Matters of opinion : talking about public issues / Greg Myers.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Myers, Greg, 1954- author.

Series:

Studies in interactional sociolinguistics ; 19.

Studies in interactional sociolinguistics ; 19

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mass media and public opinion.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvii, 258 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Matters of Opinion offers an interesting insight into 'public opinion' as reported in the media, asking where these opinions actually come from, and how they have their effects. Drawing on the analysis of conversations from focus groups, phone-ins and broadcast interviews with members of the public, Greg Myers argues that we must go back to these encounters, asking questions such as what members of the public thought they were being asked, who they were talking as, and whom they were talking to. He reveals that people don't carry a store of opinions, ready to tell strangers; they use opinions in order to get along with other people, and how they say things is as important as what they say. Engaging and informative, this book illuminates debates on research methods, the public sphere and deliberative democracy, on broadcast talk, and on what it means to participate in public life.

Contents:

Paradoxes of opinion

A tool kit for analysing group discussions

Forums for opinion: 'what is it that's going on here?'

Institutions of opinion: voice of the people?

Topics in interaction: 'why that now?'

Agreeing and disagreeing: maintaining sociable argument

Representing speech: other voices, other places

Questioning expertise: who says?

Radio phone-ins: mediated sociable arguments

Vox pop television interviews: constructing the public

Opinions as talk.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references (p. [233]-254) and index.

ISBN:

1-107-15870-2

1-280-70286-9

0-511-23042-7

0-511-23119-9

0-511-22879-1

0-511-33152-5

0-511-48670-7

0-511-22963-1

OCLC:

252529862