Interaction as a tool for developing a studio-based TV talk show

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to outline a new, more clearly defined object and tools for learning in studio-based TV talk show productions. The theoretical framework from work development and interaction research is introduced using results from a case study about a weekly factual talk show series for Finnish public service TV. The show was a co-production between the Finnish Broadcasting Company and its commercial production company partner. The focus of the case study's interactive ethnography was on actors' work-related talk producing the acts of learning. On the other hand, the research sought to find disturbances in interaction where the workers really carried on the multilateral TV talk show in the TV studio under the circumstances of direct recording. The journalistic team planning the topics and the conversational strategies wanted to promote free conversation between the host and the guests, but the multi-camera team and the TV director needed a host-centred format so they could start and end the conversation around visual inserts. The disturbances became visible in the discourse analysis, and they revealed the larger imbalance between the aims of the journalistic content team and the working practices realizable for the visual camera team. The theoretical conclusion is that cooperation in TV production work seems to require a much greater scope for interaction between the content and the form. The high-quality activating journalistic TV talk show needs to be based on responsive and enriching practices in the dialogical construction of meaning. For the future, special dialogical learning platforms are needed for developing TV working practices between professionals in journalistic and visual storytelling and in making the audience a participant in the process of meaning creation in the circumstances of genuine co-configuration.