Haastatteluyhteiskunta, politiikka ja keskusteluanalyysi

Authors

• Ilpo Koskinen
• Milla Kajanne
• Mats Nylund

Abstract

Sociologists Paul Atkinson and David Silverman have argued that we live in an ”interview society.” Much present-day public activity takes place in interviews in the mass media. Instead of investigating political or sporting events, journalists rely on verbal reports by politicians and athletes. Versions of common activities are produced in talk. In this article, we show how conversation analysis (CA) can illuminate this phenomenon, focusing in particular on politics. With examples from the literature as well as from Finnish and Swedish politics, we show how CA can provide a framework and a methodology for analyzing how politics is done in the interview society. We also connect CA to early ethnomethodology.