1. Introduction
1.1. Aims of the Study
The purpose of this study is to transcribe and analyse a recorded episode of naturally-occurring spoken interaction from an excerpt from the Piers Morgan ‘Life Stories’ television talk show. This analysis is supplemented with ethnographic observations of the setting and the participants involved in the interaction. The study is divided into three main sections.
The first section gives an insight into conversation analysis and discusses the concept of the talk show by considering relevant literature. It offers a brief background into the Piers Morgan Life Stories show and information about the excerpt used in the analysis. The methods used in the analysis are also discussed.
The next section of study includes comprehensive observations and presents a qualitative analysis of the talk show data gathered from the transcription of the excerpt. It discusses turn-taking and adjacency pair systems that are presented in the transcription of this particular except. It also focuses on terms of overlap, interruption and preferred responses. It considers topic and story telling.
The final section ends with a brief summary before arriving at a general conclusion.
1.2. Conversation Analysis (CA)
Conversation Analysis (CA) is the systematic analysis of talk produced by humans in everyday interactions. Its roots can be traced back to ethnomethodical traditions developed by Harold Garfinkel and also to the work of Erving Goffman on interaction order. According to Goffman there was a need to study ordinary talk and he argued the point that:
Talk is socially organized, not merely in terms of who speaks to whom in what language, but as a little system of mutually ratified and ritual...
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...ains face-to-face interaction between Piers Morgan, and for the purpose of this study, Simon Cowell. The excerpt in question was first broadcast on 6th March 2010 and attracted 6.2 million television viewers. Simon Cowell is a well known television personality having judged on talent shows including the X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent. He is a television producer and also owns the television production and music publishing house, Syco.
The show exhibits question and answer sequences. Piers Morgan asks most of the questions and makes comments often controlling the topic of conversation. The topics are meant to provide an insight into the life of the celebrity guest. Although in this type of talk show there may have been an element of planning and preparation beforehand, the participants still respond naturally to each other during the course of the interaction.
Conversation Analysis (CA) is the study of talk-within-interaction that attempts to describe the orderliness, structure and sequential patterns of interaction in conversation. It is a method of qualitative analysis developed by Harvey Sacks with the aid of Emmanuel Schegloff and Gail Jefferson in the late 1960s to early 1970s. Using the CA frame of mind to view stories shows us that what we may think to be simplistic relaying of information or entertaining our friends is in fact a highly organised social phenomena that is finely tuned in a way that expresses the teller’s motivation behind the talk. (Hutchby & Wooffitt, 2011). It is suggested that CA relies on three main assumptions; talk is a form of social action, action is structurally organised, talk creates and maintains inter-subjectivity (Atkinson & Heritage, 1984).
It seems as though Ramsey asks a rhetorical question after each point of speaking as if she is trying to get the audience to think and reflect on their own life. This is effective in the sense that Ramsey kept her audience engaged throughout the talk and made them think about how her points of speaking related to themselves, if at all. For example, at the end of her first point of speaking, a personal anecdote, Ramsey asks the audience “When did I stop doing this? When is it suddenly not okay to love the way that we look?”. Her use of rhetorical questions is important here because it makes each member of the audience think about their own life and how they relate to the subject matter she is talking about. A member of the audience who relates to what she is talking about is more likely to find her argument convincing rather than someone who cannot relate to what she is speaking about at all. Through the use of rhetorical questions, or style, in this case, Ramsey crafts a convincing argument by placing a rhetorical question at the end of each of her points of
Sacks, H. (1992) Lectures on Conversation, edited by G. Jefferson, Oxford and Cambridge, Mass.: Basil Blackwell.
Philip Zimbardo creates an engaging a talk that will draw many people in. He does this by personalizing himself, using facts and figures, as well as real life situations to support his opinions and is qualified because of his degree and
At the end, both Rachel Rafelman and Ronald Macaulay are very good writer they brought their thoughts in distinct ways to address their audience. Macaulay strongly opposing the stereotypes of men’s and women’s talks’. Whereas, Rafelman kept her evidence and plugged effective examples to make her context understood. Over all, Rafelman presented her context better than Macaulay.
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Distinctive voices of individuals is far much greater than just one’s spoken words; Isn’t it? Voices hold so much more meaning! It can be said to be one’s expression of their attitudes or perspective through body language or a series of actions. We can see that one’s unique opinion towards a subject is inevitably articulated through their unique expression which draws others into viewing the expressed perspective.
As a matter of fact, from the first time, A the beginning of our course, a new perspective opened in front of my eyes towards how could I apply dialogic communication theory to my project work? Every seconds of ongoing further on this theory, I think about specific moments of our interviews as a valuable data. Through opening this vision, I could see special points that are related to various parts of dialogic theory, such as experience of different moments of dialogue, top-down and bottom-up of power relation. By accessing to this valuable knowledge, if I want to answer this question, could I analyses the commu...
As we watch, listen, and are entertained, trash television talk shows are changing our perceptions, rewriting our cultural roles, altering our social relationships, and ultimately our relationships with the ordinary world. Talk shows offer us a quasi-world of indefinite margins. They create a sensational community, without any of the social and personal responsibilities that are attached to real life. For some, the concept is an appealing notion: therapy as entertainment. The central distortion that these shows advocate is that they give useful therapy to guests and useful advice to the audience. Whether you believe it or not, trash talk shows are arenas for real people.
In the next few sessions Dr.Yalom finds Betties endless chatter about her life extremely unmoving. Dr.Yalom describes their talks as, “cocktail chatter” with no real substa...
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In the introduction of Deborah Tannen’s “Conversation Style: Talking on the Job”, she compares and contrasts the ways men and women communicate. This reminds me of what I tell people that are struggling in their relationships. Women and men express themselves differently. Women think, but men act. If you can’t wrap your head around this, being in a relationship with anyone is going to be hard. Yet, this is such a basic way of looking at this issue. Not only are the genders vastly different, but each person relates to the world around them in a certain way. He or she also needs to be related to in a specific way. Looking at personalities and personal histories can give a better look at the way we communicate with each other. Tannen examines
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Which means this irony is mere as a starter to comprehend the final concept of being informed, either in a college or university or learning by yourself. After explaining the foundation for his life history, Steve uses dialogues in his conversation to give a feeling of straightforwardness and true to life situation