Belligerent Broadcasting: Synthetic Argument in Broadcast Talk
- Submitting institution
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University of Sunderland
- Unit of assessment
- 27 - English Language and Literature
- Output identifier
- 1076
- Type
- A - Authored book
- DOI
-
-
- Publisher
- Routledge
- ISBN
- 9781472425928
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of publication
- -
- Year of publication
- 2017
- URL
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http://sure.sunderland.ac.uk/id/eprint/6878/
- Supplementary information
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-
- Request cross-referral to
- 34 - Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- Yes
- Number of additional authors
-
1
- Research group(s)
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-
- Proposed double-weighted
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- The authors explore the concept of belligerent broadcasting across media genres in various journal articles and book chapters. This book draws on the emergent conclusions of these works, pointing to the further development of this in social media.
This book provides the first cohesive account of the spread of confrontation talk across media genres. In explaining the specific linguistic theories that underpin confrontation, it also offers the first clear definition of ‘banter’ as a strategy. The book’s subtitle introduces a new term ‘synthetic argument’ to refer to the widespread use of argument by professionals.
It contains equal contributions from authors.
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This co-written monograph is the first of its kind to identify and bring together a linguistic analysis of the various forms of confrontation talk that appear across broadcast media.
Politeness theory has been applied to broadcast media texts for many years, but this was not brought together into a comprehensive study of its range across unscripted media texts until Belligerent Broadcasting: synthetic argument in broadcast talk was published in 2017. Smith has spent spent several years researching the uses of politeness theory across various forms of traditional media which has resulted in articles and a monograph being published in equal collaboration with Dr Michael Higgins (Strathclyde University). The extent to which confrontation talk has expanded across most genres of unscripted broadcasting is one that this research continues to explore. The research also includes the sustained analysis of the popular BBC show, Top Gear, which has international reach, and is the first sustained academic study of this programme, where the controversies in the show, particularly as found in its anti-authoritarian stance, were found to be masked by the use of banter.
There had been recent research into the uses and description of banter as a form of confrontation talk, but little had actually attempted a linguistic analysis of how this could actually be defined. Smith and Higgins explored the in-group nature of this form of confrontation talk, and devised a ground-breaking linguistic definition of it, where early versions of politeness theory (particularly Grice’s maxims) are key to understanding how banter operates.
This research has been used to inform a submission to a DCMS Select Committee on Reality TV (summer 2019) and also to OfCom’s call for input into reviewing their remit (summer 2019). This has been led to Smith being interviewed extensively on national and international media outlets.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -