Third turn position in British election phone-in conversations
-
Anisa Pinatih
Anisa Pinatih holds an MSc in Applied Linguistics from the University of Edinburgh, and is currently an academic staff member at School of Entrepreneurship and Humanities, Universitas Ciputra, where she teaches language-related subjects. Her main research interests are Conversation Analysis and Genre Analysis. She has received sponsorship from Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education to study for a PhD in the field of Applied Linguistics in Australia.
Abstract
An election radio phone-in program is designed for questions and answers, thus providing a context for direct interaction where lay-participants can engage with politicians’ responses. The current study aims at examining the third position that follows a question-answer sequence in a phone-in conversation, when radio hosts and/or callers evaluate politicians’ answers. Previous research has shown that radio hosts may offer a comeback to the caller, terminate the call, or ask their own question; and that a caller may come back on their own initiative. The aim of this article is to discover if there are patterns that underlie this diversity in the third position in radio phone-in conversations. The data consist of 4 hours and 20 minutes of transcribed conversations from election phone-ins from the Leading Britain’s Conversation (LBC) radiobroadcast prior to the 2015 general election. Using Conversation Analysis, this study looks at the sequential context and the substantive content of utterances to examine if the design and the content of the question and answer have bearing on the third position. The findings show that hosts either offered a comeback to callers or terminated the call right away when the politician’s answer was non-evasive and lacking opposition; that hosts or callers pursued an answer when evasion and opposition were apparent, and that callers pursued only when they showed oppositional stance taking in the questioning position.
About the author
Anisa Pinatih holds an MSc in Applied Linguistics from the University of Edinburgh, and is currently an academic staff member at School of Entrepreneurship and Humanities, Universitas Ciputra, where she teaches language-related subjects. Her main research interests are Conversation Analysis and Genre Analysis. She has received sponsorship from Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education to study for a PhD in the field of Applied Linguistics in Australia.
Appendix 1 The database
| Program/Date | Guest/Party | Host |
| Phone-Farage/06-04-15 | Nigel Farage/UKIP | Nick Ferrari |
| Phone-Farage/23-03-15 | Nigel Farage/UKIP | |
| Call-Clegg/12-03-15 | Nick Clegg/Lib Dem | |
| Call-Clegg/19-03-15 | Nick Clegg/Lib Dem | |
| Election-Call/20-04-15 | Chuka Ummuna/Labour | Iain Dale |
| Election-Call/24-04-15 | Ed Miliband/Labour | |
| Election-Call/08-04-15 | Tessa Jowell/Labour | |
| Election-Call/13-04-15 | Neil Hamilton/UKIP |
Transcription Conventions (Hutchby and Wooffitt 2008)
| (0.5) | Lapsed time in half of a second |
| = | ‘Latching’ between utterances |
| [] | The onset and end of a spate of overlapping talk |
| hh | An out-breath, the more the h the longer the breath |
| heheh | Laughter particles |
| (()) | A non-verbal activity, for example ((clear throat)) |
| < > | Speeding up |
| : | The speaker has stretched the preceding sound or letter |
| () | The presence of an unclear fragment on the tape |
| , | A continuing intonation |
| ? | A rising inflection, it does not necessary indicate a question |
| ! | Animated/emphatic tone |
| word | Emphasis on that word |
| [––––] | More than five lines omitted because the stretch of talk could be very long. This being done, I tried to ensure that all the necessary elements for the analysis remain in the extract. |
Appendix 2: Sample Analysis
 |
 |
 |
References
Ames, Kate. 2013. Two hosts and a caller: Analyzing call sequences in a dual-host radio talkback setting. Discourse Studies 15(3). 263–277.10.1177/1461445613480584Suche in Google Scholar
Atkinson, J. Maxwell. 1992. Displaying neutrality: Formal aspects of informal court proceedings. In Paul Drew & John Heritage (eds.), Talk at work: Interaction in institutional settings, 199–211. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Bartels, Christine. 2014. The intonation of English statements and questions: A compositional interpretation. Hoboken: Routledge.10.4324/9781315053332Suche in Google Scholar
Bonin, Fransesca, Nick Campbell & Carl Vogel. 2012. Laughter and topic changes: Temporal distribution and information flow. Paper presented at the IEEE 3rd international conference on cognitive infocommunications, Kosice, Slovakia, 2–5 December.10.1109/CogInfoCom.2012.6422056Suche in Google Scholar
Bull, Peter & Kate Mayer. 1993. How not to answer questions in political interviews. Political Psychology 14(4). 651.10.2307/3791379Suche in Google Scholar
Clayman, Steven. 1989. The production of punctuality: Social interaction, temporal organization, and social structure. American Journal of Sociology 95(3). 659–691.10.1086/229329Suche in Google Scholar
Clayman, Steven. 1992. Footing in the achievement of neutrality: The case of news interview discourse. In Paul Drew & John Heritage (eds.), Talk at work: Interaction in institutional settings, 163–198. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Clayman, Steven. 2001. Answers and evasions. Language in Society 30. 403–442.10.1017/CBO9780511613623.007Suche in Google Scholar
Clayman, Steven & John Heritage. 2002a. Questioning presidents: Journalistic deference and adversarialness in the press conferences of US Presidents Eisenhower and Reagan. Journal of Communication 52(4). 749–775.10.1111/j.1460-2466.2002.tb02572.xSuche in Google Scholar
Clayman, Steven & John Heritage. 2002b. The news interview: Journalists and public figures on the air. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511613623Suche in Google Scholar
Ekström, Mats & Ulla Moberg. 2014. ‘Welcome to participate!’: Host activities and caller’s position in Swedish election campaign phone-ins in the 1970s and the 2000s. Journalism 16(5). 654–671.10.1177/1464884914536841Suche in Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving. 1981. Forms of talk. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Greatbatch, David. 1985. The social organization of news interview interaction. Unpublished PhD Thesis. University of Warwick.Suche in Google Scholar
Harris, Sandra. 1986. Interviewer’s questions in broadcast interviews. In John Wilson & Bryan Crow (eds.), Belfast working papers in language and linguistics, Vol. 8, 50–85. Jordanstown: University of Ulster.Suche in Google Scholar
Hutchby, Ian. 1991. The organization of talk on talk radio. In Paddy Schannell (ed.), Broadcast talk, 119–137. London: Sage.Suche in Google Scholar
Hutchby, Ian. 1992. The pursuit of controversy: Routine skepticism in talk on ‘Talk Radio’. Sociology 26(4). 673–694.10.1177/0038038592026004008Suche in Google Scholar
Hutchby, Ian. 1999. Rhetorical strategies in audience participation debates on radio and TV. Research on Language and Social Interaction 32(3). 243–267.10.1207/S15327973RL320302Suche in Google Scholar
Hutchby, Ian. 2001. ‘Witnessing’: The use of first-hand knowledge in legitimating lay opinions on Talk Radio. Discourse Studies 3(4). 481–497.10.1177/1461445601003004009Suche in Google Scholar
Hutchby, Ian. 2005. Conversation analysis and the study of broadcast talk. In Kristine L. Fitch & Robert E. Sanders (eds.), Handbook of language and social interaction, 437–460. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.Suche in Google Scholar
Hutchby, Ian. 2011. Non-neutrality and argument in the hybrid political interview. Discourse Studies 13(3). 349–365.10.1177/1461445611400665Suche in Google Scholar
Hutchby, Ian & Robin Wooffitt. 2008. Conversation analysis. Cambridge: Polity Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Lee, Yo-An. 2007. Third turn position in teacher talk: Contingency and the work of teaching. Journal of Pragmatics 39(1). 180–206.10.1016/j.pragma.2006.02.004Suche in Google Scholar
Lerner, Gene H. 1993. Collectivities in action: Establishing the relevance of conjoined participation in conversation. Text 13(2). 213–246.10.1515/text.1.1993.13.2.213Suche in Google Scholar
Pomerantz, Anita. 1988. Constructing skepticism: Four devices used to engender the audience’s skepticism. Research on Language and Social Interaction 22(1-4). 293–313.10.1080/08351818809389307Suche in Google Scholar
Rajar.co.uk. 2015. RAJAR. http://www.rajar.co.uk/listening/quarterly_listening.php (accessed 31 March 2015).Suche in Google Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A. 2007. Sequence organization in interaction: A primer in conversation analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511791208Suche in Google Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A. & Harvey Sacks. 1973. Opening up closings. Semiotica 8. 289–327.10.1515/semi.1973.8.4.289Suche in Google Scholar
Thornborrow, Joanna. 2001. Questions, control and the organization of talk in calls to a radio phone-in. Discourse Studies 3(1). 119–143.10.1177/1461445601003001006Suche in Google Scholar
Thornborrow, Joanna. 2007. Narrative, opinion and situated argument in talk show discourse. Journal of Pragmatics 39(8). 1436–1453.10.1016/j.pragma.2007.04.001Suche in Google Scholar
Thornborrow, Joanna & Richard Fitzgerald. 2013. “Grab a pen and paper”: Interaction vs. interactivity in a political radio phone-in. Journal of Language and Politics 12(1). 1–28.10.1075/jlp.12.1.01thoSuche in Google Scholar
© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Legal constraints and judicial discretion in sentencing practice: Appraisal analysis of the sentencing remarks for Terri Palmer
- Reproduced, reinterpreted, lost: Trajectories of scientific knowledge across contexts
- Third turn position in British election phone-in conversations
- “To have or not to have a boyfriend?” Large identities in small stories
- ‘You wanted to know about expat life’: Authenticating identity in blogs about transnational relocation
- Language teachers’ narratives of professional experience in online class discussions
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Legal constraints and judicial discretion in sentencing practice: Appraisal analysis of the sentencing remarks for Terri Palmer
- Reproduced, reinterpreted, lost: Trajectories of scientific knowledge across contexts
- Third turn position in British election phone-in conversations
- “To have or not to have a boyfriend?” Large identities in small stories
- ‘You wanted to know about expat life’: Authenticating identity in blogs about transnational relocation
- Language teachers’ narratives of professional experience in online class discussions
