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Article published In:
Practices of Dialogue, Dialogues in Practice
Edited by Alain Létourneau, Geneviève Boivin and Nicolas Bencherki
[Language and Dialogue 13:2] 2023
► pp. 229–253

Debaters’ actions to manage interaction in the context of the debate talk show

| University of Massachusetts Amherst

The project explores how conflict is managed in a debate talk show that addresses the current situation in Belarus and its future. The analysis shows that the debaters act as co-designers of the debate activity. They indicate a variety of moves that they find inappropriate (e.g., personal attacks) and use various interactional resources to challenge these actions, which is done directly (e.g., directly naming inappropriate actions) and indirectly (e.g., nonverbal actions). Their interventions are aimed at managing interaction, but at the same time, they undermine their opponents’ image. Furthermore, the study highlights the importance of identities as an interactional resource to shape interaction. The analysis also demonstrates the role of a multi-party structure of the debate in managing interaction.

Keywords: conflict, debate, discourse analysis, multi-party interaction, talk show
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Difficult conversations
  • 3.Communication design perspective on managing interaction
  • 4.Methodology and data
  • 5.Data analysis
    • 5.1Moves challenged by the debaters
    • 5.2The debaters’ interventions
    • 5.3Identity matters
    • 5.4Collaborative work to manage interaction
  • 6.Discussion
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 1 August 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ld.00148.vas
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