Activity Orientation in the Talk of Politicians, News Journalists And

Activity orientation in the talk of politicians, news journalists and audiences Paul Dickerson University College London Submitted for Doctorate of Philosophy 1999 1 Abstract The talk of politicians, news-joumalists and audiences has been relatively neglected in social psychology and media studies. Within these approaches talk has been ignored altogether, treated as a symptom of cognitive or ideological processes or employed simply as a tool to gain access to ‘inner’ ‘meaning making’ or ‘outer’ behaviour. This thesis explored a corpus of talk data from a discursive perspective in which the talk itself was the focus. It was argued that politicians and news-joumalists could in different ways be seen to orientate to the ‘truthfulness’ of what they say. Thus politicians’ were found to cite others to corroborate their claims, and new-joumalists through their exchange of utterances attended to the co-construction their ‘impartiality’ and ‘authoritativeness’. Politicians were also found to construct intent in terms of acting in ‘the national interest’ - this ‘repertoire’ could blame or exonerate self and others depending crucially on talk- context in which it was produced. Audiences’ talk about their identity and contrasts with others was also explored. Their talk was analysed not to uncover their ‘meaning- makings’ or behaviour but instead to discover the activity orientations of their talk and its sensitivity to the surrounding talk context. In this way the talk of politicians, news- joumalists and audiences was not seen as a symptom of some separate, ‘underlying’ phenomena of interest nor as a mere tool to access their ‘inner’ or ‘outer’ world - but rather it was the focus of study itself. Approached in this way talk was understood as orientated to a range of activities such as warranting, exonerating, blaming and so on. It was argued that these activities could be conceptualised as occurring within and across talk context - that is in sequences of talk. The implications of the thesis were considered for aspects of social psychology, media studies and discursive approaches. Contents Pages Acknowledgements: 4 Chapter One; Introduction: 5-73 Chapter Two; The deployment of cited others in televised political discourse: 74- 111 Chapter Three; The co-construction of news correspondent expertise: 112-188 Chapter Four; The various constructions of identity by news audiences: 189-219 Chapter Five; Constructing the identity of self through contrast with others: 220-247 Chapter Six; Repertoires of intent in televised political discourse: 248-280 Chapter Seven; Concluding discussion: 281-337 References: 338-361 Appendix One; Description of programmes referred to 362-363 Appendix Two; Transcription conventions used 364-367 3 Acknowledgements This thesis has involved so many people helping in a wide range of ways that any attempt at thanks is bound to be incomplete and is likely to be reminiscent of ‘awards ceremony’ discourse. Throughout the entirety of this thesis I have been a lecturer in the School of Psychology and Counselling at Roehampton Institute London - as such I have benefited from countless acts of kindness. The help of Aubrey Baillie, Diane Bray, Helen Cowie, Ginny Farmiloe, Martin Glachan, Mike Hawkins, Marie McCarthy, Frances Michie, Rachael Murrell, Jean O’Callaghan, Judith Powell, Anne Pratt, John Rae and Kathy Ward springs to mind with a warm sense of gratitude. Earlier versions of several chapters have improved as a result of comments from editors and reviewers at the European Journal of Communication and the British Journal of Social Psychology. Particular thanks are due to Derek Edwards and other reviewers at the British Journal of Social Psychology for the many detailed and insightful comments which helped to enhance the material and stimulate my understanding. The scope and focus of this thesis has changed and matured considerably across the years and I am very much indebted to Peter Lunt for supervising in a manner which gave me encouragement, guidance and the opportunity to develop. I am also grateful to Ian Lewis and Helen Notter who went out of their way to help with administrative issues. On a more personal note I would like to thank my mother for various supporting interventions particularly during the early stages of this thesis. I would also like to thank my charming black cat Joshua for his companionship and encouragement during his life. Last, but never least, I am truly grateful to Suba whose contribution defies formulation. 4 Chapter 1; Introduction 1.1 Overview of the scope of the thesis This thesis aims to outline a perspective on the talk of politicians, news-joumalists and audiences which explores the activity orientation of their discourse. In doing so it provides a stance which critiques aspects of media studies which have often failed to attend to talk in terms of its action orientation, the surrounding talk context and the ways in which claims can be made to appear truthful or warranted. Thus this thesis explores talk on and about the television in a way which highlights its functional or action- orientated aspects asking how audiences variously construct the identity of themselves and other viewers, how politicians construct accounts for the actions of themselves and their political opponents and how politicians and new journalists attend to the status of the claims they make by warranting moves. It also offers a critique of much of experimentally orientated social psychology which tends to either ignore language all together - treating it as a mere derivative of ‘inner’ cognitive processes (such as self categorisation) or use it in a way which discards considerations of detail and context in preference for underlying essences (such as the factors which will persuade an audience). By contrast this thesis attends to the detail of talk and its context without reducing talk to a derivative or mere symptom of cognitive activity. The focus then is on talk as a social activity in itself rather than as a means (good or bad) of developing pictures of the mental world of ‘speaker’ or ‘listener’. Constructionist and action orientated aspects to language collectively encompass a vast array of ‘social science’ research yet this thesis differs from some of these in important respects. Whilst it shares the constructionist interest found for example in critical linguistic analysis and the action orientation of speech act theory and the accounts literature it problematises both approaches - largely with regard to their lack of emphasis upon detail and surrounding talk context. Thus this thesis argues from the stance of a discursive perspective which whilst not necessarily closed to issues of power and ideology is centred on the detailed explication of features present within actual instances of talk. It seeks to use insights that are already established in discourse and conversation analysis research to explicate the constructions produced, their variation and their precise orientation to surrounding talk context. In highlighting these features it is hoped that the traditional approaches to the talk of audiences, news-joumalists and politicians within media studies and social psychology will be challenged such that abstract models whether social or cognitive do not replace detailed inspection of the talk itself. Finally the thesis seeks to further develop ideas within discourse and conversation analysis by exploring the ways in which footing can be deployed as a warranting device, through considering the different functions that a single repertoire might accomplish and by examining the diverse functions that the construction of contrasts with others might accomplish. In each of these cases aspects of the way in which language can be skilfully deployed are addressed within the context of a corpus of data derived from the talk of politicians, news-joumalists and audiences - although some of the features highlighted may (arguably) be of relevance for other talk contexts. 6 1.2 Media Perspectives On Audiences One way to understand perspectives on media audiences is to see them against a background of approaches which (as Livingstone, 1991, notes) oscillated between emphasising the power of the media, or ‘text’, and the active, discriminating audience or ‘reader’. As Moores (1993) points out early interest in the media very much saw the audience as a ‘mass’ subject to manipulation; resulting in either ideological deception or moral decay “depending on which side of the political spectrum the critique of mass culture came from” (1993: 5). The ensuing ‘effects’ approach to research popular in the United States measured ‘immediately observable changes in human behaviour’. Much of this work tackled the ‘moral decay’ issue with a particularly strong interest in the media’s role in promoting ‘aggressive behaviour’. Within this line of work questions of ‘meaning making’ or the message of the media were relatively unexplored. This emphasis on ‘signification’ rather than simply behaviour change came with ‘critical- semiotic’ perspectives, often drawing upon the work of Althusser (1984). Semiotics will be touched on later in this introduction when consideration is given to its role in an emerging social constructionist perspective. For now it is worth noting that the broadly Althusserian perspective constructed audiences as ‘readers’ of the ‘text’ or media, as Moores (1993) points out this change in language partly indicated a change in the perceived role of audiences - there seemed at least a hint that they were involved

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