TURN TAKING IN TUESDAY LIVE AND CONVERSATIONS TALK SHOWS OF THE NIGERIAN TELEVISION AUTHORITY (NTA)

Abstract

This study examines the use of turn taking in television talk shows aired by the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA). The study strove to discover the underlying norms and practices that make interaction the orderly thing that it is. It sought to discover how participants understand and respond to one another in their turns at talk. The theory of conversational analysis as propounded by Harvey Sacks in collaboration with Emmanuel A Schegloff and Gail Jefferson was adopted for this research. Using the purposive/judgmental sampling technique, two programmes aired by the NTA were selected. The programmes include: Tuesday Live and Conversations. The simple random sampling technique was used to select one episode from each of the programmes. The hosts and the participants in these episodes constitute the population of the study. The study therefore concludes that some NTA talk show programmes are not well structured and organized and the rule of turn taking is not adequately applied in some of the shows.