Talbot Mary. Media Discourse: Representation and Interaction

Edinburgh University Press, 2007. — x, 198 pages. — (Media Topics). — ISBN10: 0748623485; ISBN13: 978-0748623488.Within media and cultural studies, the study of media texts is dominated by an exclusive focus on representation. This book adds long overdue attention to social interaction. The book is divided into two sections. The first outlines key theoretical issues and concepts, including informalisation, genre hybridisation, positioning, dialogism and discourse. The second is a sustained interrogation of social interaction in and around media. Re-examining issues of representation and interaction, it critically assesses work on the para-social and broadcast sociability, then explores distinct sites of interaction: production communities, audience communities and 'interactivity' with audiences.Talbot explores three distinct sites of interaction involving media discourse in great detail, offering a valuable insight into the way in which modern media discourse works in our life... Her detailed analysis of media interactions proves to be a successful demonstration for newcomers to this field. In addition, activities and further reading at the end of each chapter and a glossary of key terms at the end of the book make the book highly accessible and readable. Written in a clear and lively way, this book is worth recommending to anyone who is interested in discourse studies.Key issues in analysing media discourse
Introduction: media and discourse
What is media discourse and why study it?
Media and the circuit of culture
Texts, discourse and discourses
Discourse as social practice in critical discourse analysisAbout this bookReconfigurations
Time and place
Public and private
Informalisation and infotainment
Hybridisation
Parody and pastiche
Comedy central: Harlan McCraney
Texts and positioning
Circuit of culture and reading positions
Text and positioning in critical discourse analysis
‘Guilt over games boys play’: heteronormativity in a problem page
Men’s magazines: a phallacious fraternity?
Texts and audiences
Dialogism and voice
Intertextuality and the dialogic word
Footing and ‘neutrality’ in broadcast journalism
Randy fish boss branded a stinker feminism on the Sun’s page three?
Positioning, authority and erasure
Representation and interaction
Simulated interaction
Three types of interaction
‘Para-social interaction’
Sociability
Synthetic personality and synthetic personalisation
Simulated interaction on Radio lxtra
Interpersonal meaning in broadcast texts: representing social identities and relationships
Travel broadens the mind?
Expertise, authority and ‘taste’ in lifestyle TV
‘Transforming these school dinners is gonna be tough’: Jamie’s dinner ladies
Jeremy Paxman: ‘Britain’s number one interrogator’
Production communities and audience communities
Frontstage in production-community interaction
Backstage glimpses
‘Zoo’ media
Television talk and talking with the television
Interactivity
Backstage engagements
Frontstage: fifteen minutes of fame
Asymmetries
New technology