CONVERSATION ANALYSIS OF THE STRUCTURAL UNITS OF INTERACTION IN AMERICAN AND IRAQI TV TALK SHOWS: THE DOCTORS AND SHABAB WBANAT
Author :
Abstract
Research in conversation analysis (CA), the study of 'talk-in-interaction' has recently demonstrated much interest in broadcast data. Much literature is available about political or news interviewing which is more formally conducted than the TV show. Studies on the genre of talk show are limited. This research aims at investigating the way in which turn taking behaviour and interaction pattern help the participants to interpret each other’s meanings, and comparing between The Doctors and Shabab Wbanat in interaction strategies which are examined qualitatively and quantitatively. Both global structure and local structure will be taken into consideration. Global structure is concerned with the whole constructional units and their relation to the social system of interaction. Local structure is concerned with the organization of talk and participants' orientation through turn taking, repair, preference structure, turn design, lexical choice and participants' intervention. Video recorded materials of selected excerpts of American TV show the Doctors and Iraqi TV show Shabab wbanat (young men and women) are transcribed and analyzed according to the above two levels. Transcription of data is conducted by emic category. Results show that both shows are sharing several characteristics of ordinary conversation in spite of being conducted in institutional setting. The Doctors TV show is different from Shabab wbanat in several spontaneous interferences, symmetrical relations, and mode of interaction. Iraqi TV show is closer to institutional talk than the American TV show. This study will add more to the application of conversation analysis as well as it uncovers several interesting characteristics of the Doctors show and Shabab Wbanat show.
Keywords
Abstract
Research in conversation analysis (CA), the study of 'talk-in-interaction' has recently demonstrated much interest in broadcast data. Much literature is available about political or news interviewing which is more formally conducted than the TV show. Studies on the genre of talk show are limited. This research aims at investigating the way in which turn taking behaviour and interaction pattern help the participants to interpret each other’s meanings, and comparing between The Doctors and Shabab Wbanat in interaction strategies which are examined qualitatively and quantitatively. Both global structure and local structure will be taken into consideration. Global structure is concerned with the whole constructional units and their relation to the social system of interaction. Local structure is concerned with the organization of talk and participants' orientation through turn taking, repair, preference structure, turn design, lexical choice and participants' intervention. Video recorded materials of selected excerpts of American TV show the Doctors and Iraqi TV show Shabab wbanat (young men and women) are transcribed and analyzed according to the above two levels. Transcription of data is conducted by emic category. Results show that both shows are sharing several characteristics of ordinary conversation in spite of being conducted in institutional setting. The Doctors TV show is different from Shabab wbanat in several spontaneous interferences, symmetrical relations, and mode of interaction. Iraqi TV show is closer to institutional talk than the American TV show. This study will add more to the application of conversation analysis as well as it uncovers several interesting characteristics of the Doctors show and Shabab Wbanat show.
