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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. 254–276

Debate or dialogue?

A case of a Czech TV discussion program where dialogue fails

| Masaryk University

The present paper deals with an example of a TV broadcast discussion program, the Czech program Máte slovo, in which a dialogue fails. It presents a closer analysis of one representative episode of the program, which, despite being officially presented as offering space for discussion and a chance for ordinary citizens to talk to public personalities and politicians, takes the form of confrontainment, whose goal is to escalate debate. The paper reveals what practices by the discussants and the moderator contribute to the failure of a successful dialogue and discusses the role of broadcast programs of this kind in the contemporary communication sphere.

Keywords: dialogue, media discourse, broadcast talk, “confrontalk”, televised debate, conversation analysis, discourse analysis
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.“Dialogue” and its presence in the Czech discussion program
  • 3.The Czech discussion program and its place in the context of media discourse
    • 3.1 Máte slovo as institutional dialogue
    • 3.2Participants in Máte slovo
    • 3.3 Máte slovo as “confrontalk”
  • 4.Design of the analysis
  • 5.Practices hindering the establishment of a successful dialogue
    • 5.1Violating rules of turn-taking, overlaps, and strong emotional states
    • 5.2Loaded questions, repeated questions, and reformulations
    • 5.3Argumentative fouls, attacks, and silencing
    • 5.4Lack of common ground and common communicative intentions
    • 5.5Moderator’s style and bias
  • 6.Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 1 August 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ld.00149.zak
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