La gestion de la complexité des interactions médiatiques

Abstract

This paper deals with the complexity of the organization of celebrities interviews on television. Within the framework of social interactionism in the field of discourse analysis, I first define the normative expectations of interviews as a genre. Then, I analyze the discursive dimension of six recent excerpts of interviews to identify typical strategies by the participants. As a matter of fact, broadcast interviews represent a rather paradoxical form of communication. Indeed, the guest and the interviewer are supposed to engage in familiar discourse, but they also have at the same time to remain aware of the television viewers, that is the ultimate collective and anonymous addressee of the interview.

Focusing on the discursive dimension of interviews helps to define the presumably shared expectations. It also allows to observe how the complexity of interviews is managed in confronting "good" and "bad" discursive performances.