Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Change Your Life! Confession and Conversion in Telemundo's Cambia Tu Vida

2003; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 6; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1207/s15327825mcs0602_2

1532-7825

Carolina Acosta‐Alzuru,

Media and Digital Communication

In recent years, no television genre has generated more discussion and public outcry in the United States than talk shows. The talk show genre also creates strong feelings in the academic world. The academic literature shows polarization between scholars who believe that the shows are damaging and those who argue that talk shows can be empowering for underrepresented societal sectors. These discussions, however, have not included talk shows broadcast on the Spanish-speaking networks Telemundo and Univision. Drawing on Foucault's conceptualizations of regimes of truth and confession, this paper analyzes Cambia Tu Vida (Change Your Life), a Telemundo show whose host is Catholic priest Father Alberto Cutie-Padre Alberto. Cambia Tu Vida evidences the workings of the confession as a truth-producing mode that supports and underpins particular power relationships and regimes of truth.