Radio talk

Radio talk is a form of mediated public discourse which Hutchby (2001: 55) describes as “a form of unscripted talk that can be recorded in the safe knowledge that the same talk would have been produced even if the researcher had not switched on his or her tape recorder.” Thus, studying largely spontaneous radio talk has its advantages.

Nonetheless, the fact that these conversations are broadcast on radio imposes certain constraints. During these conversations, interlocutors are not only talking with their co-participant, they are also overheard by an unknown audience. This double communication has wide implications for the recipient design of the conversation in

57 Just as in the data Reunion and PTC, I am one of the participants in the conversation (see discussion in 5.3).

question (cf. Auer et al. 1999: 174; Vagle 1990). This study includes two corpora involving talk-radio programs which occur in quite varied settings.

Corpus of spoken Icelandic: The Soul of the Nation (in Icelandic Íslenskur talmálsgrunnur: Þjóðarsálin), abbreviated as Soul, is the name of a corpus collected in 1996 by the Institute of Linguistics at the University of Iceland.⁵⁸ The complete corpus consists of 15 transcribed episodes of a popular phone-in program broadcast in May and June of 1996. In the present study, I use ten of the episodes.

During the 1990s, The Soul of the Nation was a widely known program among Icelanders. It was broadcast on the Icelandic state radio, Radio 2, five days a week.

Each show is half an hour to forty minutes long, including a short break in the middle for commercials. During the show, listeners are encouraged to call in and tell the

‘Nation’ what is on their mind. In this way, the program is supposed to reflect ‘the soul’ of the Icelandic people.

In each episode, the moderator⁵⁹ talks with approximately twelve to thirteen different callers. The callers choose a particular topic before they go on the air, and the moderator knows both their names and their topics in advance. In other words, the moderator is prepared for each caller.

In most of these episodes, the topic is chosen by the callers. The conversations are generally short—usually lasting only a few minutes—and the caller is, in most cases, allowed to bring up only one topic for discussion. As a result, the conversations in the program are often direct and to the point. After the introduction and greeting, the callers typically announce their topic. Often these topics involve complaints and critiques of some sort, and, thus, the discourse is often quite argumentative. The callers can at times be both personal and emotional, and some callers try to establish personal contact with the moderator, either by referring to their earlier conversations or by mentioning mutual friends. The moderators, by contrast, usually try to be neutral and to keep a (politically) objective point of view. It is in their interest to develop an interesting discussion with the caller, and, therefore, they often play devil’s advocate.

On some occasions, the moderators show a more private side, for instance, by mentioning mutual friends or by expressing their personal opinion.

58 I would like to thank the project leader, Halldór Ármann Sigurðsson, for giving me permission to use the data. I would also like to thank the coordinator, Camilla Wide, for introducing the data to me.

The data was used by Wide (1998) in a study on nú and inspired me to deepen the analysis on a broader selection of data (see the discussion of Wide’s results in chapter 2).

59 Three different radio personalities took turns moderating the show during the time of these recordings.

In two of the episodes, the discussion is limited to posing questions to a visitor in the studio. In episode 10.06.96, a presidential candidate is visiting the studio, and, in episode 23.06.96, a mechanic is answering questions regarding the repair of cars. In these episodes, the callers are supposed to ask the guests one question, and no other topics are accepted.

Table 5.4 gives an overview of the different episodes used in the present study.

Table 5.4: Recordings, duration, and participants of Soul

Recording Duration Participants

17.05.96 approx. 30 min. Female moderator 1 and various callers

23.05.96 approx. 30 min. Male moderator, a guest in the studio and various callers 30.05.98 approx. 30 min. Female moderator 2 and various callers

31.05.98 approx. 30 min. Female moderator 1 and various callers 03.06.96 approx. 30 min. Female moderator 1 and various callers 04.06.96 approx. 30 min. Female moderator 2 and various callers 05.06.96 approx. 30 min. Female moderator 2 and various callers 07.06.96 approx. 30 min. Female moderator 1 and various callers

10.06.96 approx. 40 min. Female moderator 1, a guest in the studio and various callers 11.06.96 approx. 30 min. Female moderator 1 and various callers

TOTAL approx. 310 min

The other radio data I use in this study are rather different from the phone-in program mentioned above. The corpus Teens consists of three radio programs hosted by teenagers, for teenagers. The three programs are quite different from one another in their topics and type of interaction. In spite of these differences, however, they have many features in common that, according to Nordberg (1984), Kotsinas (1994), and Stenström, Andersen, and Hasund (2002), are typical for teenagers’ language, such as the use of slang and loan words and the use of certain particles (cf. H. Hilmisdóttir and Wide 2000, H. Hilmisdóttir 2000).

The first show, Lovísa 1, was broadcast in November, 1997. The program consists of 41 minutes of speech. There are two hosts in the studio, a young woman and a young man. During the broadcast, the two hosts chat with each other, interview teenagers on the streets of Reykjavik, and invite visitors to the studio. They visit record companies and ask their managers about upcoming releases, discuss a film with a movie enthusiast, and chat with listeners who call in to participate in quizzes.

Laughter and word-play are frequent, along with phrases and words in English (cf. H.

Hilmisdóttir 2000). The program has a playful character, and the small talk between the two hosts is the main activity throughout.

The second show, Lovísa 2, was broadcast the following summer, in July, 1998.

The program consists of 21 minutes of speech. Again, there are two hosts, a young man and a young woman. This show has a slower tempo than the first one. The hosts chat with each other between songs, and one guest visits the studio and is interviewed.

The third show, Ó hve glöð er vor æska ‘Oh, how happy is our youth,’ (ÓHG) was broadcast in October, 1997. Only the first half of the program, which consists of 38 minutes of speech, has been transcribed. The hosts of this program are young men, and the theme is love. In this episode, the hosts have invited two guests to the studio, a man and a woman, probably in their early twenties. Although the conversation has many features which are typical for institutional conversations (for example, it is moderated), it resembles everyday conversations in many ways. For example, the guests at times pose questions to the hosts about personal matters. Table 5.5 gives an overview of the data Teens:

Table 5.5: Recordings, duration, and participants of Teens

Recording Duration Participants

Lovísa 1 approx.41 min. Two radio hosts, listeners calling in Lovísa 2 approx.21 min. Two radio hosts and a studio guest ÓHG approx.38 min. Two radio hosts, two guests in the studio TOTAL approx. 100 min.