Web-TV as a backstage activity: Emerging forms of audience address in the post-broadcast era

Göran Eriksson; Richard Fitzgerald

doi:10.1515/text-2018-2018

Article

Web-TV as a backstage activity: Emerging forms of audience address in the post-broadcast era

Göran Eriksson
Göran Eriksson is Professor of Media and Communication Studies at Örebro University, Sweden. He has written extensively in the areas of politics and media, mainly studying televised political interviews and representations of politics and journalism. His research also concerns studies of television. Studying forms of participation for ‘ordinary people’, constructions of ordinariness and forms of addressing and involving audiences, he focuses on the development of new television genres and formats. Address for Correspondence: Department of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (HumES), Örebro University, SE-701 82 Örebro, Sweden. E-mail: goran.eriksson@oru.se
and Richard Fitzgerald
Richard Fitzgerald is Professor of Communication at the University of Macau. He has researched and written extensively on media discourse with particular methodological focus on Membership Categorisation Analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis. His recent publications include Advances in Membership Categorisation Analysis (2015, Sage, with W. Housley) and co-editing of the special issue of the Journal of Pragmatics (2017, with W. Housley and S. Rintel) entitled Membership Categorisation Analysis: Technologies of Social Action. Address for Correspondence: Department of Communication, University of Macau, Macau (SAR). Email: Rfitzgerald@umac.mo

Published/Copyright: November 23, 2018

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From the journal Text & Talk Volume 39 Issue 1

Abstract

Taking off from the Media Talk approach, this paper examines the communicative work of a Swedish sports webcast football show, Superlive, as an emerging form of web-based media format called Web-TV. This analysis is situated in a context in which broadcasting is going through fundamental changes, and broadcasters are rethinking their content in order to face the challenges arriving with recent decades’ technological developments, and especially the fact that television is no longer restricted to being broadcast but can be distributed through the web and be received on PCs, tablets and mobile phones. In this ‘post-broadcasting era’ producers are searching for new ways of reaching audiences through creating new forms of audience address. Superlive is a good example of these changes and how broadcasters now explore the possibilities of producing television exclusively for the Web. The analysis shows that what is taking place in Superlive is clearly in contrast to the performances one could expect in the conventional broadcast. Through the participants’ favoring of an interactional style characterized by informality and spontaneity, this show situates itself as backstage to the conventional forms of airings. As a result, this discursive space implies an interactional orientation to “co-presence” with the audience.

Keywords: backstage activity; broadcast talk; communicative ethos; middle space; sociability; Web-TV

About the authors

Göran Eriksson

Göran Eriksson is Professor of Media and Communication Studies at Örebro University, Sweden. He has written extensively in the areas of politics and media, mainly studying televised political interviews and representations of politics and journalism. His research also concerns studies of television. Studying forms of participation for ‘ordinary people’, constructions of ordinariness and forms of addressing and involving audiences, he focuses on the development of new television genres and formats. Address for Correspondence: Department of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (HumES), Örebro University, SE-701 82 Örebro, Sweden. E-mail: goran.eriksson@oru.se

Richard Fitzgerald

Richard Fitzgerald is Professor of Communication at the University of Macau. He has researched and written extensively on media discourse with particular methodological focus on Membership Categorisation Analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis. His recent publications include Advances in Membership Categorisation Analysis (2015, Sage, with W. Housley) and co-editing of the special issue of the Journal of Pragmatics (2017, with W. Housley and S. Rintel) entitled Membership Categorisation Analysis: Technologies of Social Action. Address for Correspondence: Department of Communication, University of Macau, Macau (SAR). Email: Rfitzgerald@umac.mo

Appendix

Key to transcriptions

`in the long run`	`Underlined items were audibly stressed.`
`the gy:m`	`Colon indicate the prior sound was prolonged.`
`shi-`	`A hyphen denotes a glottal stop or cut-off’ sound.`
`.hh`	`Marks audible breathing or sighs.`
`(1,3)`	`Numbers in parenthesis denote elapsed silence in seconds.`
(.)	`A period denotes a pause shorter than a second.`
`HAH-hah hah-hah`	`Marks laughter. Capital letters indicate louder laughter.`
`=`	`Equal signs indicate that one sound followed directly after another.`
`yes I [ am ]`	`Brackets mark the onset and endings of`
`[which] you`	`simultaneous speech`
`must /…/`	`Marks where a part of the transcription has been deleted`
`>>`	`Indicate that a continuous utterance with no break or pause was broken up in order to accommodate the placement of overlapping.`

Original transcriptions (in Swedish)

(1)

EÖ=Emelie Ölander; JA=John Alvbåge;

JH=Jesper Hussfeldt; OL=Olof Lundh

`1`	`EÖ`	`men du när vi ändå snackar Johan Kronberg`
`2`		`jag tycker vi ska få in den här frågan`
`3`		`tidigt nu (.) vad tycker Alvbåge om att få`
`4`		`in Jörgen Lennartsson som [tränare`
`5`	`OL`	`[hm: nu sätter vi`
`6`		`igång bandspel[aren`
`7`	`EÖ`	`[nu jä[klar JA`
`8`	`JA`	`[en riktigt het potatis`
`9`		`säkert=`
`10`	`EÖ`	`=det är klart det är`
`11`	`JA`	`nämen det är framför allt klart att det`
`12`		`är klart nu vem som ska träna oss`
`13`		`/…/`
`14`	`JA`	`han gav oss en vecka extra semester`
`15`		`skämt åsido så skulle vi börja (.) träna förste`
`16`		`december så vi får fortsätta med egenträningen`
`171`		`en vecka till`
`18`	`OL`	`vilken [lobb`
`19`	`JH`	`[I RI[BBAN`
`20`	`EÖ`	`[OHOHOHOH`
`21`	`OL`	`vicken [räddning`
`22`	`JH`	`[ÅH VILKEN räddning`
`23`	`EÖ`	`OJOJOJOJ`
`24`	`OL`	`Å mittdär kastar jag in lite breaking news`
`25`		`Prandelli har fått sparken av Galatasaray`

(2)

`1`	`JH`	`det var ju interailkortet å kibbutz [på den tiden`
`2`	`OL`	`[interrailkortet`
`3`		`var jag ju på [(.)] me:[n`
`4`	`JH`	`[hm ] [tågluffa`
`5`	`OL`	`ja tågluffa ha[r jag gjort`
`6`	`JH`	`[har du det`
`7`	`OL`	`många svängar=`
`8`	`JH`	`=vart då`
`9`	`OL`	`=alltid ner till Biarritz först=`
`10`	`JH`	`=jaha`
`11`	`OL`	`sen till Pamplona San Fermin festivalen`
`12`		`du vet den springa tju[rar`
`13`	`JH`	`[ja men alltså var`
`14`		`du på det=`
`15`	`OL`	`=jaja flera år i rad det är ju helt fantastiskt`
`16`		`det kan jag råda er * ska ni göra en sak i livet`
`17`		`skippa kibbutz åk på`
`18`		`San Fermin [sj[ätte till`
`19`	`EÖ`	`[heh[-heh`
`20`	`JH`	`[heh-heh-heh`
`21`	`OL`	`>> fjortonde juli å spring med tjurar`
`22`		`livet som insats mycket alkohol`
`23`		`bra drag [dygnet runt`
`24`	`JH`	`[ss säger Loffe`
`25`	`OL`	`ja det är fantastiskt=`
`26`	`JH`	`Fitness-Loffe`
`27`	`EÖ`	`ja där måste man va`
`28`		`fitness-Lo[ffe om man ska hinna undan tjurarna >>`
`29`	`EÖ`	`[heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh`
`30`	`JH`	`[heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-hem`
`31`	`>>`	`jag har aldrig sprungit särskilt mycke]`
`32`	`EÖ`	`heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-he]`

(3)

`1`	`JA`	`sen är det ju härligt å se samtidigt`
`2`		`Olof det borde ju du berömma`
`3`		`Howards skägg so[m bara växer`
`4`		`OL[jaja jag älskar`
`5`		`Tim Howards skägg`
`6`		`hade jag Tim Howards skägg [(xx)`
`7`	`JA`	`[Tim Howard som`
`8`		`för övrigt toppar räddningsstatistiken i Europa`
`9`		`League han har mest räddningar av alla målvakter`
`10`		`hittills i årets Europa League så han har ju kvalitet`

(4)

`1`	`JA`	`/…/ stor fördel Olympiakos kan man säga`
`2`	`OL`	`hm: fast kan det inte bli en matchbild som passar`
`3`		`Malmö lite`
`4`	`JA`	`(.)ja de e ju`
`5`	`OL`	`OH`
`6`	`JH`	`OJOJOJOJOJOJ`
`7`	`JA`	`RIJeka`
`8`	`EÖ`	`det smäller`
`9`	`JA`	`å det är ju en sån hörna det går ju nästan inte`
`10`		`å försvara sig emot=`
`11`	`OL`	`=asch nu går du i försvarsställning för målvakten`
`12`	`JA`	`NÄ målvakten kanske kan kanske göra nåt men`
`13`		`försvarsmässigt (1,3) hjälp mig Emelie`
`14`		`alltså det är [ju`
`15`	`OL`	`[hjälp mig [Emelie`
`16`	`EA`	`[heh-heh-heh-`
`17`		`heh-[heh-heh`
`18`	`JA`	`[MEN jag menar de ä nån går på första ytan`
`19`		`så tidigt vem ska hinna hänga med där`
`20`		`å sen går skarven in alltså`
`21`	`JA`	`jag menar man ställer upp å`
`22`		`förbereder sig taktiskt sett så här gör dom på`
`23`		`fasta men den här säger jag`
`24`		`bara att det är svårt att försvara sig emot denna`
`25`		`han sticker så tidigt (.) ja`
`26`		`vi har folk på första men`
`27`		`ja det är dåligt försvarsspel är det ju men jag`
`28`		`måste hylla han som nickar in den där att`
`29`		`det är bra gj[ort`
`30`	`OL`	`[ah [målvakten går ju >>`
`31`	`EÖ`	`[det är xxx`
`32`	`OL`	`>> den går ju mitt i må[let ju`
`33`	`JA`	`[men`
`34`		`jag snackar om försvaret målvakten`
`35`		`kans[ke xxxx`
`36`	`OL`	`[men han är väl en del av försvaret=`
`37`	`JA`	`=jo det är han ju men samtidigt lever han i sin egen`
`38`		`lilla värld det vet vi ju`
`39`	`JH`	`[ohörbart]`
`40`	`EÖ`	`[men spelarn där som ska zona [första ytan >>`
`41`	`JA`	`[ja det är klart han`
`42`	`EÖ`	`>> måste ju stå på ett sätt så att han kan ta fart`
`43`		`på ett annat sätt nu står han stilla å ska`
`44`		`hoppa u[pp det är klart det är klart han >>`
`45`	`JA`	`[precis`
`46`	`EÖ`	`inte vinner en duell m[ed en spelare >>`
`47`	`JA`	`[han står`
`48`	`EÖ`	`>> som kommer med fart (.) han måste stå`
`49`		`längre bak [och jobba mot bollen`
`50`	`JA`	`[framför allt (.) kroppsställningen`
`51`		`han står helt rakt mot boll`
`52`		`står han med sidan till med mer överkroppen ut`
`53`		`mot spelplan så kan han ju se vad som händer bakom`

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Published Online: 2018-11-23

Published in Print: 2018-12-19

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https://doi.org/10.1515/text-2018-2018

Keywords for this article

backstage activity; broadcast talk; communicative ethos; middle space; sociability; Web-TV