Ghost Hunters leaves me with mixed feelings. On one hand, they have done quite a bit to publicize the "paranormal investigation industry." On the other hand, their methods have become rather laxed. Their first season, I think they did a pretty good job at "debunking" and at least trying to appear scientific most of the time. Jason and Grant's "average Joe" image did a lot for the show, and it pulled in a large audience. Since then, Hollywood has appeared to take over to a certain extent. The episodes where they find nothing are few and far between. I guess non-haunted places just don't equal ratings!
So, they add music. They add sound effects. They likely edit the boring "debunking" stuff and other things that people like myself would appreciate - but the casual woo watcher wouldn't care about very much. Heck, there was even an episode where it was proven that the production company altered the footage (doctored it, actually) to show different things (this was the Manson Thermal Footage episode).
It's pseudo-science. They've tried using IR Thermometers to take ambient temperature readings (impossible), and they have failed - multiple times - to realize that their own images will reflect onto walls and other surfaces when using the thermal imaging camera! This, of course, causes them to classify their own images as ghosts. >.<
Anyway, I think it's the closest thing the paranormal investigation community has to a legit show. Have you watched Paranormal State or Most Haunted? Yikes! They are very bad, and likely scrpited. Also, they have been proven to be fake (that psychic dude on Most Haunted faked at least 2 "possessions," it was later proven). They're 100% Hollywood and 0% science. I still believe GH still has a small portion of scientific method in their approach, but it seems to be fading with every episode...and every dollar earned. Since it's the #1 show on the Sci Fi channel, it's no surprise that they are trying to keep it popular! Everything is haunted!
On a side note, the OP's topic was actually for Ghost Hunter's International. It's a different group of investigators NOT sponsored by the original TAPS group on Ghost Hunters, but hand-selected by Pilgrim, the production company. It looks exactly the same because you have some prior TAPS members on the team, and the same production company shooting it (intro, music, credits, cuts, shots, etc. all the same). From an entertainment aspect, the GHI team just annoys me - but they don't deem things "haunted" as frequently as GH does. If you watch closely, they let themselves off the hook for calling everything haunted by saying: "We don't have the evidence to deem this place 'HAUNTED,' but we definitely think there is 'PARANORMAL ACTIVITY' occuring here." Hahaha....what?
/shrugs/ I watch so I can crtique.
-Nate