‘I’m a Scouser’
Membership categories and political geography in the 2015 UK Election Call Phone-in
Despite the emergence of newer forms of web-based political engagement, radio phone-ins continue to have a significant role in the enactment of the democratic process, providing a live forum for direct encounters between members of the public and politicians, beyond the professional forms of mediated encounters between studio journalists and politicians. In this paper, drawing on data from the BBC’s 2015 phone-in Election Call, we use Membership Categorisation Analysis to examine the ways in which political engagement is configured within this forum in the run up to the UK General Election in 2015. In particular, we examine how callers and politicians engage in live political debate through transforming personal experiences into politicised social categories. What emerges most significantly here is that, whereas in previous Election Call series participants configured political categories through personal social identities, in 2015 there is a particular emphasis on callers’ geographical locations as political categories.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction: The radio phone-in as a site of political and social engagement
- The radio phone-in as a site for analyzing political engagement
- 2.Methodology and data
- 3.Analysis
- 3.1Shifting forms of engagement, access and action
- 3.2Caller location as a participatory relevant category
- 3.3Configuring category membership through political geography
- 4.Summary and conclusions
- Notes
-
References
References
References
Coleman, Stephen
2002 “
Election Call 2001: How Politicians and the Public Interacted.”
Parliamentary Affairs 551: 731–742.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Dori-Hacohen, Gonen
2012a “
‘With Whom do I have the Pleasure?’: Callers’ Categories in Political Talk Radio Programs.”
Journal of Pragmatics, 44(3): 280–297.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Dori-Hacohen, Gonen
2012b “
Types of Interaction on Israeli Political Radio Phone-in Programmes and their Relations to the Public Sphere.”
Javnost-The Public 19(3): 21–39.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ekström, Mats, and Ulla Moberg
2015 “‘
Welcome to Participate!’: Host Activities and Caller’s Position in Swedish Election Campaign Phone-ins in the 1970s and the 2000s.”
Journalism 16(5): 654–671.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fitzgerald, Richard
2007 “
An Initial Investigation into the Role of Talkback in Hong Kong and Singapore.”
Media International Australia 1241: 87–96.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fitzgerald, Richard, and William Housley
2002 “
Identity, Categorisation and Sequential Organisation: The Sequential and Categorial Flow of Identity in a Radio Phone-in.”
Discourse and Society 13(5): 579–602.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fitzgerald, Richard, and William Housley
2007 “
Talkback Community and the Public Sphere.”
Media International Australia 1221: 150–163.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fitzgerald, Richard, and William Housley
(eds) 2015 Advances in Membership Categorisation Analysis. London: Sage.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Goffman, Erving
1974 Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. Harvard University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Habermas, Jürgen
1989 The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA..
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hester, Stephen, and Peter Eglin
(eds) 1997 Culture in Action: Studies in Membership Categorization Analysis. Boston, MA: University Press of America.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hofstetter, Richard C.
1998 “
Political Talk Radio, Situational Involvement, and Political Mobilization.”
Social Science Quarterly 79(2): 273–86.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Housley, William, and Richard Fitzgerald
2002 “
A Reconsidered Model of Membership Categorisation Analysis.”
Qualitative Research 2(1): 59–84.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hutchby, Ian
1996 Confrontation Talk: Arguments, Asymmetries and Power on Talk Radio. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hutchby, Ian
2001 ‘“
Witnessing’: The Use of First-Hand Knowledge in Legitimating Lay Opinions on Talk Radio.”
Discourse Studies 3 (4): 481–497.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jaworski, Adam, and Richard Fitzgerald
2008 “‘
This Poll has not Happened Yet’: Temporal Play in Election Predictions.”
Discourse & Communication, 2 (1): 5–27.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kilby, Laura, and Ava. D. Horowitz
2013 “
Opening up Terrorism Talk: The Sequential and Categorical Production of Discursive Power within the Call Openings of a Talk Radio Broadcast.”
Discourse & Society 24 (6): 725–742.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lee, Francis L. F.
2007 “
Talk Radio Listening, Opinion Expression and Political Discussion in a Democratizing Society.”
Asian Journal of Communication 17(1): 78–96.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lunt, Peter, and Sonia Livingstone
2013 “
Media Studies’ Fascination with the Concept of the Public Sphere: Critical Reflections and Emerging Debates.”
Media, Culture and Society 35(1): 87–96.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
McNair, Brian, Mathew Hibberd, and Philip Schlesinger
2002 “
Public Access Broadcasting and Democratic Participation in the Age of Mediated Politics.”
Journalism Studies 3 (3): 407–422.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ross, Karen
2004 “
Political Talk Radio and Democratic Participation: Caller Perspectives on Election Call.”
Media, Culture and Society 26 (6): 785–801.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sacks, Harvey
1974 “
On the Analysability of Stories by Children”.
In Ethnomethodology, ed. by
Roy Turner, 216–32. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sacks, Harvey
1995 Lectures on Conversation Vol. I and II1, ed. by
Gail Jefferson. Oxford: Blackwell.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Stremlau, Nicole, Emanuele Fantini and Iginio Gagliardone
2015 “
Patronage, Politics and Performance: Radio Call-in Programs and the Myth of Accountability.”
Third World Quarterly 36 (8): 1510–1526.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Stokoe, Elizabeth
2012 “
Moving Forward with Membership Categorization Analysis: Methods for Systematic Analysis.”
Discourse Studies 14 (3): 277–303.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Thornborrow, Joanna
2001 “
Authenticating Talk: Building Public Identities in Audience Participation Broadcasting.”
Discourse Studies 3 (4): 459–479.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Thornborrow, Joanna
2002 Power Talk: Language and Interaction in Institutional Discourse. London: Pearson Education.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Thornborrow, Joanna
2015 The Discourse of Public Participation Media. From Talk Show to Twitter. Abingdon: Routledge.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Thornborrow, Joanna, and Richard Fitzgerald
2002 “
From Problematic Object to Routine ‘Add-On’: Dealing with E-mails in Radio Phone-ins.”
Discourse Studies 4 (2): 201–224.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Thornborrow, Joanna, and Richard Fitzgerald
Turner, Graeme
2009 “
Politics, Radio and Journalism in Australia The Influence of ‘Talkback’;.”
Journalism 10 (4): 411–430.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by
Cited by 2 other publications
Joyce, Jack B. & Linda Walz
Mohd Nor, Siti Nurbaya
2021.
Constructing ethnic and national identities in talk on Malaysian issues.
Discourse & Society 32:1
► pp. 3 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 3 june 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.