Interaction and identity in radio: A popular radio show from Belo Horizonte

Abstract

This article focuses on telephone conversations between addressees and radio announcers. The main aim of this work is to describe and analyse the discursive strategies interactants adopt in the co-construction of social identities at a popular radio show broadcast in Belo Horizonte (“Mistureba” – a Radio Favela program). This consists of a microanalysis work of discourse in the field of Interactional Sociolinguistics (Gumperz 1982, Tannen, 1984, 1989, Schiffrin, 1996). Data were obtained from recordings on audio tapes, transcribed, accounting for a total of 171 interactions or three hundred transcribed pages. The analysis shows that the social identities of addressees and radio announcers are built on a demonstration of social affiliation that is revealed, especially in the way they address each other, which claims inclusion in the group and lexical choices that reflect the use of a distinctive dialect. This work also made it possible to understand the ethos of Brazilian radio interactions which are defined in essence as a place of social “interaction” – in the words of Da Matta (1979), the “horror of distance” and the desire for closeness.

Key words: language, identity, interaction, radio.