International Encyclopedia of Communication Online

Extract

Conversation Analysis (CA) is a primary mode of inquiry for understanding how people talk with one another in everyday casual encounters, as well as in more specialized institutional settings involving bureaucratic representatives (e.g., medical, legal, educational, corporate, government). Research materials are naturally occurring audio and video recordings, and carefully produced transcriptions, of a broad range of interactions comprising the social worlds of diverse speakers, relationships, activities, and events. Examples are: telephone conversations and face-to-face interactions among family members, friends, acquaintances, and service providers such as telephone emergency hotlines; interactions among young children, parents, and daycare providers; patient–provider interactions (→  Doctor–Patient Talk ); news and broadcast interviews (→  Broadcast Talk ). Giving priority to recordings and transcriptions is based on the recognition that detailed features and contingencies of interactional events cannot be intuited, nor adequately reconstructed, through field notes, interviews, or other forms of self-reported information. Interactions that are “naturally occurring” are those that would take place whether or not a recording device were present, and are not significantly influenced by researchers prompting the origination, content, or length of the social occasion. Speakers order ... log in or subscribe to read full text