Search

In this article, we analyse mediated representations of elite and non-elite voices about climate change, by juxtaposing two Swedish non-fiction television series: one narrates the work of environmental scientists, the other discusses climate change with diverse citizens in a vox pop format. We argue that the discursive practices of these programmes reproduce the antagonistic subject positions of experts and ordinary people, allocating them radically different positions of power in relation to climate change. Whereas the experts are presented as actors of change with the knowledge to solve the crisis, ordinary people are shown as passive recipients of advice and moral judgment, in need of change. In addition, we highlight the role of media professionals in these articulations. The article shows how these subject positions support persuasionist strategies, but also how the elite/non-elite juxtaposition tends to exclude the latter from a meaningful engagement on equal terms.

The BBC radio feature, originally influenced by the documentary film movement, combined music and sound with speech that at first was scripted, later recorded on location, along with ‘actuality’. This paper will ask ‘whose speech?’ A memorandum from BBC Director General, John Reith, in 1924, had insisted that “only those who have a claim to be heard above their fellows on any particular subject… should be put on the programme”. Nevertheless, from the 1930s onwards, there was a continuing effort on the part of more politically-minded producers to extend the range of voices heard on the air. The BBC’s North Region, where it was easier to escape Reith’s centralising control, led the way. Pioneering initiatives used the cumbersome recording apparatus of the time to reach into people’s homes and work-places to capture working class voices. After WW2 this example was followed in other regions, until, belatedly in the late 1950s, the BBC began to accept the use of portable recording. By this time a Europe-wide culture of radio feature-making had developed, influenced by the French exploration of musique concrète and the flourishing German Hörspiel, and fostered by the Prix Italia and the International Features Workshop. British features producers contributed to this movement and won some success with highly-crafted, aesthetically innovative features. The paper concludes by examining examples of the voices heard in BBC radio features in the last decade of the 20th century. Une instruction écrite par le premier directeur-général de la BBC, John Reith, en 1924, souligna qu’on devrait entendre à la radio “seules ces personnes qui méritent d’être entendues davantage que leurs pairs, sur un sujet particulier”. Néanmoins, à partir des années 1930, on voit un effort continu de la part de producteurs plus politisés de faire entendre une gamme plus large de voix à l’antenne. Les producteurs de la “North Region”, éloignés du contrôle centralisateur de Reith, en furent les pionniers. Ils se mirent à utiliser les enregistreurs encombrants de l’époque afin d’entrer chez les gens et dans leurs lieux de travail, pour capter des voix de la classe ouvrière. Après la Deuxième guerre, d’autres régions firent de même.A cette époque on vit émerger une culture de production radio dans toute l’Europe influencée par la musique concrète en France et le Hörspiel en Allemagne. Les producteurs britanniques y contribuèrent. Dans cet article nous explorons des exemples de cette période, ainsi que d’autres de la fin du XXe siècle.

/

ABSTRACT • This article looks at the articulations of the subject position ‘ordinary people’ by analysing focus group discussions with audience members, and interviews with participants in a north Belgian audience discussion programme called Jan Publiek. In this talk show ordinary people are granted access to a prime-time, live television programme, in order to discuss one specific issue each broadcast. This feature positions Jan Publiek among what have been called ‘audience discussion programmes’ or ‘vox-pop’ programmes (in contrast to elite talk shows). The article focuses on the construction of the ordinary person as a complex and multi-layered subject position. We argue that this identity is relational, and positioned towards an alliance of power-blocs consisting of celebrities, experts, politicians and media professionals. Through this relational positioning, ordinary people become articulated in Jan Publiek as authentic, but also as unorganized, apolitical, powerless, unknown, spontaneous and unknowledgeable. Lefebvre’s distinction between the everyday and everydayness is then used to evaluate the political and emancipatory capacity of Jan Publiek and audience discussion programmes in general, which are sometimes criticized for their commodified and apolitical nature, but on other occasions valued for their democratic potential. •