Communicating with the Public: Conversation Analytic Studies

This book offers a collection of conversation analytic investigations into how one US-based philanthropic organization communicates its mission of improving public health. In contrast to political speeches or news interviews with prominent figures, much communication with the public involves the routine work undertaken by institutional representatives as they interact with external audiences: this book considers precisely how this work is accomplished. Communicating with the Public broadens the scope of conversation analysis by unveiling the interactive, multi-party, and multi-modal nature of institutional messaging that might otherwise be construed as a scripted, monologic undertaking. To this end, it examines a diverse array of contemporary platforms, including webinars, podcasts, and television interviews, as well as face-to-face conversations following public talks and panel discussions. Chapters reveal how both foundation representatives and their interlocutors target messaging to specific audiences that may or may not be present, manage the logistics of delivering this messaging, and position themselves as credible experts or a unified institutional collective.

Table of Contents:
Foreword, John Heritage (UCLA, USA) Part I: Overview 1. Introduction, Elizabeth Reddington and Hansun Zhang Waring (both Teachers College, Columbia University, USA) Part II: Doing Messaging 2. Beyond Neutrality and Adversarialness: The Case of Platform Questions, Hansun Zhang Waring (Teachers College, Columbia University, USA) 3. Enabling Institutional Messaging: TV Journalists’ Work with Interviewee Responses, Carol Hoi Yee Lo and Di Yu (Teachers College, Columbia University, USA) 4. Constructing the Audience in Media Interviews, Nadja Tadic and Di Yu (Teachers College, Columbia University, USA) Part III: Managing Logistics 5. But-prefacing for Refocusing in Public Talk, Ann Tai Choe (University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA) and Elizabeth Reddington (Teachers College, Columbia University, USA) 6. Curating the Q&A: The Art of Moderating Webinars, Allie Hope King (Teachers College, Columbia University, USA) 7. Narrating the Visual in Webinar Q&As, Di Yu and Nadja Tadic (Teachers College, Columbia University, USA) Part IV: Negotiating Identities 8. Constructing Expertise: Person Reference in Audience Members’ Self-Identification in Public Talk Q&A Sessions, Ignasi Clemente (City University of New York, USA and University College London, UK) 9. Gaze as a Resource for Creating Coherence across Speakers during Moderated Panel Discussions, Christopher D. Van Booven (College of the Holy Cross, USA) Index

About the Author :
Hansun Zhang Waring is Associate Professor of Linguistics and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, USA. Elizabeth Reddington is an Instructor in Applied Linguistics & TESOL at Teachers College, Columbia University, USA.

Review :
Never has there been a more important time to understand how organizations communicate with the public in the context of improving their health. Waring and Reddington’s collection of chapters show in close detail how public relations are manifest across interactional settings, and provide important insights into the conversations that take place between the public across the many modalities of contemporary life. This volume breaks new ground as the first sustained investigation of a philanthropic organization’s public outreach efforts from the vantage point of everyday language practices in media interviews, panel discussions, podcasts, and webinars. The findings will be of interest to a wide range of language and communication scholars and public relations professionals. The volume provides fresh insight into how institutions communicate with the public. Using conversation analysis as a lens, the authors delve into both oft-studied and burgeoning issues in such communication, offering new perspectives on the former, and innovative discourse studies on the latter. This is an important read for scholars of communication and discourse studies, as well as workers in public health.