Sociology

Last night, I came across The Jerry Springer Show. Jerry Springer interviewed a man who has several children in Southeast Asia and South America. His live-in partner erupted in anger, accusing her boyfriend for being conspicuous and immoral. The funny thing was that prior to the show, the girlfriend already knew the sexual adjustments of her boyfriend. Apparently, the girl chose the show to expose the ineptness of her boyfriend. The boyfriend also erupted in anger  directing accusations against he administrator of the lie detector test. The administrator challenged the guy for a fistfight. The shows crew stopped the two from fighting.

It is quite interesting to see how people direct and redirect meaning. The girl used the show to rejuvenate her anger towards her boyfriend  apparently, from her perspective her boyfriend is down bottom bastard, a sexual pervert. When the boyfriend denied the accusations  evidently to please the crowd (that is, to preserve his image as a responsible individual)  the administrator accused him of lying. Now, the guy redirected his anger towards the administrator. At a glance, it seems that the guy only wanted to straighten some things out. Evidently, he wanted to show that the lie detector was lying.

Symbolic interactionism can explain the essence of this incident. People interpret events differently (Ferris and Stein, 2007). This leads to confrontation, discussion, and to some extent, physical fights. It is evident that meanings are not meaningless  they may obtrude feelings and actions (Ferris and Stein, 2007).