Kay Richardson – författare

When we watch and listen to actors speaking lines that have been written by someone else-a common experience if we watch any television at all-the illusion of ¨people talking¨ is strong. These characters are people like us, but they are also different, products of a dramatic imagination, and the talk they exchange is not quite like ours.Television Dramatic Dialogue examines, from an applied sociolinguistic perspective, and with reference to television, the particular kind of ärtificial¨ talk that we know as dialogue: onscreen/on-mike talk delivered by characters as part of dramatic storytelling in a range of fictional and nonfictional TV genres. As well as trying to identify the place which this kind of language occupies in sociolinguistic space, Richardson seeks to understand the conditions of its production by screenwriters and the conditions of its reception by audiences, offering two case studies, one British (Life on Mars) and one American (House).

When we watch and listen to actors speaking lines that have been written by someone else-a common experience if we watch any television at all-the illusion of ¨people talking¨ is strong. These characters are people like us, but they are also different, products of a dramatic imagination, and the talk they exchange is not quite like ours.Television Dramatic Dialogue examines, from an applied sociolinguistic perspective, and with reference to television, the particular kind of ärtificial¨ talk that we know as dialogue: onscreen/on-mike talk delivered by characters as part of dramatic storytelling in a range of fictional and nonfictional TV genres. As well as trying to identify the place which this kind of language occupies in sociolinguistic space, Richardson seeks to understand the conditions of its production by screenwriters and the conditions of its reception by audiences, offering two case studies, one British (Life on Mars) and one American (House).

Worlds in Common? examines the newly emerging forms of language used in satellite television programmes, exploring a wide range of genres including twenty-four hour news broadcasting, culture channels, talk shows, local TV and European news.Focusing on the experiences of British and German viewers, the authors discuss these new forms of communication brought about by the technological and economic upheavals in Europe in the late 1990s.This interaction between media theories and media discourses, makes the book highly relevant for researchers in media and cultural studies as well as linguistics, and provides an important and innovatory link between these different approaches.

Worlds in Common? examines the newly emerging forms of language used in satellite television programmes, exploring a wide range of genres including twenty-four hour news broadcasting, culture channels, talk shows, local TV and European news.Focusing on the experiences of British and German viewers, the authors discuss these new forms of communication brought about by the technological and economic upheavals in Europe in the late 1990s.This interaction between media theories and media discourses, makes the book highly relevant for researchers in media and cultural studies as well as linguistics, and provides an important and innovatory link between these different approaches.

Public issue television is a major contribution to understanding the relationship between television, politics and society. Based on full access to the archives, it offers a fascinating historical account of how one television series, Granada’s World in Action, celebrated for its tough journalism, visual directness and public impact, functioned and developed over its run across 35 years between 1963 and 1998. In a succession of chapters looking at different periods in the series’ development and at key dimensions of its distinctive identity, it gets deep inside the making of factual television and examines how a particular culture of production works within broader conditions of possibility and constraint. In particular, it charts the interwoven processes of change – technological, professional, aesthetic, institutional, economic, social and political. As well as discussing achievement and success, it examines the tensions, the debates and open conflicts that formed part of the context within which the series was made and transmitted across four decades.

Public issue television is a major contribution to understanding the relationship between television, politics and society. Based on full access to the archives, it offers a fascinating historical account of how one television series, Granada’s World in Action, celebrated for its tough journalism, visual directness and public impact, functioned and developed over its run across 35 years between 1963 and 1998. In a succession of chapters looking at different periods in the series’ development and at key dimensions of its distinctive identity, it gets deep inside the making of factual television and examines how a particular culture of production works within broader conditions of possibility and constraint. In particular, it charts the interwoven processes of change – technological, professional, aesthetic, institutional, economic, social and political. As well as discussing achievement and success, it examines the tensions, the debates and open conflicts that formed part of the context within which the series was made and transmitted across four decades.

Originally published in 1992. This book discusses the possibilities of developing the research process in social science so that it benefits the subjects as well as the researcher. The authors distinguish between ‘ethical’, ‘advocate’ and ‘empowering’ approaches to the relationship between researcher and researched, linking these to different ideas about the nature of knowledge, action, language, and social relations. They then use a series of empirical case studies to explore the possibilities for ‘empowering research’. The book is the product of dialogue between researchers from a range of disciplines (anthropology, cultural studies, sociology and linguistics) and is for those working across the social sciences. Through combination of philosophical discussion, methodological recommendation and case-study illustration, it provides guidance that is practical without being simplistic.