The power of language use in the mass media: A case of opinion court on citizen television, Kenya

Abstract

The study sought to investigate how power relations are constructed and negotiated in the talk show. A programme aired on Citizen Television. The following objectives guided the study: to describe the structure of the talk show in the opinion court programme; examine patterns that emerge in the programme and account for the patterns observed in the opinion court.  Literature was reviewed on; talk show: opinion court, conversational Analysis and Language and power. The study was guided by the Sociology of Conversation Theory by Goffman (1967) and Conversational Analysis Theory. Purposive sampling method was used to select the television as opposed to radio, Citizen Television in particular and opinion court talk show programme, this was necessary because power and language interplay can best be examined when there are two opposing sides, and thus opinion court provided this forum. Data was collected through both direct viewings of the programme and audio-video recording of the conversation. The data were then transcribed, analyzed and described qualitatively aiming at establishing the structure and the patterns of the discourses. The findings of the study revealed that opinion court talk show had some structure and followed some patterns which could be accounted for. The study, therefore, concluded that the opinion court did not count because other smaller opinions emerged. This implies that power is won, held and lost in social struggles.