Family norms negotiation: discourse analysis of a Russian talk show

Abstract

The study examines identity and ideology construction in family discourse in Pust’ Govoriat top-rated Russian tabloid talk show. Previous research mostly focused on family discourse in workplaces and natural family environments. While research on family discourse in media talk has also yielded a number of valuable publications, however, there is little research on family identities and ideologies presented on-air from the critical discourse analytic perspective. By blending theories and methods of narrative analysis, membership categorisation analysis, stance-taking approach, critical discourse analysis (CDA) together the corpus-based instruments, the study examines interactional patterns and linguistic behaviour of the talk show participants to understand how they construct themselves and others as family members. This allows me to answer the question, how talk show participants negotiate family roles, norms, and values within the tabloid talk show genre. As identity and values are inseparable from ideology, I analyse to what extent the discourse displayed in Pust’ Govoriat shapes and is shaped by the Russian government’s family policies. The analysis shows that the family discourse constructed throughout the tabloid talk show interactions is both socially constitutive and socially conditioned. The used framework allows advocating that domesticated Russian tabloid talk show format, as an integral part of the federal First Channel, is utilised as a tool to promote traditional family values, patriarchal gender roles, and to broadcast state ideology on such issues as same-sex and civil marriage, abortions, maternity capital, and child adoption. The sociolinguistic analysis of tabloid talk show interactions makes a mediated family discourse a major part of the country’s cultural matrix both influencing and dependent on socio-political processes.