Talking American : cultural discourses on Donahue

Bibliographic Information

Talking American : cultural discourses on Donahue

Donal Carbaugh

(Communication and information science / edited by Brenda Dervin)

Ablex Pub. Corp., c1988

  • : hc
  • : pbk

Available at  / 12 libraries

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Note

Based on the author's doctoral dissertation, University of Washington

Bibliography: p. 189-199

Includes indexes

Description and Table of Contents

Description

This study explores cultural features in communication and examines language in use by studying the talk within a prominent cultural event, the DONAHUE show. First, the study provides a detailed reading of America today, showing the importance of the individual in American society, the prominence of choice, and the role of the self as an antagonist to traditional social roles and the institutions of society more generally. Similarly, the study explores common ways of speaking such as being honest about who one is, sharing one's thoughts and feelings, and really communicating with others. By unraveling how these words give shape to American means and meanings, the study demonstrates how routine communication creates powerful motives in contemporary American life. Second, the study provides a way of seeing and hearing ordinary communication as a resource to develop a cultural perspective on ordinary communicative action.

by "Nielsen BookData"

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