Abstract
This study analyzes the agenda-setting done by anchors using topical management in the interactional aspect of the institutional speech event; the Political News Interview (henceforth Political talk-show). In the current scenario of 24/7 news, audiences turn to political talk-shows to understand the events of the day and judge the news. The discussion on topics in the political talk-shows is managed and developed by the anchor. This study carries out a discourse analysis of the recorded talk-shows for topical shifts and perspectival shifts to check if the topic is set and controlled by the anchor, by not allowing participants to bring any information to the discussion. The qualitative analysis of topical shifts reveals that the anchor keeps tight control over the topic set in the openings and using the technique of topical management the anchor keeps the agenda set through the development of perspectives and recycling of topics.
Key Words
Discourse Analysis, Discourse Access Profile, Topical management, Agenda Setting, Pakistani Political talk-shows, Topical shifts, Recycling of Topics
Introduction
Agenda Setting as Interaction
The topics represented in the openings of a political talk-show/interview assume the significance of topical macro structures that initiates the discussion which is then followed by an elaborate discussion on these same topics from diverse perspectives. This study analyzes this interactional aspect and checks it, for the specific power displayed by the anchor and explores how it relates to agenda setting done in the openings of the programs selected as sample for the study. The analysis carried out is guided by the following theoretical underpinnings that inform this analysis of topical management.
Topical Management
Topics, speaking generally are the matters or subjects under discussion in discourse or conversation. The notion of a topic is very difficult to put down theoretically it can be understood with the notion of “speaking topically” or “the speakers’ topic” within a topical framework (Brown and Yule, 1983). Coulthard (1986) views a topic to be a dynamic feature of a conversation that progresses with the flow of topics. In an everyday conversation, both participants equally control the flow of topics they are at liberty to develop previous topics or introduce newer ones. According to Brown and Yule (1983) in discourse analysis, a researcher has to intuitively decide about the notion of a topic for a chunk of talk, because in a conversation a speaker change does not signal a topic change as well. It follows then that a chunk of conversational discourse can be treated as a unit of some kind because it pertains to a particular ‘topic’.
Topic as a discourse unit has received much attention from linguists (Gundel, 1977, Halliday, 1994 and Lyons, 1995), discourse analysis (Van Dijk, 1977; Brown and Yule, 1983; Bublitzs, 1988 and Yule and Mathis, 1992), and conversational analysts (Schegloff and Sacks, 1973; Schegloff 1979). All these different research approaches have helped forward the understanding of how discourse, in general, is structured, yet with all this attention there is still no consensus about what constitutes a topic or at which level can a topic is studied. Linguists have focused on the notion of the topic at the clause level and identified it as a sentential subject. Keenan and Schieffelin (1976: 380) propose a better approach to the topic from the perspective of discourse as a proposition and not just a noun phrase. Their concept of the propositional topic is still a semantic notion and as yet has not broken the boundary of the sentence level (Brown and Yule, 1983). Yet another level at which discoursal topics have been looked at is as an underlying framework for a whole text (Van Dijk, 1977), much like a title of a story might function.
Agenda Setting and Discourse Access Profile of Anchor
In the news interview the topic is highlighted at the beginning by the anchor who announces it in the first segment of the program; the opening. After having introduced the topic of the program it is further developed, analyzed or elaborated by the different perspectives from which the anchor questions his guests and asks them to comment upon it. Sometimes the openings only contain the headlining of only one topic; however, it might be that the anchor sometimes headlines a couple of topics that might be taken up later on in the program. When more than one topic has been mentioned in the program opening the most important one is selected and formulated into a question by the anchor.
A news interview is a form of institutional discourse and as such, the anchorperson holds an institutional role, in that role he has the power to select the topic to be discussed. Van Dijk (1993) in his analysis of various modes of discourse access draws a parallelism between social power and discourse access. He proposes that for every group, position or institution a distinct ‘discourse access profile’ can be mapped out. It follows, that any position that entails the management of a discourse participation event such as a news interview would allow access to control over turn allocation, topic selection, important decisions and management of other consequential dimensions of this institutional talk. In keeping with the discourse access profile of the anchor he selects and manages the topics of the interview. This selection choice can be guided by many factors such as emergent news events, significance in relation to current affairs, or it could also be an editorial choice.
Thus, it is in the discourse access profile of the anchor to select a particular topic, develop it through various perspectives and shift this topic when he feels he wants to move to another topic the understanding of the selection process and the shift and negotiation of topical shifts have been developed by keeping the discourse access profile of the anchor as an institutional role in mind.
The reality of the process of how the selection and the choice of a topic are made can only be ascertained by having access to the production process that takes place behind the scenes. However, the setting of the agenda for the talk and then the progressive control of that topic and its progression can be charted out by carrying out an analysis that maps the setting of the topic and its progression, negotiation and recycling in the process of the program. Also, important insight can be gained into the comparison of topic choices across programs and channels to highlight what type of topics are chosen in relation to the events taking place, are they reflective of just presenting events taking place or are they news generative events? Topical development in a news interview takes place by analyzing it from many perspectives; therefore the topics considered important by the anchor would be analyzed from many different and varied perspectives and would be recycled during and across programs.
Method
The overarching objective of the current study is to explore the discursive power manifestations (Agenda Setting) present in the anchor discourse of Pakistani Political talk shows. The researcher collected data from PTV World. This English news channel is state-owned and comes within the public sector. PTV World provides news updates around the hour and in-depth political analysis to not only national audiences but also to the global audience. The program selected from PTV World is ‘The World Tonight’ (WT), it is aired during the week from Monday to Thursday. A snapshot of a week is taken as the data for this research.
The political talk shows are large chunks of data that cannot thematically be analyzed in one go; therefore, the researcher devised a framework whereby boundary elements; Openings, Closings and pseudo-openings and pseudo-closings, informed by the CA tradition could be analyzed in the first section of analysis for the representational aspect of power in setting the agenda, while the interactional aspect of power was analyzed in the next section of analysis. This framework can be graphically visualized as given in the diagram below:
Figure 1
Analytical framework developed for the analysis of Political Talk-Show
Figure 2
Agenda Setting through Interactional Discourse
The division of analysis on the level of representation and interaction gave rise to different types of analyses that were carried out to get the answers to the questions posed. The three interactional aspects of a dialogic news interview are:
The analysis was carried out to see how often the anchor uses his role related power to control the talk through topical management of the topic under discussion.
The process of selection for this analysis was justified and the detail about it is given below with examples. The selection of what the topic of the talk was and what was meant by perspective; the researcher had to read the transcription and make choices as to what the topic was. In most cases, for example, the analysis of the topics in the main openings it was most clearly mentioned what the participants and anchors would be talking about for example:
[1] 23rd June 2014 WT
IR: …today the subject that we are talking about is the operation Zarb e Azb…
The above example is a clear topic selection by the anchor of what the topic of the talk was going to be it was going to be ‘the Operation ZA (OZA)’, yet at the point of formulation of the first question, the anchor selected an aspect related to this topic an asked a question related to the topic but not directly the topic itself this kind of questioning from a certain aspect has been called a ‘perspective’ in the context of this study. An example of perspective is given below from the same program as above:
[2] 23rd June 2014 WT
IR:… in your opinion a what do u think that the role of the media has been in projecting the operation …
So the discussion is on the topic of OZA yet it is from the perspective of the ‘role of media’, then when the anchor felt he had covered the role of media in projecting the OZA enough he would change that aspect or angle yet still be asking about OZA just from a different aspect, that would be considered a shift in the aspect or perspective and would be counted as such. Sometimes, this shift of a perspective would emerge from the answer that the participant gave and the anchor would use and forward it as a legitimate aspect to be covered and this was counted as perspective shift initiated by the other. The following is an example of this kind of aspect shift.
[3] 23rd June 2014 WT
IE: <G1.1.1> but what kind of support and strength are signaled or messaged are you sending to the armed forces when an all these there is internal squabbling the I feel that
IR: <A1.1.1> Sir we’ll raise that question, in fact, we’ll take that question to Owais Tauheed sahib who is joining us on the line he’s a senior analyst Owais Tauheed sahib a very interesting question has been raised by one of our guests in the studio major general Naeem sahib sir what kind of a message are we sending to our armed forces when we have a circus being created on the streets of Lahore and Islamabad and a Rawalpindi what is your opinion of that sir.
In the above example 3 it can be seen that the guest is giving his opinion on the previous aspect the anchor has proposed and in answering it he reached a conclusion ‘what kind of a message are we sending to our armed forces’ so this is then a perspective shift where the topic is still OZA, we have not started talking about the political issues or the IDPs issue we are still talking about the operation, yet we are not trying to answer the aspect that what kind of a message is being sent to the armed forces involved in the operation. As the above shift in perspective of ‘role of media’ to the ‘message being sent to forces’ is a perspective shift brought on by a guest hence the ‘other’ initiated shift.
All the above examples are taken from the same program to give a coherent idea about the selection process and also the choice is made from the set of data to clarify the selection process. This is not to say that there were not areas where the idea of topic or perspective was blurred and the researcher had to make intuitive choices as to what is being talked about and from which perspective. The following analysis is developed from this selection process to see what kind of control and setting of agenda is carried out by the anchors of the programs.
Result and Discussion
Agenda Setting
as Interaction: Topic Management
In the CA tradition, the
topic is initiated in the opening segment of the news interview and its
progress can be traced across the type of questions asked on it from different
perspectives. The anchor/presenter, as the initiator and manager of the talk,
is at liberty to make a topic shift and initiate a different topic. Sometimes
this topic shift is initiated by a guest while commenting upon a previous
topic. The anchor, in this case, has the authority to accept this topic change
and allow it by asking a question upon it from the same guest or another guest
or he can contest it and dis-allow it by opposing it and not forwarding it by
asking a question upon it. Some topics which are considered really important
and significant keep getting recycled by the anchor again and again in the
program. The topic shifts and the initiators of this shift should lend an
understanding into the kind of control the anchor has in deciding to shift the
topic to a new one or recycle a previous one or to allow negotiation from a
participant guest. Therefore a mapping of the topical shifts has been done to
show the patterns and types of topical shifts made. Also, the topics of the
main openings are analyzed to see if they reflect any insight into how agendas
are set for the talk.
Topics
Initiated in Main Openings of WT
The main openings of
political news interviews are functionally an important point in the program as
they set the agenda for the talk, establish important background information,
introduce the guests and formulate the first question. In all these functions,
an important stage is to introduce the topic in the headline segment of the
opening. The topic as taken in a broader thematic sense proposed by Van Dijk
(1977) can provide a cohesive framework for the whole talk. In this sense, such
a discoursal topic functions like the title of a story. In this segment, a
meta-textual analysis of the topics as announced in the main openings is
carried out. Table 1 gives the range of the main topics as analyzed in the main
corpus:
Table 1. Topics Initiated in the
Main Openings
prog |
Topic 1 |
Topic 2 |
Topic 3 |
Topic 4 |
P1.1. |
Operation
Zarb e Azb (OZA) |
- |
- |
- |
P2.2 |
Operation
Zarb e Azb (OZA) |
efforts
for the IDPs |
ban on television
channels |
- |
P3.2 |
political parties and
their agenda |
Impact on IDPs
|
the operation OZA
|
Qadri Sahab is talking
about a revolution |
P4.1 |
operation
Zarb E Azb (OZA) |
Crisis
of IDPs
|
maneuvers
made to harm democracy |
- |
The above
table shows that as far as the main topics of the political news interviews are
concerned there seems a topical consensus across the programs. The above 11
topics highlighted in the main openings can be categorized under five broad
topic heads. The above table 1 of main openings shows that there are a total of
five main events considered important enough to include in the openings of
programs of the main corpus, the list and their percentages are given in table
2:
Table 2: List of Topic heads and
Percentages
Topic Heads |
Percentages |
Crisis of IDPs |
25% |
Operation Zarb e Azb (OZA) |
37.5% |
Dr. Tahir ul Qadri |
12.5% |
Political parties and their agenda |
12.5% |
Media/ PEMRA |
12.5% |
From this
table we can say that the most important topic as highlighted in the main
openings is the Operation Zarb e Azb as it accounts for 37.5% of the main
openings, the second-highest percentage of the topic set in the main openings
is the Crisis of the IDPs as it accounted for the main openings 25%. We can say
that this depiction of the main openings though important as far as setting the
agenda of the talk is concerned only shows half the picture, these topics
re-appear as recycled topics across the news interviews and are initiated
mainly by the anchor and we can say to some extent conclusively that the
anchors set the agenda and control the topic throughout the program. Table 1
highlights the topics mentioned in the headline by the anchor and as can be
seen from the table, sometimes more than one topic is being highlighted by the
anchor. Only one topic can be carried forward by the anchor as the topic for
local discussion and this involves a further selection of one topic from the
ones mentioned which are used to formulate the first question of the show. The
analysis of the selection process and first question shows that for program
P2.2 out of the three topics OZA gets to be forwarded as the first topic to be
formulated into a discussion question, for P2.3 it is the political parties and
their agenda that is selected first and gets formulated into a question. This
selection is in keeping with the percentages that we have got from the analysis
of the main openings and the topics headlined in them.
Topical Range
and Initiation Pattern in WT
The above section shows
the topics highlighted in the opening, in the course of the program these
topics are discussed by guest practitioners (politicians) and commentators
(analysts) from varying perspectives. During these discussions, a particular
topic from a certain perspective (aspect) is exhausted or new topics emerge
from the talk ensuing, in such a situation the anchor generally initiates a
shift from the previous topic to a new topic. A range of topics was covered in
the programs making up the main corpus. This range is achieved by different
types of shifts in topics, this pattern of shifts and initiation is captured in
the quantitative pattern of this table is presented below in table 3 to give an
idea of how many times topic shifts occurred, it also shows the initiation
pattern as to who was this shift initiated by, finally it gives us the total
number of perspectives that were used to develop these topics and also again
who was the initiator of these perspectives. The idea of the topic head is like
the title of a story that gives thematic structure to a story, similarly, a
topic head would be the main title topic for example ‘The IDP crisis’, the
subsequent questions or comments initiating an answer on that aspect for the
topic head are considered to be perspectives. When the anchor feels that a
particular aspect of the topic has been covered he puts forward a different
aspect in his next question or comment, this shift is generally signaled by an
affirmative discourse marker such as ‘right’. Sometimes the discourse marker
used at the beginning of a perspective shift can be ‘but’, which is not a
signal of disagreement generally the anchor has found a comparative point from
the discussion or would like to add a comment to the answer given by the
participant.
Table 3. Topic shifts and Initiation
Pattern
|
Total no. of
Topic Shifts |
Presenter
Initiated topic shifts |
Other
Initiated topic shifts |
Perspectives
in the main turn introducing the topic shift |
Perspective shifts |
Presenter
Initiated perspective shifts |
Other
Initiated perspective
shifts |
Total |
37 |
30 |
7 |
30 |
69 |
63 |
6 |
Table 3 gives
a clear indication that the topic shifts are controlled and initiated by the
anchor. Topic shifts are negotiated by the guests only 19% of the time while
the anchors' initiation of topic shift occurs 83% through the course of the
discussion. The development of these topics is done by elaborating about them
from different perspectives the development of these 37 topics across the 3
programs was achieved through 69 different perspectives out of these
perspectives only 6 times the perspective was initiated by the guest and 63
times by the anchor, giving us a ratio of 9% is to 91%. The above table clearly
shows that even though the guests are called to the programs as expert analysts
or practitioners of politics still their voice is not seen in the initiation of
a topic perspective or a shift.
The above
pattern is translated into a range of topic and it is analyzed how the shift
takes place is it a new topic that is introduced or a previous topic thought
important enough to be recycled by the anchor. There are instances of topic
negotiations by the guests where they introduce a shift in the topic in their
turn and that is allowed or disallowed by the anchor. A topic shift if allowed
by the anchor will be forwarded by the anchor by a perspective shift. There is
only one instance of the anchor dis-allowing a topic negotiation and it
resulted in a disagreement between the anchor and the political guest. Table 4
shows the range of topics covered in these programs and can also show in which
significant way are these initial topics headlined in the main openings
developed or held on to in the course of the program.
Table 4. Range of Topics and type of appearance
and reappearance in the show
Topics |
Appearance in Main
Openings |
Appearing as fresh topic
shifts |
Negotiated topics
initiated by guests and allowed by anchor |
Recycled topics brought
in again |
Negotiated topics
initiated by guests dis-allowed by anchor |
Operation ZA |
3 |
- |
- |
3 |
- |
The IDP
issue |
2 |
1 |
- |
10 |
1 |
Tahir ul
Qadri and his demands |
1 |
2 |
- |
2 |
- |
Media’s Role |
- |
2 |
- |
1 |
- |
Fascination
with Messiah |
- |
- |
1 |
- |
- |
Ban on TV
channels/PEMRA |
1 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Constitution
of Pakistan |
- |
1 |
- |
- |
- |
Role of private
sector |
- |
1 |
- |
- |
- |
Pakistan
Gov. presence in Waziristan |
- |
- |
1 |
- |
- |
Lahore
Incident |
|
1 |
|
|
- |
Political
parties and their agendas |
1 |
1 |
|
|
- |
Strategic
debt |
|
1 |
|
|
- |
Political
agenda of PTI |
|
1 |
|
2 |
- |
Presence of
PM |
- |
- |
1 |
1 |
- |
Future Plans |
- |
1 |
- |
- |
- |
News Reporting |
- |
- |
1 |
- |
- |
Terrorist
group and their resources |
- |
- |
1 |
- |
- |
Annexation
of FATA |
- |
1 |
- |
- |
- |
Political
manoeuvres to harm democracy |
1 |
- |
- |
1 |
- |
Media
coverage of OZA |
- |
- |
1 |
- |
- |
The above
table 4 does show that the topical agenda set in the opening segment of the
political talk-show gets to be the main topic throughout the show as the anchor
regularly recycles it back into the discussion done by the guests. On the other
hand, the topics brought in by the guests the negotiated topics are not
recycled or followed up by the anchor. Most of the topics brought in and
recycled in the above table can fall under the main topics highlighted in table
1 with just the addition of two additional head topics. For the purpose of
checking the topics from the main corpus, this grouping is done to get a
percentage idea about the main area the topics pertaining to. This collapsed
topic range under topic heads can be seen in table 5
Table 5. Collapsed topic range
Topics |
Appearing in the main
opening |
As fresh topic shifts |
Negotiated topic shifts |
Recycled topics |
Negotiated topics
disallowed |
Total topics under topic
head |
Percentage % |
The
Operation ZA |
3 |
- |
- |
3 |
- |
6 |
13% |
The IDP
crisis |
2 |
1 |
- |
10 |
1 |
14 |
33% |
Tahir ul
Qadri |
1 |
2 |
- |
2 |
- |
5 |
12% |
Media’s Role |
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
- |
5 |
12% |
Political parties
and issues |
2 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
- |
7 |
16% |
Government
issues |
- |
3 |
3 |
- |
- |
6 |
13% |
Table 5 while reaffirming
the previous claim of the topics headlined in the main openings as setting the
agenda of the talk, also points to another interesting insight that the other
important issues not highlighted in the main openings are brought in as fresh
topical shifts and get some representation in the programs. The negotiated
topic shifts offer some space for the bringing in of topics not raised by the
anchorperson in the course of the program, yet the anchors still have the
control of allowing these topics to become legitimate topics. Above table 4.11
shows that the political parties and political issues are an important
part of the events taking place every day get captured in fresh topics
introduced by the anchors and sometimes by the guests too they are not
introduced as main topics in the main openings.
Topic Progression in WT
The previous segments have
highlighted the topics that are present and kept reappearing in the program.
These topics are not discussed directly they are maintained over a period of
time in the discussion by the anchor presenting the questions pertaining from
different perspectives to the guests. Therefore, topic progression can be seen
by the development of it across many perspectives.
The topic
progression across each program has been mapped out to see what kind of insight
towards topic management can be seen across the individual programs as a whole.
Table 6. Topic Progression across
Programmes Programme P1.1
Topics |
No. of perspective
through which they are developed |
Presenter initiated
perspective |
Other initiated
perspective |
Operation ZA |
3 |
2 |
1 |
IDP crisis |
7 |
7 |
- |
Tahir ul Qadri |
2 |
2 |
- |
Role of
Media |
4 |
4 |
- |
Fascination
with messiah |
1 |
- |
1 |
Program P2.2
Topics |
No. of perspective
through which they are developed |
Presenter initiated |
Other initiated
perspective |
Operation ZA |
4 |
3 |
1 |
IDP crisis |
9 |
5 |
4 |
Tahir ul
Qadri |
2 |
2 |
- |
Gov. presence
in Waziristan |
5 |
4 |
1 |
Role of
media |
5 |
5 |
- |
Constitution
of Pakistan |
1 |
1 |
- |
Lahore
incident |
2 |
2 |
- |
Role of the private
sector |
1 |
1 |
- |
Program P3.2
Topics |
No. of perspective
through which they are developed |
Presenter initiated |
Other initiated perspective |
Political parties
agenda |
1 |
1 |
- |
Strategic debt |
4 |
4 |
- |
Political agenda of PTI |
8 |
8 |
- |
IDP crisis |
10 |
9 |
1 |
Tahir ul Qadri |
2 |
2 |
- |
Where is the PM |
1 |
1 |
- |
Future plans |
1 |
1 |
- |
News Reporting |
2 |
1 |
1 |
Terrorist and their
resources |
2 |
2 |
- |
Annexation of FATA |
1 |
1 |
- |
Program
P4.1
Topics |
No. of perspective
through which they are developed |
Presenter initiated |
Other initiated
perspective |
Operation ZA |
8 |
- |
- |
IDP crisis |
2 |
- |
- |
Political will |
2 |
2 |
- |
PTI political agenda |
5 |
5 |
- |
Political maneuvering |
4 |
- |
- |
The first
insight that we can gather from the above development and progression of the
topics is concerned to the aspect of controlling the topical agenda setting,
the topics are largely managed by the anchor who clearly seems to be the one in
position to make the topical and perspective shifts significantly more often
than the participant guests politicians and analyst. Out of the above
perspectives, only 6 perspectives are given by the guests while 63 perspective
shifts were made by the anchor/presenter. In terms of percentages, we would get
a percentage of all most 91% perspectives from the anchor and only 9% by the
guest participants. It is interesting that these guest participants have such a
low input towards the perspectives, considering they are invited to speak upon
a topic as analyst and expert practitioners of the political field or political
party. The strongest voice then is that of the anchorperson who seems to do the
major development of the topic that he himself has suggested.
The above
mapping of topic progression suggests that the topics that are developed across
the most number of perspectives are the ones that have the prime focus of the
anchor as he invests a lot in developing them. The charted programs in the
above tables for the political talk show ‘The World Tonight’ (WT) shows a more
balanced focus across topics of importance and topics of less significance to
the channel. It can be observed that the most progressed and developed topics
are that of ‘The Operation ZA’ and the ‘IDP crisis’ in third place by the ‘Role
of Media’, finally, in a considerably lesser degree by the emergent event of
the particular days i.e. Tahir Ul Qadri’s
(TUQ) return and the subsequent issues. If we were to contrast the emergent
event of the day and its development we see that on the 23rd of June
2014, the day that TUQ arrived back in Pakistan and it led to a media event, is
developed across only 2 shifts in the program of WT aired on 23rd,
June 2014. As an emergent media event that took place on that day, it would
have had a little more representation in the talk show, yet it was not even
developed in subsequent shows of WT. In this manner, we can see a selection
process that either highlights or downplays a topic. This agenda-setting aspect
of the interactional power of anchor becomes clear from the above discussion
and examples. It also suggests that the political talk shows can overplay
topics they want to highlight and underplay the topics they do not want to
become significant to the masses.
Topical
Recycling in Main English Data
While charting the
topical development it was noticed that topics get recycled during the course
of a program and it seems to be a convenient way for bringing the discussion
back to the topic that the anchor wants the focus to remain upon. Keeping this
reasoning in mind table 4.12 below shows the most recycled topics and their
percentages to see if we can relate them to the topics proposed in the main
openings.
Table 7. The pattern of Topic Recycling
Topics |
Number to
times recycled |
Percentages |
Operation ZA |
4 |
18% |
The IDP
issue |
11 |
50% |
Tahir ul
Qadri and his demands |
3 |
14% |
Political
agenda of PTI |
2 |
9% |
Media’s Role |
2 |
9% |
The above
figures for topic recycling display the hierarchy or the exact same topics that
were found to be highlighted in the main openings of the talk shows of the main
corpora. A comparative chart is developed from the percentages in table 2
appearing as blue bars and those in table 6 represented in red bars.
Figure 3
Recycling of topics in WT
The recycling process consolidated the setting of agenda by the anchors and they seem to recycle the same topics as highlighted in the main openings of the talk shows.
Conclusion
This analysis has been carried out to understand how the anchor keeps the topic on point while interacting with the participants. The above discussion and analysis reflect that the anchor keeps the control of the topic even after they have represented it in the main openings. Another finding of the analysis is that the topics highlighted in the main openings get developed through a lot of perspective shifts. Finally, the topics that are considered most important get represented in the main openings and then they are the ones that get recycled most by the anchor during the course of the programs.
The analysis shows how the anchor sets the agenda even in the interactional part of the political talk-show by using topical management to restrict the participant guest politicians to keep to the topic brought in by the anchor. These aspects of topics suggest a tight control over the topical agenda set in the openings which are kept on point by using all the techniques the anchor has of keeping the topic set through the development of perspectives and the recycling.
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- Halliday, M. A. K., (1994). Introduction to functional grammar. London: Arnold
- Lyons, J. (1995). Linguistic semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- Van Dijk, T. (1977). Text and context. London: Longman
- Van Dijk, T. (1993). Principles of Critical Discourse Analysis. Discourse and Society. 4(2): 249-28
- Schegloff, E.A. &H. Sacks, (1973). Opening up closings. Semiotica8(4),289-327
- Yule, G. and Mathis, T. (1992). The role of staging and constructed dialogue in establishingspeaker's topic. Linguistics,30,199-215
- Shegloff, E. A. (1979) TheRelevance of Repair to Syntax-for-Conversation in Discourse and Syntax. Syntax and Semantics 12: 261-286
- Keenan, E. &Schieffelin, B. (1976). Topic as discourse notion: A study of topic in theconversation of children and adults. In Subject and topicLi, C.N. (ed). 335-384. New York: Academic Press
Cite this article
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APA : khan, S. A., & Qadir, S. A. (2019). Topical Management: Agenda Setting Strategy in Pakistani Political Talk-Shows. Global Regional Review, IV(II), 290-300. https://doi.org/10.31703/grr.2019(IV-II).31
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CHICAGO : khan, Saira Asghar, and Saima Amin Qadir. 2019. "Topical Management: Agenda Setting Strategy in Pakistani Political Talk-Shows." Global Regional Review, IV (II): 290-300 doi: 10.31703/grr.2019(IV-II).31
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HARVARD : KHAN, S. A. & QADIR, S. A. 2019. Topical Management: Agenda Setting Strategy in Pakistani Political Talk-Shows. Global Regional Review, IV, 290-300.
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MHRA : khan, Saira Asghar, and Saima Amin Qadir. 2019. "Topical Management: Agenda Setting Strategy in Pakistani Political Talk-Shows." Global Regional Review, IV: 290-300
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MLA : khan, Saira Asghar, and Saima Amin Qadir. "Topical Management: Agenda Setting Strategy in Pakistani Political Talk-Shows." Global Regional Review, IV.II (2019): 290-300 Print.
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OXFORD : khan, Saira Asghar and Qadir, Saima Amin (2019), "Topical Management: Agenda Setting Strategy in Pakistani Political Talk-Shows", Global Regional Review, IV (II), 290-300
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TURABIAN : khan, Saira Asghar, and Saima Amin Qadir. "Topical Management: Agenda Setting Strategy in Pakistani Political Talk-Shows." Global Regional Review IV, no. II (2019): 290-300. https://doi.org/10.31703/grr.2019(IV-II).31