Between Controversy and Concurrence: The Structure of Opinion and Commu- nication in Call-in Radio Programs

The topics of this paper builds on the fact that call-in radio programmes are inherently confrontational and focuses on the manner in which confrontations of opinion relate to the flow of conversation on air. Through the use of conversation, a specific fusion of the private and the public occurs by means of which call-in programmes transform into a specific public forum, where the realms of the public and the private become closely intertwined and penetrate each other. The roles of everyday experience and personal perspectives become central to the essentially institutional setting. To the audience, this forum appears accessible because its conversations invite rather than exclude. As the analyses presented here show, controversy and concurrence stand out as its prevailing characteristics. They both emerge out of the conversational style of exchange on air; it is suggested, moreover, that they should be understood as formative for their counterpart. Although there is no direct cause-and effect relation between the two concepts on the empirical level, they can be clearly related through the role of mediating activities, such as attempts to direct and manage the course of conversation by participants of call-in radio. In this respect, the paper makes a contribution, both theoretical and methodological to our understanding of a typical output of a quintessential, yet theoretically undervalued medium of mass communication.