In contrast to the Dutch media, the Las Vegas shooting received a lot of attention that following day and night with many talk show programs in the USA addressing the shocking event. Late night talk show hosts such as Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, James Corden, Stephen Colbert amongst many others spoke about the shooting in their opening monologues. This thesis will ultimately portray similarities and/or distinctions between the two

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events, and it would be interesting for future research to compare the two nations and their response to disaster and potentially traumatic events through the use of media.

This thesis will proceed to look further into disaster news and talk shows under the umbrella term ‘entertainment news’ in chapter two. Followed by two theoretical frameworks, framing and affect, that will be used to understand the concepts of trauma and memory. The chapter will end by relating these theories and concepts to therapy news within the context of talk shows. In chapter three the focus will lie on applying the discussed frameworks to three fragments from talk shows in relation to flight MH17, and two fragments from talk shows in relation to the Las Vegas shooting.

Chapter 2: Framing, affect and trauma in talk shows

In this chapter theoretical frameworks from secondary and tertiary sources on framing and affect will be explored in order to link understand their applicability within the entertainment news sector. The notions they share with trauma and therapy are looked at in depth in relation to talk shows, providing a better understanding for the following analysis chapter.

Entertainment news

The increase in fragmenting the media environment has led to many people tuning out from the news and current affairs (Boukes, Boomgaarden,). It has become common for people to avoid ‘hard news’ which are distributed by conventional media outlets such as news channels, instead turning towards entertainment programs who act as new information sources such as websites like Reddit, Facebook or other television programs like talk shows. In an article by Boukes and Boomgaarden, they quote a paper written by Baum and Jamison from 2006, that “[w]hen political information is packaged as entertainment, however, even those not interested in politics may tune in, and thereby unintentionally learn about politics or participate in public debate. This shows that the supposed line between entertainment and traditional news programs have become blurry, both in regards to the content and their role in society (Qtd in. Boukes, Boomgaarden, 1146).

2.1 Disaster media coverage

Disaster media is a specific type of news that is spectacularized because of its extreme nature, and always has the priority to reveal the horrific event, pass on known facts and what is

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happening that minute. Disaster coverage is generally emotional by nature, and can focus on the emotions displayed by individuals that are affected by the tragedy, or the collective emotions of a bigger community that is reacting to the sadness and misfortune of those around them (Pantti, Wahl-Jorgensen, 5). However, disasters have become the norm in contemporary news media (Pantti & Wahl-Jorgensen, 5), and news channels are always trying to find new ways to frame them in a more shocking way, in order to get the viewer's attention. _{Disasters and tragedies,} especially those that are violent and on a global-scale with extensive video footage, have become a form of entertainment because of their shocking imagery and shock value. Due to technological advancement with mobile telephones and their cameras, as well as the continuous access to social media and the internet, information, images and sounds circulate much quicker and on a more personal level than the traditional officially formatted forms of news coverage. Videos filmed at the scene by the public with their personal phone cameras, circulate on social media platforms more often, and are also now broadcasted by official television news channels to show a more personalized approach. It is now common for there to be heightened affectivity because of “contemporary social production of media from zones of disaster” and the increase in ‘raw’ footage (McCosker). However, even raw videos cannot be entirely unframed or unedited because of the most basic cinematic features such as the maker’s choice of shot, focus, duration and amongst other components. Rawness is now commonly related to the term ‘authenticity’ which adds a form of spectacle, not only to unedited videos but also to “ _Twitter traffic, _{Facebook comments and other networked modes of expression and exchange”} (McCosker). News and other media forms which report on disasters circulating raw content have taken a much more personalized approach, instead of the formatted and official forms of news coverage. It has also been shown that television programs thrive with on-demand, social distribution and mobile video viewing (Nielson & Sambrook). Therefore to maintain relevance, many shows have adopted new formats and accepted the rise in online video.

Globalisation, social media and access to international television has also caused for local news to increasingly become international news that can cause more distress around the world. According to McCosker “this flow of affective visual access occurs increasingly outside the control of mainstream media institutions” and adds importance to normally locally contained events.

During times of disaster, 24/7 news can be difficult to turn off because of the intrinsic need for new information. Pfefferbaum et al, mentions that disaster media consumption to some viewers cause heightened reactions, and that “_{those who are distressed} may be drawn to media coverage to obtain information or to maintain a heightened emotional state associated with arousal”.

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2.2 Talk shows

A talk show, or also known as a chat show, is one of the most popular forms of entertainment news in our current media landscape. It is a television program on which one or more people discuss a variety of topics that are introduced by the talk show host. Interestingly, talk shows are not a new concept, and have been broadcast on television since the beginning of the medium. It even predates television as it derives from the radio, where there was more ‘talk’ than ‘show’ initially, but it was of great influence to the shows we know today (_{Szymkowska-Bartyzel, 127). During the 1990s there was a spike in what are called “tabloid”} talk shows, which have not quite survived and have instead been replaced by what is now more common as “interview” or “lifestyle TV” formats. Today there are many different types of talk shows, although generally it is common for talk shows to have guests, one or more people who are related to, professionally experienced, or knowledgeable about the topic that is discussed that day. Talk shows that are of a more serious nature with conversations often about politics and that are discussion oriented which resembles traditional news more, need hosts that do not show their bias or personality as much. The host is rarely funny, helping political and social issues come to the forefront in a serious manner ( Szymkowska-Bartyzel, 127). At the opposite end, the entertainment format refers to the tradition of variety shows; these are full of sarcastic monologues and jokes made by the host, as well as funny sketches, musical performances and guests that are predominantly comedians or entertainment stars. The hosts show sympathy and antipathy which generally reflects the feelings of the viewers (Szymkowska-Bartyzel, 128). Lastly, there is also a significant portion of talk shows that are a hybrid, in which they mix serious issues and journalism “with unrefined entertainment, politics, public issues, and social problems with humour, scandal and sensation” (_{Szymkowska-Bartyzel, 128). Popular shows} that follow this type of format include(d) those hosted by Oprah Winfrey, Jerry Springer, and now Ellen Degeneres. The areas covered by these shows are selected and presented in a very specific manner of attractiveness — “a sense of sensation and scandal, entering areas of human privacy and intimacy, psychological exposure, humor, caricature, etc. Such programs almost always apply the case study method — a serious social problem is presented to the viewers and the audience at the studio through the experiences of an invited guest or guests” (_{Szymkowska-Bartyzel, 129).}

The subgenres are generally allocated to a specific programming block during the broadcast day and also have significantly different formats even though the topics discussed can overlap. These blocks include: the breakfast chat shows that show a lot of news summaries and political coverage, but also celebrity interviews, to late morning and daytime shows that focus

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more on entertainment, lifestyle features as well as self-help programs that include therapists or medical advice for varying issues. During the evening time shows focus on the news and politics, and the late-night talk shows often feature celebrity guests who are promoting their latest ventures and projects to the public. There are also Sunday morning talk shows that are specifically a staple in North American network programming, and these focus more on politics, inviting political figures or candidates as well as journalists to the show. After shows, spoof talk shows, sports or economics related shows can also be popular discussion programs. These formats all vary depending on the country, as well as certain daytime shows might appear during the night time in other parts of the world or afternoon programs having a similar structure to a late night show. Late night talk shows are also substantially more significant in the United States, with shows featuring hosts Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, James Corden and more that are known and watched worldwide. Whereas in Britain, breakfast shows are very popular. Due to their popularity and its sensational nature, there is an increase in people learning about the news through this unconventional way, and is one of the reasons why these shows have become an important part of the public sphere and modern society as a whole.

The public sphere is a concept understood as a space of communication where public discourse can take place and that results in the shaping of public opinion (Szymkowska-Bartyzel, 125). Thornborrow also writes that they have become a major place for the discussion of public opinion on a great range of issues “from individual, personal dilemmas and family relationships, to broader social problems and concerns. Whatever the topic, it has been claimed that the voice of lay participants in these shows is generally prioritised over the voice of experts and professionals” (1436). Many of these TV talk shows are by nature full of arguments and mediated disagreement that are staples in the world of spectacle through confrontation (Thornborrow, 1438). One thing that differentiates talk shows from other television programs is the seemingly spontaneous and improvised conversations or ‘live talk’ without a script. It is important to know that even though unplanned talking does happen, most of the statements made are highly structured (_{Szymkowska-Bartyzel, 130). Scripts are a large} part of the formatting technique used in almost all forms of media. _{However, the difference} between traditional news and talk shows are not as big as one might think, as there is frequent blurring of the lines as talk shows incorporate much of the news into their content. Politicians showing their personalities and being interviewed similarly to celebrity guests makes them easier to relate to, whilst the audience simultaneously is being introduced to their political agenda. Popular and political culture are thus often mixed, which results in the news being presented in a more entertaining way, forming new cultures and opinions by watching these talk shows.

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Framing theory

The framing theory is a tool that is applicable to all news formats and media outlets, as it is used to look at how narratives are formed and information is spread by the media. Firstly the framing theory is primarily the process of “selecting and highlighting some facets of events or issues, and making connections among them so as to promote a particular interpretation, evaluation and/or solution” (Entman, Framing). Entman also wrote a book called The Black Image in the White Mind,

in which he defines frames as a narrative having four elements:

“define problems – determine what a causal agent is doing with what costs and benefits, usually measured in terms of common cultural values; diagnose causes – identify the forces creating the problem; make moral judgments – evaluate causal agents and their effects; and suggest remedies – offer and justify treatments for the problems and predict their likely effects” (Entman, 49-50).

Secondly, Margot Kuttschreuter, writes that the framing theory does not only include the magnitude of coverage but also the content of the coverage. Therefore a second characteristic of framing is also known as frame-setting, which takes aspects from an issue and makes them more important through the modes of presentation (Scheufele). When covering any news story, in particular disasters, the media system will have to make a decision on the best way to frame the event (Kuttschreuter). There will be a central theme for the narrative, that emphasizes certain elements of the event (Birkland_),

and this central theme can range from: the causes, the

treatment, or the definition of the problem (Entman, Framing_{). The journalists provide the} context and give an interpretation of the social themes or problem surrounding the event (Barnhurst, Mutz).

Thirdly, an important factor for media framing is the idea of repetition and consistency of the message, as these are thought to be built over time and across a range of sources (McCosker). An example of repetition or consistency would be journalistic remembrance through commemoration, an important point that comes back later in the analysis section of this thesis.

Lastly, dominant societal structures, value systems and beliefs, relate and influence the frame significantly (Castells). The theory “has roots in the analysis of discourse and ideology” (McCosker). This suggests that framing only uses the existing power relationships in our society

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in order to produce particular narratives. Stuart Hall for example, discussed “the consolidation of power through media control and manipulation of information” where he explored the relationship between the media and the government, as well as the audience (Dawisha, 4). Dawisha’s paper highlighted that news sources are trusted and seen as reliant because of the idea that only people with high-status positions have access to factual and accurately detailed information, and most of the population does not fall under this category (5). Hall argues here, that these types of news sources become the “primary definers of topics, and any backlash, disagreement or response would be just that – a response to the main framework that the primary definers of a topic have founded (Dawisha, 5). In relation to the case study of flight MH17, Joost Niemoller who wrote a blog on the reportings and framing of the national incident, said that he was surprised by the predisposed framing and reporting of the story and the lack of different viewpoints. Many of the bigger media corporations all chose a similar storyline, while his blog provided a different point of view. Not unlike many others who study media, he knows there is a western state of mind: a bias that fits the identity of a particular region/country, and fits the frame which has chosen for a particular news item. His book that he wrote and published in 2014 about the facts of the MH17 disaster, initially garnered a lot of attention by the Dutch media, until they realised it did not match their own ideas. Facts, depending on how they are framed, can function differently according to Jill Edy (Qtd in. Simonetti, 26). Everyone retreated with the same argument: his story was not actual. Translated from Dutch, he said that he became more aware “that as an independent journalist I can only be part of one story, one frame, as it is so disgustingly called today” (Joost Niemoller).

Affect theory

The affect theory is commonly studied amongst many academic fields because of its applicability to different interpretations. However, this openness to opinions has also made it difficult to subject it to a more set definition. Starting with Raymond Williams, who thought of affect as the “structures of feeling” (Ribera, 9). He begins his essay describing that culture and society are usually “expressed in an habitual past tense” and that “[t]he strongest barrier to the recognition of human cultural activity is this immediate and regular conversion of experience into finished products” (Williams, 128). The meaning of history and assumptions of actions are projected onto not only the past but also contemporary life ranging from relationships to

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institutions (128). The finished products such as a film, or in the case of this thesis, a framed news story, will “complete their inherent process” by making them “present, in specifically active readings” (129). He goes on to say that these finished products are never done with this formative process as they can only be analysed in a specific present. This in particular relates the cultural norms and belief systems in place surrounding that specific product, and also how the person interpreting the product will always be of influence to the active reading. This idea can be related to the news and any form of visual or textual representation that is shared, especially through big platforms or mediums.

Secondly, Gregg and Seigworth explained affect to be “an impingement or extrusion of a momentary or sometimes more sustained state of relation as well as the passage (and the duration of passage) of forces or intensities” that pass or move between the human and nonhuman (Qtd in. Ribera, 10). Adding to the idea of a relation, another source said that affect is the energy that creates the relation between physical body and the world (Cifor, 8). Cifor also mentions that “[i]t is at the core of how we form, sustain and break social relations, differences and individual and collective identities”(8). This in particular matches how a nation comes together after a disaster and become more aware of one another, to work together on a solution if possible so that something so horrendous will never happen again. It is the building of a collective identity, one event that has affected everyone in different ways but that binds everyone together. Ann Cvetkovich also came up with her own definition, being inspired by the Deleuzian interpretation that describes affect as a “force, intensity, or the capacity to move and be moved,” and using this to create her own interpretation as “a generic sense... as a category that encompasses affect, emotion, and feeling, and that includes impulses, desires, and feelings that get historically constructed in a range of ways (whether as distinct specific emotions or as a generic category often contrasted with reason)” (Qtd in. Ribera, 10).

4.1 Affect of imagery

In relation to the aforementioned framing theory, sensationalist reporting is framed in such a way that the desired outcome is shared affectivity. When communicating suffering, visualization is commonly considered a vital instrument ( _{Höijer). Any filmic experience includes} “the portrayal of the lives of other human beings in such a fashion that viewers are invited to share their cognition, emotions, goals, situations, and social environments” which is an important note (Grodal, et al. 19). Important to acknowledge is the relatively logical idea that different forms of art that are either visual, textual, or sonic, produce various kinds of effects on the senses because of different spatial arrangements, movement or sound. Visuals arouse more

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emotions that affect the message processing, also meaning that stories accompanied by an image will most likely be remembered longer. For example, news footage and visual aids are processed differently than the same content that is communicated through just words (Pfau et al. 304). This is because there is a quicker affective response to pictures than to words because the right brain, which is the emotional side, processes visual content more than the left (Pfau et al. 305). Pfau et al. also mention that “[w]hen audio and visual messages are dissonant viewers may overload their limited available cognitive resources while processing the messages; when this happens, it is audio processing, not video, that suffers” (qtd. In fox and colleagues, 105). In this case the video will be remembered and not the audio. As a result of the emotion that images and videos bring forth, it can “make audiences care about an issue and the people involved in it” (Graber 76). Audio and visual are tools to help create a better sense of ‘actuality’ which is shown by the development of news channels. People place greater trust in the images that they can see with their own eyes, hear the sounds with their own ears, making those news stories more believable. Every industry that uses visual aids uses this to their advantage to hopefully get “automatic, unreflective trust in the branded product” (Warner, 18). Even though many people see “visuals as true representations” there is a lot of “evidence that visual content can be manipulated” (Pfau et al. 306). What also has to be realised is that the moving images and situation “in front of the camera or coming out of the screen are not glimpses of reality, but of actuality” (R. Beliveau).

While on the one hand McCosker agrees that visual aids can function as “affective tools for the production and circulation of affect”, he also says “that it is sometimes what is not shown that carries the greatest affect”. Höijer did a qualitative study of ‘compassion’ in mediated suffering, in which was concluded that it was consistently reported that for the respondents impressions of suffering, images were of high importance. Höijer mentions the Kosovo war as an example with television news, a respondent said that “It was what I saw of live pictures on television that made the strongest impression, all the innocent people, all those who cried’ (qtd. McCosker). It was not the mass graves, or the fact that it was a senseless massacre, but rather the emotion of the refugees that were affective. McCosker notes that this type of affect is “not necessarily a form of identification with the subject as victim, but rather an encounter with a ‘genre’ of tragic image resulting in a particular set of lasting effects that we designate as compassion”._{The relational capacity of the media is important when looking at the diversity of} forms and expressions, as well as modes of encounter. Massumi’s point in his article called The Autonomy of Affect

, is that a subjective viewpoint lies in “both the autonomic nature of the

corporeal, synaesthetic response and its ability to vitalise matter or persist beyond the scope of a perceiving subjective point of view”. An image in which pain is portrayed, such as the shocking

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photograph of the Syrian boy who had drowned on his way to the Greek island Kos by Reuters, can take on it’s own life and carry around a sense of intense traumatic force. However, there are variations of cases of affect, and seeing someone else’s pain according to McCosker sees affect remain at a virtual level as a form of empathy and action is never actualized (qtd. Colebrook, 54). He goes on to say that “[a]ffect here designates the body's ability to suffer, to hurt in specific ways, its vulnerability to elements and forces of nature; it inheres within the body's ability to be affected or moved by the sight of suffering, and its capacity to react in any number of ways”. Massumi on the other hand, theorizes affect by relating it to inaccessible remainders, because “the meaning-making aspects of an image” are its “quality” and “the strength or duration of the image's effect" he calls "intensity" (_{84). The theory of affect also combines the actual experience,} such as Williams puts it with the cultural politics of these feelings. The aesthetic shape of cultural representations shows that feeling and form from the aesthetic is embedded in sensation.

4.2 Affect in the news

The news has become increasingly a performance of sincerity and authenticity, instead of an objective representation of reality. Aesthetics is the sensory experience of perception, and has it has undergone a reversal of meaning, starting with being seen as reality and not art, to now being known as a spectacle. The way the news benefits from anaesthetics is that it implies rationality and controlled content that shows the audience they are authentic and truthful, therefore ensuing trust and loyalty. However, the news is a place where the relation between it’s aesthetics and anaesthetics become blurry, because of this dialectical reversal from “a cognitive mode of being ‘in touch’ with reality to a way of blocking out reality”. Aesthetics “destroys the human organism’s power to respond politically even when self-preservation is at stake: Someone who is "past experiencing" is "no longer capable of telling...proven friend...from mortal enemy” (Buck-Morss, 18).

Aesthetics relates to cultural norms and tastes (Buck-Morss, 6), and is used as a political and emotional tool: “the aesthetic is in any case conceived as a kind of safety valve for irrational impulses” (Buck-Morss, 7). It is also seen as having female characteristics because the rise of emotions clouds meaning past the surface level. Aesthetics techniques are used because they want to stand out amongst the overload in messages through a variety of different mediums such as television and social media. They need to make memorable and shocking content that grabs viewers attention and keeps them watching their channel or grabbing their newspaper instead of the competition. However, aesthetics, and an abundance of it, can desensitize the

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consumer which is supposed to result in a logical and decreased emotional opinion. She says that “the cognitive system of synaesthetics has become, rather, one of anaesthetics” because its main focus is to “numb the organism, [...] to repress memory” (18). People have become desensitized to headlines and breaking news segments because of the constant flow of images and news that is available 24/7. New channels have become infested with “on-screen news digests and flashy graphics” (Cushion, 63/64), which does attract viewers, but discourages sustained viewing. Emphasized by McCosker, the images and information the public gets to see from scenes of global disaster are strongly affected by those who were there, capturing events with their phones and posting them on social media which relays their experiences outside of the bigger institutions that put work into framing events. This way people have achieved a certain degree of autonomy from the planned and professional practices of journalistic framing. Digital and mobile media networks have reshaped global media immensely in recent years and this has resulted in the footage being less professional and more a “direct expression of personal experience, sensation and affect” (McCosker).

Trauma and Therapeutic discourse

5.1 Trauma

The term trauma, and in particular psychological trauma, causes some sort of damage to the mind that transpires from experiencing a severely distressing event that exceeds someone’s ability to cope with emotionally. These event(s) can be experienced over weeks, years or even decades as the individual or community struggles to cope with the circumstances that can lead to significantly long term consequences. For an event to become traumatic, based on Freud’s interpretation, it should not only overwhelm the mind’s capacity, but also be unanticipated, which causes true fright (Muntean, 52). As a result of the event being a surprise, three temporal periods are established: Firstly, “the pre-event state of unpreparedness, marked by an absence of anxiety” (52). Secondly “the traumatic event itself, in which temporal orientations are ruptured and confused; and [thirdly] the posttraumatic state, in which dreams and memories of the traumatic event haunt the traumatized sufferer” (52). Trauma can be experienced individually, individually in context of a community and lastly communities as a whole can also be traumatically affected. The concern with the trauma that has been suffered by an individual victim can also be extended beyond them, as “[t]he concept of the indirect victim allows for a tremendous inflation of the numbers who are entitled to claim such support” (Get off the couch). Traumatic suffering is usually initiated by a single event, causing the traumatized subject to carry the trauma as a condition with them in the present. A traumatic memory does

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not necessarily need to be the same for everyone, as experiences, states of mind and forms of recovery vary from person to person (Muntean, 53). The community surrounding individual trauma can be defined as: “geographically as in neighborhoods; virtually as in a shared identity, ethnicity, or experience; or organizationally, as in a place of work, learning, or worship”. It is important for the community to help facilitate healing by showing understanding and support the individual(s), as their response sets the foundation of the impact and effect. _{National trauma} is similar but the effects of trauma are applicable to more members of a country or collective group that can potentially wound, change or influence a national identity. This is because a nation as a whole is represented by its culture, traditions, language and politics and when a large group of people is affected by an incident, this may create a ripple affect into other areas of their society (National identity). Communities as a whole can collectively react by becoming fearful, hyper-vigilant, re-traumatized, and triggered by other circumstances that are similar to the earlier trauma. Communities are often shaped by historical trauma, which is also known as intergenerational trauma by it being built into cultural norms, meaning it is equally as important for the community to heal by talking about it publicly (Trauma definition). By talking constantly about a tragedy or specific event by commemorating it every year, it keeps the social memory alive in a community. As a community relives the same event over and over again it becomes an integral part of their identity. Paul Connerton wrote that “we may note that images of the past commonly legitimate a present social order", and that many times an individual traumatic experience is a shared concern, “not only to ensure the [social order’s] present maintenance, but also to maintain vigilance against potential future catastrophes (Qtd in. Muntean, 53).

What is interesting is that a traumatic event does not need to be experienced first hand, but can also affect people who are watching it unfold over television.This is because of the way that news stories are framed and made to engage the audience, viewers can experience it not just as spectators, but in its most totalizing form (Muntean, 56). This type of trauma can be categorized as collective trauma. Watching news images that represent shock and disbelief as result of a public trauma, still “pulls up short of fully engaging the cultural processes at work. For it is in radically contextual, embodied, expressive enactments—from public performances of mourning and religious reflection to performances[...]—that collective trauma registers and healing occurs” (Coonfield, Huxford). Such enactments are also seen by Coonfield and Huxford as performances in which a national identity is grounded, after which the nation can move towards healing. Images serve as a cultural epicenter of that day’s tragedy, but actions produce a set of symbols that are more visible which show the range of influences that may have otherwise gone unnoticed.

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5.2 Memory

According to Slavoj Zizek it is not only about remembering or forgetting the memories or the trauma, as he says that “traumas we are not ready or able to remember haunt us all the more forcefully. We should therefore accept the paradox that, in order to really forget an event, we must first summon up the strength to remember it properly” (Qtd in Muntean, 53). Working through and acting out, two concepts related to memory and trauma explored in an interview with an American historian Dominick La Capra, can help the individual or community heal. According to La Capra, one works through a memory or fact when looking at it from a distance to allow for critically analysation of that memory. A distinguished difference between past, present and future needs to be established for a traumatised victim and working through their memories helps them do this. Acting out on the other hand, is the process of repeating the past, reliving it and it playing a big role in the present, “to exist in the present as if they were still fully in the past, with no distance from it” (La Capra). He also relates the two concepts to historic research, by saying that you would not initially associate it to personal memory, but that both require fact checking, gathering information and constructing a past which is accurate. Memory is therefore not just an alternative to history, instead it can be therapeutic because of its healing qualities when being shared (Kaya, 686). It is the prioritizing of memory and talking about the trauma instead of staying silent and privatizing the trauma. In an essay by Eunah Lee on the excess of trauma and the aesthetics of affect, Lee affirms that affect can be transferred through visually shocking scenes and narratives. Park used the collective memories of trauma that were generated by Korea’s modern nation-building and the affect of this trauma was transmitted through her images of violence and heightened emotional scenes. This repetition of showing the traumatic experiences were a way of working through and acting out, for both the filmmaker as well as the nation. Shocking images, according to Jill Bennett, that are watched under controlled conditions elicit an immediate affective response that “_{mimic[s] the sudden impact of trauma, or} the quality of a post-traumatic memory, characterized by the involuntary repetition of the experience that the mind fails to process in the normal way" (10-11). Importantly, the knowledge of a particular event and trauma can cause fear and anxiety about potentially experiencing something similar or it happening again (Pantti & Wahl-Jorgensen, 12), in which case this panic needs to be solved in order to maintain control over a society. The media can for example provide details on where to find counselling, or by spreading awareness and working through the event by talking about it can have a therapeutic effect.

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5.3 Therapy and talk shows

Traumatic storytelling and the therapeutic imaginary can also be called the “post-conflict therapeutic framework” with the underlying premise being that: “repressed memory causes untold and ongoing psychological problems; that ‘revealing’ or truth-telling leads to healing; and that ‘closure’ on the past must be reached in order for the present to be lived and the future to be faced” (Kaya, 686). Narratives of trauma often times are the star of the talk show so to speak, because it is a “powerful identity narrative that provides a “centre” to the self by stitching together past and present in a narrative of self-knowledge” and it embodies “modern tragic narratives of the suffering self … the culture of recovery has contributed to a deep narrativization of the self through suffering” (Qtd in. Luckhurst, 134). The framing of any trauma in the media takes powerful cultural signals, as Furedi explains, and provides viewers “with ready-made therapeutic explanations of their troubles” (qtd in. Get off that couch). In an article by Pantti and Wahl-Jorgensen, they noted that in earlier work done by Pantti and Wieten (2005), “extraordinary tragic events are typically represented as integrative events, moments of national consensus and unity born out of mourning together” (5).

A concept called the Western “therapy culture” by Frank Furedi, mentions the breaking down of boundaries between the public and the private, because single emotions and experiences have become groundbreakingly significant in public life. There is a new popular culture phenomenon in which we need to share everything, even other people’s pain. According to Furedi in this day and age, the expression of emotions have become much safer and depoliticized which has contributed to the replacing of informative and fact-based news reporting with emotional indulgence and sentimentalism (Pantti, Wahl-Jorgensen, 3). This display of emotions importantly does not seem to threaten the political and social stability of a nation, according to Furedi. Talk shows have become an important way of reaching citizens, as they are often based on emotions and opinions rather than on facts and observations. They also tend not to be based _{“on content-related discourse, but on entertainment and scandal. The} consequence of applying such values and the relevant aesthetics is a shift from public (social, political or cultural) discourse to private, or even intimate issues of public people” (_{Szymkowska-Bartyzel, 134).}

This shift from public to private has resulted in offering viewers the experience of “therapeutic thrill” (Szymkowska-Bartyzel, 134), relating the talk shows to being a form of voyeurism into the lives and problems of others. Voyeurism satisfies the human need to spy, which has been theorized and talked about in the film and television industry extensively, by

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people such as Godzic. According to him cinematic voyeurism is different to the situation of the talk-show as a television genre. However, he goes on to say that:

If the instinct to spy on and eavesdrop people in intimate situations in the case of a cinema viewer meant psychological safety, a certain cocoon separating him from the consequences of real spying, the viewer of a TV show is rather placed in a “social viewing situation”. Therefore, [a] TV viewer is a voyeur, yet a voyeur who is talked to and about (direct addresses, gestures, “what do our viewers think about it?”), is no longer safe and becomes much more submerged in the social dimension. (Qtd in. Szymkowska-Bartyzel, 134)

This social dimension he mentions, immerses the viewer and this creates more emotional engagement as often times the emotions presented in the episode are passed onto the viewer(s) by the means of affect . Talk shows allow for a lot of participation, especially with the second screen concept applied to this statement, for example viewers being able to call into the studio and voice their opinion or enter a discussion with those around them. As a result of framing and emotional outpour from viewers, empathy is one of the feeling that is a desired outcome for filmmakers, as it is the ability to “understand and share the feelings of another” and also “the ability to view the world from another person’s perspective combined with an emotional reaction to that perspective, including feelings of concern for others” (Schutte, Stilinović, 708). Empathy also connects societies on a deeper level through the use of affect. Empathetic engagement can occur when imagination is used or through perceptual cues of action and affective resonance (Grodal, et al. 27). There are people who do not show equal dispositions of empathy however, which means that people react to the news or any other imagery differently. As an entertainment or news channel to keep on receiving that same connection with the audience, new ways have to be developed in order to maintain a certain shock value that adds to the level of spectacle.

For this reason, talks shows have adopted “modes of interrogation and aesthetic representation that [drive] to explore personal trauma as well as history and memory” (Biressi, 401). _{According to an article by Pantti & Wahl-Jorgensen, therapy news comforts the afflicted,} and afflict the comfortable, which they say is also a journalists job. Journalists produce emotions of both the victims and of themselves, which are then placed in storylines using wider cultural narratives. They do so by representing ordinary people’s pain and hardships, by confronting the government and calling them to account, as well as “strengthening communities and creating

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solidarity” (6). Disaster media coverage often times gives “ordinary people” a voice through which “the subjects of trauma and therapy are grouped into three categories: “victims,” “perpetrators,” and “witnesses” (Kaya, 692). The tragic event is condensed and represented in the media by it’s framing, “through the selection of images, narratives, expositions and analyses”, which result in the production of different classes such as ‘deserved’ and ‘undeserved’ victims. _{The forgiveness between victims and perpetrators, the distribution of guilt, can be an} emotional and moral exchange also known as the “economy of reconciliation”, and as Kaya explains it “redefines national identity in terms of trauma, healing, and forgiveness, and posits the nation as a collective self willing and able to make peace with its traumatic past” (687). According to Chouliaraki this also intensifies the power given to the construction of national identity, as well as the production of pity in varying degrees. Pantti and Wahl-Jorgensen mentioned British journalist Tessa Mayes who said that:

Today reporters are providing Therapy News_{… Unlike the past,} contemporary news reports are swamped in emotion as if reporting and analysing feelings are the reporter’s chief purpose. As a result, victims are granted expert status_{… the new therapeutic approach is allowing victims to} be less criticised and more counselled by the media_{… Therapy News offers an} over-indulgent feast of feeling, re-playing individuals’ emotions back to us as if we all feel the same way.

John Langer wrote that “[v]ictims become more authentically sympathetic and worthy of our ‘reflex of tears’ when an ordinary person located in the real world, rather than someone from the potentially manipulative world of professional newsmakers, can guarantee the details of misfortune” (87)._{People that are not celebrities or politicians, thus deemed ordinary people,} primarily appear in the news when they have become victims of a crime or natural disaster (Pantti & Wahl-Jorgensen, 5). Rothe in her book on trauma in popular culture defined this as being “victim talk” which according to her should assure audiences that even when a crime is so heinous, or a natural disaster is so destructive, good always beats evil and “ _{it thereby conveys} “the message that teary-eyed sentimentality constitutes an adequate and sufficient reaction” to suffering while simultaneously depicting it as heroic and redemptive” (Ball, 89). This is one of the reasons why news channels, but also documentaries for example, use interviews with witnesses and real people that viewers at home can related to because it creates a higher level of engagement.

This then joins journalism and the coverage of tragedies to constructing “a news of feeling as well as fact” ( _{Pantti & Wahl-Jorgensen, 6), that can be linked to the affect theory and}

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the _{Structure of Feelings text by Raymond Williams. The show uses the guests vulnerabilities} and pushes them towards an emotional collapse that will provide them ‘the money-shot’ that will essentially both entertain and help those in the audience and viewers. These conversations are expertly steered by the host, by using showing their ability to understand the suffering. The host is always engineered to have a certain identity, and to create a “sense of intimacy with her[/his] mass audience positions her[/him] as ‘structured to reinforce the feeling of close proximity to the real and the familial” (Luckhurst, 133). Ellen Degeneres, for example, has used her wealth, celebrity and cultural influence to help many in need by setting up charities or donating money on her show, and is generally known for being very giving. She has essentially ‘taken over’ Oprah Winfrey’s job who embodied “the therapeutic narrative behind all her enterprises” (Luckhurst, 133). As a confession is produced, the guest is then rewarded with either a donation or the announcement of taking those essential first steps towards recovery and self-empowerment. There might be a process of accusation, by naming the perpetrator, which is an important part of the therapeutic discourse (Biressi, 401).

Chapter 3: Analysis

In this chapter I aim to use the information shown in the previous chapter to understand the concepts in a more concrete manner by applying them to the case studies, MH17 and the Las Vegas shooting. Looking at various fragments of talk shows in which the events are discussed, the theories are applied in order to analyse and find explanations for my findings. As I have observed, disaster reporting is an intensive form of communication and is thus associated with high levels of emotions which is appealing to a community in response to the tragedy (McCosker). For both MH17 and the Las Vegas shooting, there was an obvious communal grieving process and each nation came together to react to the horrific event. Importantly “[d]isasters make emotions prominent because they involve reportorial practices outside of ordinary structural routines” (Pantti, Wahl-Jorgensen, 5). Combined with political empowerment, the representation of regular people’s problems and grief are linked to strengthen the feeling of unity and community, which really add the emotional charge (Pantti & Wahl-Jorgensen, 6, 10). Constructing a general mood and drawing attention to the national character of the disaster are shown through the awaited responses of the elite and the government, such as article titles stating: “Geschokte reacties wereldleiders op vliegramp”, which translated from Dutch means: “World Leaders shocked at flight disaster”. Often times humans look towards each other for support, especially world leaders and the elite, as they are an essential part of the national identity.

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6.1 Narrative surrounding MH17

The framing surrounding the tragedy of MH17 is a story that has not yet been fully written by the Dutch because there has been an ongoing investigation that has taken now up to nearly four years. The day of the crash, many popular talk shows had gone on summer hiatus, resulting in no direct talk show responses. However, there was high media coverage of the incident through news articles and the NOS, which is the national public broadcasting news channel. The event was, for obvious reasons, not experienced first hand by many people and therefore experienced through watching the unfolding of information and news stories on television as spectators. Extremely early on did the Dutch media draw conclusions not based on hard facts but rather intuition and suspicion. As explained in the theory chapter, Entman wrote about four aspects of framing, as well as three temporal periods, in order to establishing an event as a trauma. There must firstly be a pre-event state of unpreparedness, which in the case of MH17 was extremely true, which causes true fright. Aviation is one of the safest ways of traveling, and no one could have imagined this to happen. The second temporal period is the event itself, and thirdly the post traumatic state of the country is acknowledged as they react as a community. Within the third temporal state, the first aspect of framing is to define the problem, which was the crash. Followed by a diagnosis of a possible cause, which the Dutch very quickly established was a rocket that either misfired or was fired on purpose and hit a passenger carrier flight. The cost of this loss of life was seen as enormous, as most passengers were of Dutch nationality and most were on their way to a fantastic holiday. This caused a lot of moral judgement on the perpetrators, who were assumed to be the Russians, and a lot of questions arose about why innocent people were targeted. Only on the 25th of May 2018 did the international investigators led by the Dutch confirm that indeed it was a Russian missile that hit the airplane on its way to Malaysia (“Russia 'Liable' For Downing MH17 Airliner”).

Lastly Entman suggests that the last aspect of framing is the suggestions of remedies and treatment, and The Dutch government decided to help their grieving nation work through this disaster by calling out that the 23rd of July 2014 was to be a national day of mourning ("Woensdag 23 Juli Dag Van Nationale Rouw"). There was also an order to hang all Dutch flags half-mast that day, and on this day the first victims were brought back to The Netherlands by plane, arriving in the city Eindhoven in the presence of the King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima. The Dutch prime minister Rutte and many other members of the cabinet, as well as international officials were present ("Nederland Staat Stil, Eerste Slachtoffers MH17 In Nederland"

)

. There was a minute of silence and thousands of people flocked to the highway, that

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was closed off to normal transportation, where they stood and watched the first 40 hearses drive by to show their support.

It is important to introduce figure 1 as this will be a reference point in the following fragments, and is one of the images that, as mentioned earlier in this thesis, became incredibly popular around The Netherlands. It is still frequently used when talking about the flight on television or in articles. The photographs taken of the grieving people, and the hearses, portrayed a lot of pain. The images took on their own life by becoming symbols of representation of an intense traumatic time in Dutch history. The reason that these images are still used so frequently is because the Dutch media wants to remind viewers of their sharedness in this tragedy, as visualization is a vital instrument when communicating suffering in sensationalist reporting. Being affected by the visual is what allows the body to suffer and hurt in specific ways because it “it inheres within the body's ability to be affected or moved by the sight of suffering, and its capacity to react in any number of ways” (McCosker). What is interesting is that it has been found that widespread media coverage of a disaster and the repetition of images displayed may cause ‘emotional contagion’ which is when the negative impact is unintentionally spread (Holman). On the one hand continuing to talk about, and showing images and interviewing relatives of the victims can ‘reopen’ closed wounds, it is also

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seen as a way of recovery, and with the ongoing investigation people are still interested in the answers even if they are uncovered years later. Muntean mentioned that in order to really forget an event and move on, strength must be summoned up to remember it properly because traumas that people are not ready or able to remember, can haunt them more intensely (53). Remembering, listening and discussing publicly through popular talk shows can help the collective trauma that The Netherlands has endured, to further the healing process. Coonfield emphasizes the idea that public performances of mourning and reflection to these will result in the registering of the trauma, or the accepting of it, after which healing occurs. He also says that watching news images that represent this public trauma does not fully help, as he says that actions need to be undertaken in order for the cultural processes to fully be at work. These enactments are a form of publicly performing mourning, which is registered as an act of national identity and as being symbols more visible than influences that can go unnoticed. The actions of standing next to that highway, dropping the flag to half-mast or watching the procession on television was what started the healing process for The Netherlands as a nation.

Lastly according to Luckhurst, “traumatized identities become privileged sites of communality, yet they need to be compulsively restaged because there are no longer any theoretical means to process trauma. Trauma needs to be re-presented, over and over (Luckhurst, 131). This shows that the re-presentation of MH17 throughout multiple episodes on different talk shows, news channels, articles and more are needed in order to establish the trauma and work through it to understand it. As a result of this re-presenting, it becomes clear that to this day people still want to learn more about the tragedy. This is proven by the fact that various television talk shows such as De Wereld Draait Door continuously reopen discussion on the topic. For example in episodes on the 13th of October 2015, 4th of January 2016 and the 24th of February of 2016. _{RTL Late Night,}

also continuous to invite guests, such as family and

loved ones of those who have passed away, or experts, whenever more information has come up within the news about the crash. Their episodes aired on the 12th of November 2015, July 13th, 2016, July 17th 2017. This consistency and repetition of the same, perhaps slightly altered message by light of new information found, is called frame setting. The central theme tends not to change, and frame setting keeps the message and memory alive, in order to keep talking about it which helps healing occur.

6.1.1 I am no longer anybody’s daughter, I am no longer anybody’s sister

The first fragment is called “Ik ben niemands dochter meer, ik ben niemands zus meer” (I am no longer anybody's daughter, I am no longer anybody’s sister), which aired on RTL Summer Late Night

Disaster news: the use of trauma and therapy as entertainment tools in popular talk shows