On and off the air at France Culture. Introducing the listener and forms of engagement in speech - article ; n°1 ; vol.5, pg 85-111

Hervé Glevarec

Description

Réseaux. The French journal of communication - Année 1997 - Volume 5 - Numéro 1 - Pages 85-111
Summary: What happens in a radio studio at the moment of going on the air? This article examines the modalities of going on and off the air at France Culture. It describes the radio producer's twofold task: slhe has to introduce a third party, the listener, into the group of participants in the studio, and to construct a place for that listener in the conversation. The study shows the contemporary form of interaction on the air, and the frame of reference mobilized. We see how radio professionals employ vari- ous means to achieve the 'live' involvement of speakers, and in so doing define, in a sense, the cultural programme at France Culture.
27 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

Informations

• Publié par: RESEAUX-_THE_FRENCH_JOURNAL_OF_COMMUNICATION
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1997
• Nombre de lectures: 33
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Hervé Glevarec
Liz Libbrecht
On and off the air at France Culture. Introducing the listener and
forms of engagement in speech
In: Réseaux, 1997, volume 5 n°1. pp. 85-111.
Abstract
Summary: What happens in a radio studio at the moment of going on the air? This article examines the modalities of going on
and off the air at France Culture. It describes the radio producer's twofold task: slhe has to introduce a third party, the listener,
into the group of participants in the studio, and to construct a place for that listener in the conversation. The study shows the
contemporary form of interaction on the air, and the frame of reference mobilized. We see how radio professionals employ vari-
ous means to achieve the 'live' involvement of speakers, and in so doing define, in a sense, the cultural programme at France
Culture.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Glevarec Hervé, Libbrecht Liz. On and off the air at France Culture. Introducing the listener and forms of engagement in speech.
In: Réseaux, 1997, volume 5 n°1. pp. 85-111.
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/reso_0969-9864_1997_num_5_1_3324AND OFF THE AIR AT ON
FRANCE CULTURE
Introducing the listener and forms of
engagement in speech
Hervé GLEVAREC
Translated by Liz Libbrecht
Summary: What happens in a radio studio at the moment of going on the
air? This article examines the modalities of going on and off the air at
France Culture. It describes the radio producer's twofold task: slhe has to
introduce a third party, the listener, into the group of participants in the
studio, and to construct a place for that listener in the conversation.
The study shows the contemporary form of interaction on the air, and the
frame of reference mobilized. We see how radio professionals employ vari-
85 Hervé GLEVAREC
ous means to achieve the 'live' involvement of speakers, and in so doing
define, in a sense, the cultural -programme at France Culture.
86 ON AND OFF THE AIR AT FRANCE CULTURE
in opinion programmes,2 the transition
5 ON AND OFF has nevertheless to be provided; it is
programmed neither by the screening
device (the switchboard) nor by the THE AIR AT
intention of the speaker who is not the
initiator of his or her own talk but, as
the producers say, the guest. The fact of FRANCE
being on the air is materialized only by a
red light and sometimes by the sound in
the producer's earphones. As a result, CULTURE
the presence of a public must be estab
lished. Since going on the air is not forms Introducing of engagement the listener in and speech implicit in the switching on of the micro
phones, the producers have to charact
erize it for the participants invited to
talk. Establishing the state of being on
the air means introducing a public, but
it also means setting up a certain type of
participatory engagement. The ability to
generalize or depersonalize their stat
ements seems to present little difficulty Hervé GLEVAREC
for most people giving talks on France
Culture; on the contrary, the relevant
question is that of their presence in the
making of the statement.
'A producer gets people in from out
In order to analyse the establishment side to talk on the radio and he cre
and form of what could be called, with ates an atmosphere that makes them
reference to an action regime,3 a knowlfeel completely at home.'1
edge regime at France Culture, the first
part of this article strives to explain, by
With radio, being 'on the means of observations in situ and eth-
air' is defined by the nomethodological4 and socio-linguistic
transmission, by radio analyses, to identify the devices used for
waves, of sounds and shifting onto the air. We then formalize
words uttered into a microphone. In the the types of engagement between partic
France Culture studio the public broad ipants and the modes of introduction of
casting of speech is frequently deprived the third person, which characterize the
of the visual or verbal co-presence of an on-the-air regime. This analysis helps to
audience. Apart from a few public pr show that, from the conversational point
ogrammes on the station, the radiophonie of view, the radio can be defined as a
situation is a public one without a publ play on its own conditions of production.
ic. The public is physically and visually
absent and non-participant. Yet in situa In this sense France Culture is hardly
tions where an interview with a speciali unique, except that it allows for exten
st makes the question of introducing sive interaction with interlocutors who,
the public-listener less important than although they are often regular speakers
87 Hervé GLEVAREC
accustomed to radio debates, are pri is held at a medium distance. The func
tioning of the station is centred more marily university lecturers, researchers,
artists, and cultural or political officials around the relationship with the inter
who have no professional relationship viewee than with the listener. The basic
with the microphone. Rather, they are principle of a France Culture pr
familiar with public speaking in institu ogramme, as on other radios, is the trian
tional situations5 and are invited to talk gular relationship: a guest answers a
on the radio on a subject which con producer's questions for a listener. This
cerns their profession, their knowledge triangular relationship has not always
or their experience. existed. It first appeared with reports in
the thirties (e.g. on the Tour de France),
Our observations at France Culture con and replaced a binary relationship where
the announcer addressed the listeners cerned programmes recorded live or in
directly.8 The notion of radiophonie publthe studios6 of the Maison de la Radio in
icity will serve here to denote a public Paris. The situations observed involved a
producer and one or more participants. situation, on a triangular basis, without
Whereas at R.T.L., for example, the pol co-presence, where the speakers aim for
"a listener multiplied by x", as one direcicy is at all costs to avoid excluding the
listener from the interaction,7 and els tor put it. We shall nevertheless privilege
ewhere in interactive "formats" it can go the notion of listener(s) used by radio
as far as purposeful disregard vis-à-vis professionals, or that of a third-party
the caller, at France Culture the listener listener, over that of a public.
On and off the air
I'm present at a recording of Archipel Sciences, a scientific programme broadcast live
on Tuesday evenings. The programme is scheduled to start in two minutes' time.
The programme being broadcast at the moment can be heard softly in the studio.
The producer re-reads his introductory notes. Silence reigns among the partici
pants. Then he speaks to his guests:
P: 'A quick "good-evening" to start.'
The theme music of the programme starts and grows louder. Less than a minute
later the red light on the middle of the table, in the shape of a vertical tube, goes on.
One or two seconds later the producer greets the participants again:
P: 'Good-evening Françoise Y, Bertrand X.'
They return the greeting. He then asks one of the participants a question which she
answers...
First observation: the reminder of the evening', a light went on. In any case,
'presence' of the public does not seem nothing was said beforehand such as 'Be
inevitable and the introduction of the li careful: we're going on the air; we're
stener seems largely implicit both before going to do this or that. Here are some
and at the moment of going on the air. guidelines'. A radio broadcast thus
Music was played, the producer seems to defy any explanation of the
announced that he would say 'Good- modalities of its production. Although ON AND OFF THE AIR AT FRANCE CULTURE
this implicit dimension can be consid this is uncertain as to the modalities of
being on the air, but it simultaneously ered as taken for granted, it seems
avoids the risk of paralysing them. relevant to note that it probably plays a
Off-the-air is a time of preparation, of part in the establishment of a form of
'projection'. In some instances discussed engagement by the participants, and
below it may serve to qualify the listener. that intended by the producers. This
absence of explanation leaves the guests
Off the air
This time I'm present on a Friday morning at the recording of Lundi de l'Histoire.
This programme features an historian, the producer and the participants. It focuses
on a book, generally in the presence of its author. The producer is surrounded by
four guests whom I shall call А, В, С and D.
The producer: The first part will concern Gauthier. The second, the sect of the powe
rless. The Christian mutilation will seem strange to the listeners.' Then he carries
on talking about 'sterility and the threat of an apocalypse'.
A and D start talking and A immediately interrupts with:
- 'But aren't we going to do the debate?'
The producer seems to note something relating to what's just been said. Then he
declares:
- Til read the Bi