Broadcast Talk: Initiating Calls Through a Computer-Mediated Technology

Abstract

In this article we examine the use of radio, long-serving communications technology. We consider how personnel who operate a rapid urban transport system use radio to identify and manage problems that inevitably arise in the operation of the service. We examine how participants organize their talk with regard to the idiosyncrasies of the system, and how the technology is configured in and through their interaction. The article interweaves 2 rather different traditions of research on language use and social interaction: on the one hand the studies of institutional talk and its interactional characteristics, and on the other hand the growing corpus of research commonly known as workplace studies.