Matters of Opinion offers an interesting new insight into 'public opinion'
as reported in the media, asking where these opinions actually come from,
and how they have their effects. Drawing on the analysis of conversations
from focus groups, phone-ins and broadcast interviews with members of the
public, Greg Myers argues that we must go back to these encounters, asking
questions such as what members of the public thought they were being asked,
who they were talking as, and whom they were talking to. He reveals that
people don't carry a store of opinions, ready to tell strangers; they use
opinions in order to get along with other people, and how they say things
is as important as what they say. Engaging and informative, this book
illuminates current debates on research methods, the public sphere and
deliberative democracy, on broadcast talk, and on what it means to
participate in public life.
1. Paradoxes of opinion
2. A tool kit for analysing group discussions
3. Forums for opinion: what is it that's going on here?
4. Institutions of public opinion: voice of the people?
5. Topics in interaction: why that now?
6. Agreeing and disagreeing: maintaining sociable agreement
7. Representing speech: other voices, other places
8. Questioning expertise: who says?
9. Radio phone-ins: mediated sociable arguments
10. Vox pop television interviews: constructing the public
11. Opinions as talk.
Linguistic Field(s):
Discourse Analysis
Sociolinguistics
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