A trip to China

The role of a TV action-line “troubleshooter” for dispute resolution is illustrated with viewers' letters and topics selected for broadcast. Focusing mainly on consumer complaints (non-auto retail), disputes selected for broadcast were more likely to be resolved in favor of the claimant than were requests handled off the air by the troubleshooter staff. Follow-up materials, however, suggest that obtaining a response from the trouble-shooter as well as a claimee was regarded positively by claimants. TV formats integrate “self-help” justice within a framework of informal justice, and thereby serve as an additional feature of the practical contexts of mediation, which include circumstance, situation, and biography and history.