Aspects of recipient design in expert advice‐giving on call‐in radio

Abstract

This article analyzes the management of expertise in advice‐giving in a public context: calls to a radio advice line. Instead of being a two‐way dialogue between advice‐seeker and advice‐giver, advice talk on call‐in radio has a more complex communicative framework in which four parties are involved: the caller (advice‐seeker), the expert (advice‐giver), the studio host (professional broadcaster), and the overhearing audience. This article analyzes the ways in which the expert's talk handles the tension between the personal and the public dimensions of advice‐giving in such a communicative setup. By looking at systematic features of the recipient design of responses to advice‐seeking questions, it is shown how advice talk on call‐in radio deals with this private‐public tension by being constructed to be simultaneously relevant to a specific (private) recipient—the caller—and to a nonspecific (public) recipient—the various potential constituencies of the overhearing audience.