A rapport and impression management approach to public figures' performance of talk

This article draws on an extensive corpus of broadcast material to examine the performed aspects of a media personality's talk-the host of a long-standing audience participation debate in the United Kingdom. The context of interaction in which this host engages in rapport and impression management work plays a crucial role in the analysis. It is a context that resembles some of the patterns of ordinary conversation but that is first and foremost oriented towards an overhearing audience, and hence, performed. The analysis reveals that the host of this audience participation debate regularly performs four principal self-constructions, or roles, which I label the fair moderator, the one of us, the therapist and the social engineer. These roles are interwoven with each other and with the show's underlying communication ethos, termed emotional DIY (for 'Do It Yourself'). The analysis also reveals that, unlike many other public figures, he draws mainly on his media personality status when performing these roles. This finding thus challenges the reported pervasiveness of the re-valorization of the discourse of lay experience, at least in the case of some public figures.