Original scientific paper
Between Controversy and Concurrence: The Structure of Opinion and Communication in Call-in Radio Programs
Andrej Pinter
Abstract
The topics of this paper builds on the fact that call-in radio programmes are inherently
confrontational and focuses on the manner in which confrontations of opinion
relate to the flow of conversation on air. Through the use of conversation, a specific
fusion of the private and the public occurs by means of which call-in programmes
transform into a specific public forum, where the realms of the public and the private
become closely intertwined and penetrate each other. The roles of everyday experience
and personal perspectives become central to the essentially institutional setting.
To the audience, this forum appears accessible because its conversations invite rather
than exclude. As the analyses presented here show, controversy and concurrence stand
out
as its prevailing characteristics. They both emerge out of the conversational style
of exchange on air; it is suggested, moreover, that they should be understood as formative
for their counterpart. Although there is no direct cause-and effect relation between
the two concepts on the empirical level, they can be clearly related through the
role of mediating activities, such as attempts to direct and manage the course of conversation
by participants of call-in radio. In this respect, the paper makes a contribution,
both theoretical and methodological to our understanding of a typical output of a
quintessential, yet theoretically undervalued medium of mass communication.
Keywords
radio programme; call-in radio; public sphere; conversation
Hrčak ID:
23354
URI
Publication date:
20.5.2002.
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