“Hi Father”, “Hi Mother”: A multimodal analysis of a significant, identity changing phone call mediated on TV

Abstract

The article investigates family making through adoption. The focus is on three types of institutionalities: a family(-to-be), an adoption agency, and TV media. The data analysed is a phone call from an adoption agency to a couple about a child-in-referral, which was broadcast in a Danish TV documentary on adoption. The clips from the edited phone call are treated as pseudo-ethnographic data. The identity construction of the future family members is analysed in relation to the use of embodied, material communicative resources. The encounter is an emotional one, and, therefore, the display of the experience of affect is a central theme. The article also deals with the media(ted) context in that it analyzes the work of media professionals and the status of documentary as data. The article introduces the concept of contextual configuration – an anthropology of practice – and the method of nexus analysis – an ethnographic research framework – both of which contribute to a nuanced understanding of social action in concrete circumstances. The analysis itself also borrows from recent theorising that aims at combining situated interaction analysis with, on the one hand, the participants’ past experiences and how they are sometimes subtly conveyed, and, on the other hand, larger societal issues.