PRESENTING A POINT-OF-VIEW - CALLERS CONTRIBUTIONS TO TALKBACK RADIO IN AUSTRALIA

This paper examines publicly available forms of oral argumentation in the form of talkback radio events in which callers present a point of view on a particular issue. Argumentation is examined as a structured phenomenon whose structuring is evident in conversational activity and which is influenced in talkback radio by its institutional context. T he paper describes the complexes of speech acts used by callers to sub stantiate points of view and identifies the complexes of argumentation , complexes of evidence and complexes of concession, used by callers. The sequencing of these complexes of speech acts within the contributi on is then examined and the placing and function of host's challenges to points of view and their relationship to other components of the ca ller's contribution is discussed.