Free to Air: an Examination of the Role Played by a Radio Phone-In Programme, Liveline , in the Democratic Process
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Free to Air: An examination of the role played by a radio phone-in programme, Liveline , in the democratic process Frank Byrne, NT, HDE, MACCS Presented for Ph D Supervisor Dr. Barbara O’Connor School of Communications Dublin City University March 2011 I hereby certify that this material, which I now submit for assessment on the programme of study leading to the award of a Ph D is entirely my own work, that I have exercised reasonable care to ensure that the work is original, and does not to the best of my knowledge breach any law of copyright, and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work. st Signed ………………………………. ID No . 55157866 Date 1 Dec. 2010 2 Abstract The radio phone-in, Liveline , attracts a daily listenership of over 400,000. The topics aired in the programme regularly feature in the newspapers on subsequent days or they become the subject of parliamentary questions in the Dáil or of reactions by government ministers. The programme is seen to offer a place for 'ordinary' voices and opinions in a mass media setting which is usually the preserve of broadcasting professionals, politicians, journalists and expert commentators. In this thesis I examine how Liveline functions in Irish democracy - as a source of information, as a popular platform and as an agent for debate. While it may be shown to be successful in some or all of these areas, it is at the same time a media product where the immediate goals are to interest and entertain the audience and thereby to attract advertising revenue. In order to address that tension between the civic and the commercial I firstly explore those fields of theory that shed light on the connections between communicative agency and democratic effectiveness. One such is the concept of a public sphere where citizens may assemble in public to discuss issues of common concern in a dispassionate and rational way with a view to arriving at a consensus and decisions for action. In the light of criticisms that find this approach too idealistic, too restrictive or too exclusionary I consider a wider concept of deliberative democracy where the definition of the political is broader and the range of discursive means to address it is broader also. I pay particular attention to storytelling and emotional expression because of their prominence in the speech in Liveline . Becoming a better citizen is more than attracting rights and membership of a defined community; it is also about the identity we construct for ourselves within a civic culture and the practices we engage in to reinforce and revise that role. I examine how Liveline functions as a resource for this purpose by analysing the discourses of the programme over the course of a month. I also examine how the work of the programme team, especially the host, shapes the discursive context. I suggest that generally, media research tends to disregard the production process as irreparably ideologically loaded or ratings driven. In this thesis, based on analysis of programme discourses and leaning, to some extent, on evidence from my own experience as a radio producer, I contest this. I suggest that Liveline , with its complex three-way set of communicative relations - a cross collaboration between the host, the callers and the listening public - affords, a model, a location, and the resources which contribute to enabling contemporary citizenship. 3 Contents Glossary of Acronyms 7 Acknowledgements 8 Chapter One: Introduction 9 Objectives 15 Structure 17 Chapter Two: Literature Review 1- Democracy, Talk and the Media Introduction 22 Democracy 23 Liberal and Republican Democracy 25 Civic Agency, Communication and Talk 27 Talk in the Media 28 Institutional Talk 31 Trialogic Communication / Double Articulation 33 Civic and ‘Political’ Talk 35 Social Conversation 38 Public Opinion 42 ‘Soft’ Deliberative Democracy 47 Public Sphere 53 Rational Critical Debate 61 Rational 62 Critical 65 Debate 67 Chapter Three: Literature Review 2 - Dahlgren’s Four Dimensions of the Public Sphere Media Institutions 72 Public Service Broadcasting 73 Access, Participation and Power 78 1 Access 80 2 Participation 82 3 Power 87 The Market 92 Media Representation 95 Discourse 96 Characteristics of Discourse 97 Structures of Discourse 100 Debate 103 Entertainment 105 Emotion 109 Stories – The Confessional Genre 113 Production 116 4 The Host 122 Sociocultural Interaction: Social Bonds and Construction 125 Triangular Collaboration 126 ‘Meeting the broadcaster half way’ 126 Listeners to Listeners 127 Presenter and Caller Co-production 128 Citizenship Revisited 129 The Circuit of Civic Culture 133 1 Knowledge and Competence 135 2 Values: Substantive and Procedural 136 3 Affinity and Trust 136 4 Civic Practices 138 5 Civic Identities 139 6 Civic Space 140 Social Structure 141 Ideology 141 Politics 144 In Conclusion 147 Chapter Four: The Phone-in Historical Note 149 Characteristics 153 A Sense of Ordinariness 153 Access, Participation and Representation 157 A Forum for Argument 160 Effectiveness 161 Blurred Boundaries 162 The Irish Context 164 The Phone-in on Independent Radio 168 The Phone-in on RTÉ 169 Chapter Five: Methodology A Case Study 172 Liveline : The Programme Format 173 The Questions 174 Rational Critical Debate 174 Alternative Modes of Deliberation 176 The Production Process 177 The Circuit of Civic Culture 179 Research Strategies 179 Conversation Analysis 179 Qualitative Interviews 182 Abortive Participant Observation 184 Objectivity / Subjectivity 185 In Conclusion 186 5 Chapter Six: Data Analysis 1 – Towards a Citizenry that is ‘Non- impulsive, Thoughtful and Fair’ Rational Debate: Supporting and Testing Evidence 187 A Debate Structure 192 Political Purpose 194 Journalistic Discourses and Norms 204 Reviewing Rational Debate 207 Alternative Deliberation Narrative 208 Emotion 222 Chapter Seven: Data Analysis 2 - Producing and performing Cultural Citizenship Programme-making: 235 Planning, Preparation and Packaging 236 ‘Good’ Radio 242 The Circuits of Civic Culture and the Host 249 Knowledge and Competence 250 Civic Values: Substantive and Procedural 253 Affinity and Trust 255 Civic Practices 264 Civic Identities 271 Civic Space 281 Chapter Eight: Discussion and Conclusions 283 Bibliography 298 Appendix 1: Programme Threads, May 2009 311 Appendix 2: Transcripts of Sample Threads and Interviews On CD Appendix 3: DCU, Informed Consent Form 315 Appendix 4: Liveline Topics, July 2007 to June 2009 316 6 Glossary of Acronyms 2FM Sometimes 'Radio2' - RTÉ's 'pop' music service 2RN The original call sign assigned to the Irish Radio Service (1926 - 1937) AIB Allied Irish Banks AM Amplitude Modulation BBC British Broadcasting Corporation BCC Broadcasting Complaints Commission BCO Broadcasting Coordinator CA Conversation Analysis CSO Central Statistics Office DAA Dublin Airport Authority DCU Dublin City University DG Director General DIRT Deposit Income Retention Tax DPP Director of Public Prosecutions FF Fianna Fáil (Irish Political Party) FG Fine Gael (Irish Political Party) FM Frequency Modulation JNLR Joint National Listenership Research LOVE Let Our Voices Emerge (Religious support group) MEP Member of the European Parliament NSPCC National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children - later ISPCC PD Progressive Democrats (Irish Political Party - now defunct) PMG Postmaster General PSB Public Service Broadcasting RÉ Radio Éireann (1937 - 1960) RTÉ Radio Teilifís Éireann (1960 - ) SMS Short Message Service (Phone texts) TASC Taskforce on Active Citizenship 7 Acknowledgements I am indebted to many people for their help and support with this thesis In the first instance I would like to thank Joe Duffy, Marian Finucane and Julian Vignoles for their time and their encouragement. I thank Des Kelly and Deirdre Purcell for facilitating contacts. I thank Niall Downes for I.T. advice and support I am grateful to the staff at the School of Communications at DCU who were generous with their support and their suggestions. I thank, in particular, both Heads of School over the past five years, Brian Trench and Paschal Preston. I am also grateful to the denizens of Room CA 126 for the company, collegiality, friendships and practical help. The ancillary staff and in particular, the library staff at DCU make the place a pleasant working environment so thanks to them and to Mary Higgins in the library at TCD. I am deeply indebted to Barbara O'Connor, my supervisor. Her experience and her deftness of touch made the process not alone pleasant but exciting. She offered the gift of my never leaving a supervision session without feeling more positive about this project. Thanks to Trisha Byrne and to Trish Morgan for correcting sections of the work and for their recommendations and a special thanks to Mary Meyler for painstaking proofing - any remaining blunders are entirely my own. Thanks to my family - Jessie, Stephen and Heather and especially Trisha - for providing an atmosphere of care and encouragement. Without that, undertaking this thesis would not have been possible. Frank Byrne Dec. 2010 8 Chapter One Introduction It seemed that RTÉ Radio 1 had been around for ever, staid, dependable, avuncular, a close relation to the epitome of Public Service Broadcasting across at the BBC. Radio 2 was the new kid on the block - an upstart in more ways than one - cheeky, populist and designed by RTÉ as a response to the competition from pirate music radio and the demands for independent alternatives. Launched on 31st May 1979, the infant station was unsure of its parentage. Proclaiming it was 'Cominatcha!', its aim was to sound young, cool and slick yet it was located in the Radio Centre at the state's national broadcaster in Donnybrook. The whiff of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs was still in the air. The management and some of the presenters had served their time on Radio 1. The rest of the presenters and many of the new producers had been recruited from the pirate stations.