New Book: La parole à la télévision

Amey P. (2009), La parole à la télévision. Les dispositifs des talk-shows. Paris, Coll.
Communication et Civilisation

English summary
The late 1980s saw an explosion of discussion shows on French television. Reality shows,
debates based on public participation and the full range of talk shows all serve as
platforms for representation that draw on distinct conversational tones and social
imaginaries. These discussion shows, whether a forum for mediation, sociability, intimate
confessions or debate, all have something in common: they are configured by televisual
mechanisms that direct discussions, arrange the set design and assign participants a
verbal role. How has the staging of these television shows evolved, and what are the
social and political contexts that inform them? What distinguishes them and what links
them? This work strives to answer these questions using television-based sociology and
analysis of televisual discourses. The author constructs a theoretical framework capable
of exploring the material, discursive and symbolic configuration of the way in which
discussions are staged. He then applies this framework to a body of television shows that
symbolize the type of programming featured on French television over recent decades,
including Droit de réponse, Du fer dans les épinards, Ça se discute, Tout le monde en
parle and Le Grand Journal. The book provides the historical perspective needed to
retrace the evolution of the status attained by television. Over the years, television
has opened up to voicing the opinions of ordinary people whilst becoming a speaking
participant, mediator, agent of intervention and, finally, performer in predictable and
preformatted discussion shows.

Author : Patrick Amey is a senior lecturer at the University of Geneva’s sociology
department and teaches on the Communication and Media Sciences masters course. His
research work focuses on the analysis of televisual discourses.