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This week’s topic is a good opportunity
to start applying some theories to the data I have chosen to research for my
major paper. Just in case you missed my last post, I am researching a
news interview when a man named Guy Goma was mistakenly interviewed as an
expert on live TV, when he was really in the BBC studio for a job interview.
This
interview took place on the BBC, which is an institution in Britain. Now the
BBC is not just an institution, but an Institution. Now that might not seem that different, an
Institution with a capital “I” is more than just bricks and rules, it’s a set
of practices and ideas surrounding what it actually is. The BBC is seen as a cultural success in
Britain that manages to beat commercial stations in ratings and so to be
associated with the Institution of the BBC is loaded with cultural meaning (Engel
2011). Anyway, the Institution or
structure that is really dictating what happens in the Guy Goma interview,
besides being on the BBC, is the news interview, specifically interviewing the
expert. This clip really exposes the
strict format of the news interview, as even though Goma is not an expert in
Apple Corps. he can read the interview format from the setting and way the
questions are framed, and amazingly knows how to perform the role of the
expert, even if he is not one.
The
news media interview is a complicated communicative encounter. The news media interview is characterised by
a set of generic markers that determine both the roles of interviewers and
interviewees – the modes of address, the proxemics of the interview, the
structure of questions and answers – and the limits within which each of the participants
can negotiate the constraints of those roles (Craig 2012, p. 76).
In
this clip it is clear that Goma is in an interview setting, and although his
initial facial expression reveals that he knows something is amiss, his
interaction with the Institution fasciliates a performance of an expert. It always seems to come back to Goffman doesn’t
it? Goffman said we are always
performing different versions of the self and that we perform a role for the
benefit of others and expect them to believe accept our performance of
authentic (Goffman 1971, p. 28). Goma’s case might seem like a clear
illustration of this, a man tries to fit into a situation save the face of the
interviewer by playing the part that is expected, but I think there is
something deeper going on here. Goma is
performing his own self, a man who was meant to go to a job interview but ended
up on live TV, but he is also consciously performing a version of self dictated
by the Institutional setting at the same time.
References:
Craig,
G 2010, ‘Dialogue and dissemination in news media interviews’, Journalism,
vol.11, no.1, pp75–90, accessed 17/10/2012, doi:10.1177/1464884909349582
Engel,
M 2011, ‘British institutions: the BBC’, FT.com,
accessed 16/10/2012, http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/docview/857493008
Goffman,
E. 1971, 'Performances', in The
Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Harmondsworth, Penguin, pp28-82,
accessed 29/08/2012, http://ereadings.uow.edu.au.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/goffmane1.pdf
This is a really interesting choice of data. I particularly enjoy his facial expressions on being introduced as an expert. Apart from those facial expressions, however, he could almost have got away with it. As you say, the institution has its own strict codes and scripts which are followed in most situations, and he is knowledgeable enough to emulate these and, in doing so, perform the role of an expert interviewee. I think the interviewer may have realised the definition of the situation was in trouble because she does tend to accommodate and direct Goma after the first question or two. I’m not sure he’s primarily trying to save her face though. I think instead he’s trying to save his own by playing along and not appearing a fool although it would reflect more badly on the BBC for their lack of professionalism. The possibility of damage to a demeanour is greater for the institution in this interaction, but Goma’s primary concern, it would seem to me anyway, would be his own because faced with the situation, the institution which is represented onscreen by the interviewer would not be as evident to him as his self. Might have got a bit micro-macro (and otherwise) confused there, but it is very interesting.
ReplyDeleteHey Liam, thanks for your insights. I think you're right that Goma is mainly concerned with saving his own face, even though he's not really the one that would look bad. This data is really interesting to look at in terms of deference and demeanor, especially in terms of what the expectations and obligations of each person are and how they try to cope when they're not fulfilled.
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