Livingstone, Sonia 
ORCID: 0000-0002-3248-9862 and Lunt, Peter
(1992)
Expert and lay participation in television debates: an analysis of audience discussion programmes.
European Journal of Communication, 7 (1).
pp. 9-35.
ISSN 0267-3231
Abstract
The television audience discussion programme is critically analysed as a cultural forum in which the viewer-as-citizen may participate in public debate. These programmes place experts and ordinary viewers face to face in a studio audience to discuss an issue of current social concern. The viewer thus plays a role as joint author of the text. The programmes raise issues of citizenship, political participation, the active viewer and the cultural forum. The genre is analysed using Goffman's participation framework to reveal the conventions of the genre and the role of the reader. It is argued that in some respects these programmes represent a `managed show', offering the illusion of participation, while in other respects, they construct a role for the active viewer which legitimates and celebrates ordinary understandings while simultaneously devaluing expertise.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Official URL: | http://journals.sagepub.com/home/ejc |
| Additional Information: | © 1992 The Authors |
| Divisions: | Media and Communications |
| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology H Social Sciences > HE Transportation and Communications |
| Date Deposited: | 15 Dec 2016 12:13 |
| Last Modified: | 02 Jan 2024 22:42 |
| URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/68631 |
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