Confrontation Talk

Book excerpt: Using conversation analysis to explore the nature of argument, asymmetry, and power on talk radio, this book focuses on the interplay between the structures of talk in interaction and the structures of participation on talk radio. In the process, it demonstrates how conversation analysis may be used to account for power as a feature of institutional discourse. To address a number of key issues in the study of institutional communication and conflict talk, a case study of a British talk radio show is presented, stimulating some penetrating questions: * What is distinctive about interaction on talk radio? * What is the basis of the communicative asymmetries between hosts and callers? * How are their arguments constructed, and in what ways does the setting enable and constrain the production of conflict talk? These questions are answered through the detailed study of conversational phenomena, informed by a critical concern for the relationship between talk and social structure. This book will be of interest to a wide readership consisting of academics, advanced undergraduates, and postgraduate students in a range of courses in sociology, linguistics, media/communication/cultural studies, anthropology, and popular culture.