Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1998 19:14:46 -0400
From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood-AT-panix.com>
Subject: Re: On television & the "weapons" provided by sociologists


Deborah Kilgore wrote:

>I have just finished reading "On Television" which is accessible (and not
>wordy! as Bourdieu sometimes tends to be) and helps the beginning student
>clarify concepts like habitus, field, and symbolic violence with a neat
>little example.

I've got a review - which is more of a popularization and appreciation than
a critical engagement - of On TV on the LBO website, at
<http://www.panix.com/~dhenwood/Why_TV_sucks.html>. Comments welcome.

>"When you want someone who is not a professional talker of some sort to say
>something (and often these people say really quite extraordinary things that
>individuals who are constantly called upon to speak couldn't even imagine),
>you have to help people talk...You put yourself at the service of someone
>with something important to say, someone whose words you want to hear and
>whose thoughts interest you, and you work to help get the words out.  But
>this isn't at all what television moderators do..."
>
>What I am interested in is how far we "are allowed" go methodologically with
>this sort of thing.  What if researchers were to get into the business of
>intentionally teaching research participants how to articulate their
>experiences to researchers?
>
>Any comments on this, or is it too far out (or banal) to even address?

It'd be bad social science, I suppose, but speaking as a host of a radio
interview program, let me tell you, there are times when you want to pull
it out of the inarticulate - complete their sentences, and translate their
random semantic pileups into speech. And it's not alwaysthe amateur talkers
that are the problem - it's windy academics and policy wonks who can't get
to the damned point.


Doug

--

Doug Henwood
Left Business Observer
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email: <mailto:dhenwood-AT-panix.com>
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