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Richard Fitzgerald
  • Dept of Communication
    University of Macau
    Macau (SAR)
    China

Richard Fitzgerald

University of Macau, Dept of Communication, Faculty Member
Recent Publications
On algorithmic time and daily contingencies in the lived work of food delivery service (2024) Luyao Xiao, Richard Fitzgerald, Todd Sandel, Younhee Kim, Raquel Abi-Sâmara, Ricardo Moutinho. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)more
by Richard Fitzgerald, Raquel Abi-Sâmara, and Luyao Xiao
This study takes a praxiological perspective (drawing on ethnomethodology, conversation analysis and membership categorization analysis) to examine the working practices of food delivery service workers in China. The analysis explicates... more
This study takes a praxiological perspective (drawing on ethnomethodology, conversation analysis and membership categorization analysis) to examine the working practices of food delivery service workers in China. The analysis explicates how delivery drivers deal with daily algorithm-generated information and contingencies through the production and mobilization of tacitly assumed conventions to maintain their flow of work. In other words, while the logic of the algorithm-generated information is a phenomenon exhibited in the app's delivery itinerary, actual delivery work is a reality on its own, not just a surrogate of a company's administrative designs. Three intertwined phenomena are identified: (1) coordinating pick up and deliveries involves a high degree of practical interactional work; (2) the job is practice oriented around routine contingencies of time, travel, and waiting, and (3), the job is collaborative and organized through a moral order that involves the mobilization of resources which operate alongside, but separate from the technology. The study shows how a detailed analysis of the lived work of couriers provides a powerful tool to highlight and examine what is often hidden (and lost) in studies of food delivery service.
DOI: 10.1007/s10606-024-09500-2
Publication Date: 2024
Publication Name: Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)
Research Interests:
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Occasioned Semantics and Membership Categorisation Analysis: Fields of Meaning, Categorial Consistency and Omni-Relevance. Kim and Fitzgerald. (2024) Journal of Pragmatics. Free access https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1ixqE1L-nhXOv~more
by Richard Fitzgerald
Bilmes's (2011, 2022) work in the last decade of his career was primarily concerned with the approach he developed and called Occasioned Semantics, which he defines as "the study of structures of meaningful expressions in actual occasions... more
Bilmes's (2011, 2022) work in the last decade of his career was primarily concerned with the approach he developed and called Occasioned Semantics, which he defines as "the study of structures of meaningful expressions in actual occasions of conversation" (Bilmes 2011: 129). Bilmes (2011) based OS on Sacks' (1995) membership categorisation work together with components of taxonomical and componential analysis derived from ethno-semantics. While the approach was primarily aimed at the field of Semantics Bilmes regarded his approach as developing upon Sacks' original category work and subsequent developments under the heading of Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA) (Hester and Eglin 1997, Bilmes 2021). In particular, Bilmes argued that OS offered a way to situate categorial inferencing within 'occasioned fields of meaning' within which categorial definitions and descriptions evolve through a taxonomic branching texture providing both an immediate and evolving context of members category work as the interaction unfolds. In this paper we explore the potentially fruitful intersection between the two approaches by drawing together 'fields of meaning' and 'omni-relevance' (Sacks 1992) to explore how members display an orientation to gestalt contextures within which members category work shifts and evolves as the interaction unfolds. Our aim is to examine how the two approaches can be drawn upon to mutually elaborate how categorial consistency is organised within a topical field of meaning that in turn operates within an ongoing, unfolding and contingent interactional context of who-we-are-and-what-weare-doing (Butler 2008, Authors 2009).
DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2024.03.017
Publication Date: 2024
Publication Name: Journal of Pragmatics
Research Interests:
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Drafting A Simplest Systematics for the Organization of Turn-Taking for Conversation (2024) Fitzgerald, R. Human Studies. Reading Access at https://rdcu.be/dzOEzmore
by Richard Fitzgerald
Drawing on drafts and other material from the Harvey Sacks archive this paper examines the development of one of the defining papers of Conversation Analysis, A Simplest Systematics for the Organization of Turn-Taking for Conversation... more
Drawing on drafts and other material from the Harvey Sacks archive this paper examines the development of one of the defining papers of Conversation Analysis, A Simplest Systematics for the Organization of Turn-Taking for Conversation (Sacks, Schegloff and Jefferson 1974). The discussion examines four drafts of the paper along with correspondence between the authors and with William Bright the editor of the journal Language where it was published. The four drafts trace the development of the paper from a 13-page draft to the final 106-page final draft submitted to the journal. By exploring the drafts as they evolved the discussion highlights the development of the central ideas in the paper, the distinctive style of the paper as it is revised, the changes of authorship, and the role of the editor of Language, William Bright, in helping to shape the paper through his own detailed reviews.
DOI: 10.1007/s10746-023-09700-7
Publication Date: 2024
Publication Name: Human Studies
Research Interests:
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Multimodal and interactive subtitling in Chinese social media: The case of danmu-mediated subtitling and interaction on Bilibili. Xiaoping WU, Richard Fitzgerald. In Multimodality in Translation Studies.(2024). Eds. Li Pan, Xaioping Wu, Tian Luo and Hong Qian. Routledgemore
by Richard Fitzgerald
This chapter examines danmu subtitling as a form of multimodal and interactive subtitling afforded by danmu commenting technology, a "live" commenting technology that allows its users to post comments on the screen of the video in a range... more
This chapter examines danmu subtitling as a form of multimodal and interactive subtitling afforded by danmu commenting technology, a "live" commenting technology that allows its users to post comments on the screen of the video in a range of colors and fonts in either moving or static modes. It adopts concepts and methods from digital conversation analysis and multimodal discourse analysis to examine the interaction among danmu users revolving around translation issues arising in watching and understanding "raw meat", a term that refers to untranslated videos on Bilibili. The data consist of over eight thousand danmu subtitles and comments posted on the screen of three English "raw meat" uploaded to Bilibili. The analysis examines how wild subtitlers and the audience engaged in different forms of interactional exchanges and maintained coherence on the visually chaotic interface by mobilizing the technological and multi-semiotic resources of the platform in understanding and translating raw 2 videos. This study contributes to the growing research of subtitling and translation in digital space characterized by multimodality and interactivity. It also provides methodological implications for examining emerging forms of subtitling and interaction in Chinese social media.
DOI: 10.4324/9781032650975
Publication Date: 2024
Publication Name: Multimodality in Translation Studies. Media, Models and Trends in China. (2024). Eds. Li Pan, Xaioping Wu, Tian Luo and Hong Qian. Routledge
Research Interests:
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Internet memes and the mobilization of a "One-China" cyber nationalist campaign: The case of the 2016 Diba Expedition to Taiwan. (2023) Xiaoping Wu, Richard Fitzgerald.more
by Richard Fitzgerald and Xiaoping Wu
This study examines the 2016 Diba Expedition to Facebook, a mass collective organized campaign directed at independence leaning Taiwanese individuals and institutions, as an example of cyber nationalism through a highly organized meme war... more
This study examines the 2016 Diba Expedition to Facebook, a mass collective organized campaign directed at independence leaning Taiwanese individuals and institutions, as an example of cyber nationalism through a highly organized meme war between users from the pro-unification Chinese Mainland and pro-independence Taiwan users on Facebook. Drawing upon a social semiotic multimodal discourse analysis of the nationalist campaign, this study examines the ways Chinese users mobilize multimodal elements of political propaganda and popular culture in the mobilization and preparation of the campaign as well as the playful memetic interaction between the two camps in the battlefield. The analysis and discussion underscore the playful and carnivalesque ecology of Chinese social media that users deployed in the 2016 expedition while also demonstrating the dilemma of undertaking a Chinese nationalism campaign beyond the Great Firewall, where those based in the Mainland needed to overcome the state's regulations of online security to defend the motherland. This study contributes to the growing research on cyber nationalism in China and adds a further dimension to the study of Chinese social media.
DOI: 10.1080/10350330.2023.2183113
Publication Date: 2023
Publication Name: Social Semiotics
Research Interests:
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Books
Sage Handbook of Digital Society. (2023). William Housley, Adam Edwards, Roser Benito-Montagut and Richard Fitzgerald. Sage. ISBN: 9781526498779more
by Richard Fitzgerald
This SAGE Handbook brings together cutting edge social scientific research and theoretical insight into the emerging contours of digital society. Chapters explore the relationship between digitisation, social organisation and social... more
This SAGE Handbook brings together cutting edge social scientific research and theoretical insight into the emerging contours of digital society. Chapters explore the relationship between digitisation, social organisation and social transformation at both the macro and micro level, making this a valuable resource for postgraduate students and academics conducting research across the social sciences.

The topics covered are impressively far-ranging and timely, including machine learning, social media, surveillance, misinformation, digital labour, and beyond. This innovative Handbook perfectly captures the state of the art of a field which is rapidly gaining cross-disciplinary interest and global importance, and establishes a thematic framework for future teaching and research.

Part 1: Theorising Digital Societies

Part 2: Researching Digital Societies

Part 3: Sociotechnical Systems and Disruptive Technologies in Action

Part 4: Digital Society and New Social Dilemmas

Part 5: Governance and Regulation

Part 6: Digital Futures

Chapter 1: The Emerging Contours of Digital Society: Remastering, Reconsideration, Reorientation and New Socio-Digital Domains. William Housley, Adam Edwards, Roser Benito-Montagut and Richard Fitzgerald

Massimo Ragnedda and Glenn W. Muschert Chapter 2: Digital stratification: Class, status group, and party in the age of the Internet

Michael R. McGuire Chapter 3: Crime, Control, and the Ambiguous Gifts of Digital Technology

Robin Smith Chapter 4: Digital Mobilities and Digital Society

Maria José Brites and Rita Figueiras Chapter 5: Disconnection and Digital Society: Perspectives on how Citizens Deal with Media Technology 

PART 2: Researching Digital Societies

Rob Procter Chapter 6: Developing Tools and Interdisciplinary Collaboration for Digital Social Research

Malcolm Williams, Charlotte Brookfield, Luke Sloan Chapter 7: Quantitative Research Methods Teaching in a Digital Age

Dennis Leeftink and Daniel Angus Chapter 8: The Research Stack: A Framework for Data-Driven Humanities and Social Science

Alexia Maddox Chapter 9: Ethnography and Digital Society

Harry T Dyer and Crystal Abidin Chapter 10: Understanding Identity and Platform Cultures

Gemma San Cornelio Chapter 11: Instagram Aesthetics for Social Change: A Narrative Approach to Visual Activism on Instagram

Joanne Meredith Chapter 12: Researching Digital Discourse and Interaction

Phillip Brooker and Michael Mair Chapter 13: Researching Algorithms and Artificial Intelligence 

PART 3: Sociotechnical Systems and Disruptive Technologies in Action

Axel Bruns Chapter 14: Social Media Analytics: Boom and Bust?

Larissa Hjorth and Ingrid Richardson Chapter 15: Games and Mediated Playful Practices

Shuaishuai Wang Chapter 16: Algorithmic Configurations of Sexuality: Theoretical Foundations and Methodological Approaches

Mike Coliandris Chapter 17: Drones as Disruptive Sociotechnical Systems: A Case Study of Drone Crime and Control

Andrés Domínguez Hernández Chapter 18: The Internet of Things and New Frontiers of Datafication 

PART 4: Digital Society and New Social Dilemmas

Pamela M. Hong and Fabio G. Rojas Chapter 19: Digital Racism

Charlotte Nau Chapter 20: Social Media, Gender and Online Discrimination

Emma Bond Chapter 21: Online Safeguarding of Adults with an Intellectual Disability: How do we Ensure that Participation and Protection Rights are Adequately Met in Digital Society?

Gwyneth Peaty, Jordan Alice and Katie Ellis Chapter 22: Clickbait in the Commodification of Sympathy: Disability, Inspiration Porn and the Possibilities for New Narratives

Sharon Meraz Chapter 23: Political Communication in the Digital Age 

PART 5: Governance and Regulation

Rik Peeters and Marc Schuilenburg Chapter 24: Algorithmic Governance: Technology, Knowledge, and Power

Martin Innes, David Rogers, Nora Jansen and Viorica Budu Chapter 25: Digital (Dis)information Operations and Misinformation Campaigns

Michael Levi Chapter 26: Frauds in Digital Society

Philip Inglesant, Helena Webb, Carolyn Ten Holter, Menisha Patel, Marina Jirotka Chapter 27: The Responsible Innovation of Disruptive Technologies

Ben Williamson Chapter 28: Governing through Infrastructural Control: Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Computing in the Data-Intensive State

Adam Edwards, William Housley, Roser Beneito-Montagut and Richard Fitzgerald Chapter 29: Freedom of Speech and Online Harm in Liberal Democracies: a Triadic Concept 

PART 6: Digital Futures

Phillip Brown, Manuel Souto-Otero and Sahara Sadik Chapter 30: Digital Transformation and the Future of Work

Stuart Reeves and Martin Porcheron Chapter 31: Conversational AI: Respecifying Participation as Regulation

Neil Selwyn Chapter 32: Critical Data Futures Steve Fuller Chapter 33: Mediating the Message in Digital Society
Publication Date: 2023
Research Interests:
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On Sacks. Methodology, Materials, and Inspirations. (2021) (Eds) Robin Smith, Richard Fitzgerald, William Housley. Routledgemore
by Richard Fitzgerald
This book is devoted to the reintroduction of the remarkable approach to sociological inquiry developed by Harvey Sacks. Sacks’s original analyses – concerned with the lived detail of action and language-in-interaction, discoverable in... more
This book is devoted to the reintroduction of the remarkable approach to sociological inquiry developed by Harvey Sacks. Sacks’s original analyses – concerned with the lived detail of action and language-in-interaction, discoverable in members’ actual activities – demonstrated a means of doing sociology that had previously seemed impossible. In so doing, Sacks provided for highly technical, detailed, yet stunningly simple solutions to some of the most trenchant troubles for the social sciences relating to language, culture, meaning, knowledge, action, and social organisation. In this original collection, scholars working in a range of different fields, including sociology, human geography, communication and media studies, social psychology, and linguistics, outline the ways in which their work has been inspired, influenced, and shaped by Sacks’s approach, as well as how their current research is taking Sacks’s legacy forward in new directions. As such, the collection is intended to provide both an introduction to, and critical exploration of, the work of Harvey Sacks and its continued relevance for the analysis of contemporary society.

Table of Contents
1. On Sacks: Methodology, Materials, and Inspirations

Robin James Smith, Richard Fitzgerald, William Housley

2. Discovering Sacks

Rod Watson

3. Action, Meaning and Understanding: Seeing Sociologically with Harvey Sacks

Michael Mair and Wes Sharrock

4. Sacks’ Plenum: The Inscription of Social Orders

Andrew P. Carlin

5. From Ethnosemantics to Occasioned Semantics: The Transformative Influence of Harvey Sacks

Jack Bilmes

6. Sacks, Categories, Language, and Gender

Elizabeth Stokoe, Bogdana Huma, Derek Edwards

7. A Most Remarkable Fact, for All Intents and Purposes: The Practical Matter of Categorical Truths

Jessica Robles

8. Sacks: On Omni-relevance and the Layered Texture of Interaction

Richard Fitzgerald

9. Membership Categorization and the Sequential Multimodal Organisation of Action: Walking, Perceiving, and Talking in Material-spatial Ecologies

Lorenza Mondada

10. Revisiting Sacks’s Work on Greetings: the "First Position" for Greetings

Christian Licoppe

11. Sacks, Silence, and Self-(de)selection

Eliot M. Hoey

12. Using Observation as a Basis for Theorising: Children’s Interaction and Social Order

Susan Danby

13. Membership Categorisation and the Notion of "Omni-relevance" in Everyday Family Interactions

Sara Keel

14. Sacks and the Study of the Local Organisation of Second Language Lessons

Ricardo Moutinho

15. Categorisation Practices, Place, and Perception: Doing Incongruities and the Commonplace Scene as ‘Assembled Activity’

Robin James Smith

16. On Sacks and the Analysis of Racial Categories-in-Action

Kevin A. Whitehead

17. Harvey Sacks, Membership Categorisation, and Social Media

William Housley
DOI: 10.4324/9780429024849
Publication Date: 2021
Publication Name: On Sacks. Methodology, Materials, and Inspirations.
Research Interests:
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Discours des réseaux sociaux : enjeux publics, politiques et médiatiques (2017) Burger, Thornborrow and Fitzgerald. (Des) Deboeck Supérieur.more
by Richard Fitzgerald
How do we interact in and with social networks? How do they affect politics and journalism? How do we build a space and an interactive space? How do users of digital platforms define themselves as members of a community? Through ten... more
How do we interact in and with social networks? How do they affect politics and journalism? How do we build a space and an interactive space? How do users of digital platforms define themselves as members of a community?

Through ten contributions the authors explore the discourse of digital communication and offer an innovative look at the hybrid and multimodal forms of speech of social networks. This volume includes contributions in both French and English through qualitatively and quantitatively studies from Canada, UK, France, Italy and Switzerland and sits at the intersection of several interests:

• Describing the communication work and affordances of social networks.

• Highlighting the importance of combined methodological approaches in the study of the discourse of social networks.

• Examining issues of identity within and between digital communication and citizenship.

• Examining evolving policies in relation to the responsibility of the media in the digital age.

This book is particularly intended for researchers and teachers of digital humanities and communication sciences through a reflection on the issues of new media and citizenship.
Research Interests:
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Advances in Membership Categorisation Analysis. Richard Fitzgerald and William Housley. (Eds) (2015) Sagemore
by Richard Fitzgerald
This is an exciting addition to the dynamic, multidisciplinary field of membership categorization analysis. Bringing together the biggest names in MCA this landmark publication provides a contemporary analysis of the field and a platform... more
This is an exciting addition to the dynamic, multidisciplinary field of membership categorization analysis. Bringing together the biggest names in MCA this landmark publication provides a contemporary analysis of the field and a platform for emerging researchers and students to build upon.

The book sets out the current methodological developments of MCA highlighting its analytic strength – particularly when examining social identity and social knowledge. It provides a sophisticated tool of qualitative analysis and draws from a wide range of empirical studies provided by global scholars.

The culmination of years of international research this agenda-setting text will be essential reading for academics and advanced students using membership categorization across the social sciences; particularly in media and communication studies, sociology, psychology, education, political science and linguistics.


Contents.

Chapter 1: Introduction to Membership Categorization Analysis. William Housley and Richard Fitzgerald

Chapter 2: De Reifiying Categories. Rod Watson

Chapter 3: Prospective and Retrospective Categorization: Category proffers and inferences in social interaction and rolling news media. Elizabeth Stokoe and Frederick Attenborough

Chapter 4: Categorization Work in the Courtroom: The ‘foundational’ character of membership categorization analysis. Christian Licoppe

Chapter 5: Challenging Normativity: re-appraising category, bound, tied and predicated features. Edward Reynolds and Richard Fitzgerald

Chapter 6: Omnirelevance in Technologized Interaction: Couples coping with video calling distortions.. Sean Rintel

Chapter 7: Membership Categorization and Methodological Reasoning in Research Team Interaction. William Housley and Robin Smith.

"MCA provides an orientation, set of questions, and identification of discrete discourse devices to aid understanding of the moral work  being accomplished by speakers’ and writers’ as they  select  category terms and tie them to descriptions.  Fitzgerald and Housley’s Advances in Membership Categorization Analysis brings together cutting edge theoretical explication with fascinating examples ( YouTube posts, intimates video chatting, a review board assessing parole, a research team meeting, online breaking news updates)  and is a must-read for anyone interested in identities and interaction."

Karen Tracy
Professor and Chair. Department of Communication,

"A state of the art collection which is essential reading for anyone interested in social identity and social order."

David Silverman
Goldsmiths' and King's College, London, and University of Technology, Sydney

"Membership categories are central to the organization of culture.  They set up inferential relations between classes of people, they implicate actions and thoughts, and they mark moral statuses.  Membership categorization analysis develops the tradition of work started by Harvey Sacks and shows that the issues he explored are still urgent and significant.  In this volume an A-list of contributors provide state of the art analyses that illustrate the ongoing vitality of membership categorization analysis.  It is essential reading for anyone interested in this topic."

Jonathan Potter
Professor of Discourse Analysis, Loughborough University

"Richard Fitzgerald and William Housley are to be congratulated for further developing the field. In taking up such questions as the ethnomethodology of categorization (a masterful discussion by Rod Watson), the omni-relevance of categories, the precise nature of the connections between categories and predicates, the temporal reference of category usage, the relationship of categorization to “doing being ordinary” and the place of categorization in the “social life of methods,” the contributors truly bear out the promise expressed in the title of advancing membership categorization analysis."

Peter Eglin
Wilfrid Laurier University
Research Interests:
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Introduction_to_Membership_Categorisatio.pdf
Discourse_Studies-2016-Leeman-760-2.pdf
Screenshot_2018-12-29_at_13.03.33.pdf
_Multilingua__Richard_Fitzgerald_and_William_Housley__Advances_in_membership_categorisation_analysis.pdf
Pragmatics_Reviews_Advances_in_MCA.pdf
Media, Policy and Interaction. Fitzgerald and Housley. (Eds) (2009) Ashgatemore
by Richard Fitzgerald
Situated within the field of discourse-oriented approaches to policy and media, this collection explores the interface between government, media and the public, highlighting the increasing importance placed on media channelled 'public... more
Situated within the field of discourse-oriented approaches to policy and media, this collection explores the interface between government, media and the public, highlighting the increasing importance placed on media channelled 'public opinion' as part of a democratic process.

The authors use a variety of discourse analytic methods including CA/MCA, Discourse Analysis and Interactionism, to provide discussions around the social organization of policy debate in media sites including news interviews, public access broadcasts, broadcast debates, panel discussions, mediated government initiatives, newspapers and news broadcasts. The book's geographical coverage spans the USA, Canada, the UK, Europe, Asia and Australia.

This volume offers a major contribution to discourse analysis and its emphasis on policy substance will appeal to a broad audience in social and public policy, political communication, journalism and politics.

Contents

1. Media, Policy and Interaction: Introduction.
Richard Fitzgerald and William Housley
2. Membership Category Work in Policy Debate.
William Housley and Richard Fitzgerald
3. Configuring a television debate: Categorisation,
questions and answers.
Alain Bovet
4. Asserting Interpretive Frames of Political Events:
Panel Discussions on Television News.
Emo Gotsbachner
5. Staging Public Discussion: Mobilizing Political
Community in Closing Discussion Programmes.
Hanna Rautajoki
6. Doing public policy’ in the Political News Interview
Johanna Rendle-Short
7. Press Scrums: Some Preliminary Observations.
Patrick Watson and Christian Greiffenhagen
8. Styling for hegemony: The West as an enemy (and
the ideal) in Belarusian television news.
Marián Sloboda
9. Scandal and Dialogical Network: What does morality
have do to politics. About the Islamic headscarf within
the Egyptian parliament
Baudouin Dupret, Enrique Klaus, Jean-Noël Ferrié
10. Moving teachers: Public texts and institutional
power
Susan Bridges and Brendan Bartlett
11. Newspapers on education policy: constructing an
authoritative public voice on education
Sue Thomas"
More Info: Published by Ashgate 2009.
Research Interests:
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Screenshot_2018-12-29_at_13.00.06.pdf
1_Introduction_Media_policy_interaction.pdf
Method in Media Interaction. The ethnomethodological analysis of a radio phone in. (1999). Unpublished PhD.more
by Richard Fitzgerald
"Abstract The aim of this research is to examine the lived work of a radio broadcast. Within this two main aims are undertaken: the first methodological the second analytic. The methodological discussion takes the form of a critical... more
"Abstract


The aim of this research is to examine the lived work of a radio broadcast. Within this two main aims are undertaken: the first methodological the second analytic. The methodological discussion takes the form of a critical examination of conversation analysis and membership categorisation analysis as separate methods for analysing members interaction. It is argued that, rather than any one method being applied to the exclusion of others, the analysis of members’ methods should be able to demonstrate a sensitivity to the mutually elaborative combination of methods drawn upon and used as a resource by members in situ. A methodological approach which combines an appreciation of various participant methods is then advanced and used in an initial examination of a radio phone-in. This initial examination of the data is then developed upon in the second section. Here, calls are examined in more detail documenting a variety of categorial and sequential resources, both routine and specialised, used and relied upon by participants when offering their opinions and debating a topic. From this it is suggested that, rather than these methods being seen as a modification of mundane methods, the methods used can be seen as common resources drawn upon to make this situation what it is."
More Info: A link to a pdf of my 1999 Phd looking at radio talk through MCA
Research Interests:
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Journal Special Issues
Chinese social media: Technology culture and creativity. (2022) Fitzgerald, Sandel and Wu. Discourse, Context & Mediamore
by Richard Fitzgerald and Todd L Sandel
The aim of this article collection is to examine Chinese social media technology and culture as a distinctive form of mediated communication and practice. The Internet and social media have grown and become an essential part of the... more
The aim of this article collection is to examine Chinese social media technology and culture as a distinctive form of mediated communication and practice. The Internet and social media have grown and become an essential part of the society and economy in China in ways that are increasingly dissimilar from that of the social media platforms outside of China. From the early roll out of the Internet, to the now pervasive presence of social media, Chinese Internet culture continues to reflect the unique interplay of technological changes, language affordances (i.e. Chinese as a character-based script), software development, user- generated interactional practices, and government censorship. Social media platforms and practices provide a rich, yet surprisingly under-explored source for the analysis of new and innovative practices within the distinct context of communication technologies and platforms for nearly one billion users. The papers in this article collection contribute further to examining how the technologies and technological affordan-ces of Chinese social media interact to afford distinctive discursive and linguistic practices across a range of interactional contexts.
DOI: 10.1016/j.dcm.2022.100610
Publication Date: 2022
Publication Name: Discourse, Context & Media
Research Interests:
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Journal of Pragmatics. Membership Categorisation Analysis. Technologies of social action. (2017) Fitzgerald, Housley, Rintel. JoP Special Issue on MCA. Volume 18. 51-55.more
by Richard Fitzgerald
The origin of this special issue was a panel organised at the International Institute of Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis (IIEMCA) on Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA), held at Kolding in Denmark in 2015. The panel, in... more
The origin of this special issue was a panel organised at the International Institute of Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis (IIEMCA) on Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA), held at Kolding in Denmark in 2015. The panel, in memory of Stephen Hester who died in 2014, brought together a number of researchers to discuss the current state of the field and present new directions in research in MCA. Building on the pioneering work of Harvey Sacks and the later work of Hester and others the special issue highlights the contemporary development of MCA as a rigorous
empirical approach to the study of situated identity within the flow of social interaction. The papers, placed at the intersection between pragmatics and sociology in examining multiple sequentially organised layers of category work, examine the organisation of social knowledge and knowledge entitlement, of moral ordering and the deployment of social norms, but also new and emergent areas of interest around spatial and embodied social action within the frame of technology and technologies of interaction.
The interface between technology and talk has always been understood as a multi-faceted relation. Technology in the guise of portable tape recorders was pivotal in the development of conversation analysis and the study of talk while the increasingly ubiquitous recording devices and the explosion in communicative practices and media in the digital age has generated new domains for the study of talk-in-interaction and new ways for recording and approaching these practices as ‘data’. At the same time, although not an uncontroversial analogy, talk and interaction can be understood to exhibit
technological characteristics; a ubiquitous methodological apparatus through which social life is both organised and accomplished. The ethnomethodological paradigm, including CA and MCA, as a ‘primitive natural science’ (Sacks, 1995; Lynch and Bogen, 1994), embraced both naturalism and technical descriptions in order to render visible the highly
organised and granular features of this shared ‘technological’ apparatus.
Research Interests:
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Discourse, Context, Media. (2016). 11. (1-2). Editorial. Media Talk. Jacqui Ewart, Kate Ames, Richard Fitzgerald.more
by Richard Fitzgerald
The idea for this special themed edition of Discourse, Context & Media grew out of a symposium that was co-hosted and co-funded by Griffith University’s School of Humanities and CQUniversity in April 2014. The symposium was prompted by an... more
The idea for this special themed edition of Discourse, Context & Media grew out of a symposium that was co-hosted and co-funded by Griffith University’s School of Humanities and CQUniversity in April 2014.
The symposium was prompted by an earlier workshop we held in 2012, which focused on the theme of disaster talk. After the 2012 symposium we felt that we had more work to do on the theme of media talk and hence the seeds for the 2014 symposium with its theme of media talk, were planted.
The media talk symposium, held in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, featured the three internationally recognised ‘fore- fathers’ of broadcast media talk, Paddy Scannell, Andrew Tolson and Martin Montgomery. It was great to have three distinguished leaders in the media talk field together in Brisbane.
We were joined by scholars from a variety of disciplines, with the common link being that we were all researching discursive aspects of talk that occurs in and through various forms of media, including broadcast, print, online and social media. Participants presented their works in progress at the two-day event. The symposium was designed so that presenters received extensive feedback on their works in progress and the collegiality and gen- erosity of the participants and presenters was much appreciated.
A number of common threads emerged from the symposium, including news media talk and so we invited those participants whose papers fitted that theme to submit their papers for con- sideration for this special themed edition of Discourse, Context & Media.
Research Interests:
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Australian Journal of Communication. (2013). 40 (2). Editorial. Knowledge And Asymmetries In Action: Sean Rintel, Edward Reynolds, Richard Fitzgerald. more
by Richard Fitzgerald
This special issue brings together research from the 2012 Conference of the Australasian Institute of Ethnomethodology (EM) and Conversation Analysis (CA) (AIEMCA). The theme of the conference was the analysis of knowledge and... more
This special issue brings together research from the 2012 Conference of the Australasian Institute of Ethnomethodology (EM) and Conversation Analysis (CA) (AIEMCA). The theme of the conference was the analysis of knowledge and asymmetrical organisation in interactions—in other words, the business of who knows what, and who has the rights and responsibilities to know things .
More Info: Edited by: Sean Rintel, Edward Reynolds, and Richard Fitzgerald. The issue is offered online with free open access. Also several papers include embedded video or audio of interaction, linked to transcripts.
Publication Name: Australian Journal of Communication. Vol 40, No 2 (2013) http://austjourcomm.org/index.php/ajc
Research Interests:
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Journal of Comparative Research in Anthropology and Sociology (2013) Special issue: Motives and Social Organisation. (on line open access)more
by Richard Fitzgerald
Papers in the Special Issue. Alan Blum / Motive, desire, drive: the discourse of force. Kieran Bonner / Reason giving, city icons and the culture of cities: data from a radical interpretive perspective. Roxana Bratu / Vocabularies... more
Papers in the Special Issue.

Alan Blum / Motive, desire, drive: the discourse of force.
Kieran Bonner / Reason giving, city icons and the culture of cities: data from a radical interpretive perspective.
Roxana Bratu / Vocabularies of happiness.
Miriam Cihodariu and Lucian-Ştefan Dumitrescu / The motives and rationalizations of the European right-wing discourse on immigrants. Shifts in multiculturalism?.
Jennifer Doyle and Rose Melville / Good caring and vocabularies of motive among foster carers.
Oltion Kadaifçiu / Vocabularies of motives in the education of deaf students. 
Alina Petra Marinescu-Nenciu / The rhetoric of a former corporate job. How people construct their working experience in conversation
More Info: http://compaso.eu/archive/issue-2-2013-motives-in-social-organization/
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Australian Journal of Communication. (2009). 36 (3). Introduction. Branching out. Ethnomethodological approaches to communication. Carly W Butler, Richard Fitzgerald and Rod Gardner.more
by Richard Fitzgerald
This special issue developed out of the 6th Australasian Symposium on Conversation Analysis and Membership Categorisation Analysis (CAMCA) held in Brisbane, Australia in November 2008. Conversation analysis (CA) and membership... more
This special issue developed out of the 6th Australasian Symposium on Conversation Analysis and Membership Categorisation Analysis (CAMCA) held in Brisbane, Australia in November 2008. Conversation analysis (CA) and membership categorisation analysis (MCA) are approaches that fall under the rubric of ethnomethodology (EM) in that they explore the methods and practices people use to produce and make sense of the social world.
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Papers. MCA/EM/CA
Multi-layered Gestalt in Real-time Interaction Re-specifying Gurwitsch's Law of Good Gestalt to Explicate the Projective Grammar of Actions. (2022) Au-Yeung, Fitzgerald. Special Issue of Philosophia Scientiae. (Open Access)more
by Richard Fitzgerald and Au-Yeung S . H . Terry
In his PhD proposal, now published as Seeing Sociological, Garfinkel [2006] formulated action in terms of a mutually constitutive structure—the Noesis-Noema Structures. This structure can be traced to Aaron Gurwitsch’s gestalt psychology... more
In his PhD proposal, now published as Seeing Sociological, Garfinkel [2006] formulated action in terms of a mutually constitutive structure—the Noesis-Noema Structures. This structure can be traced to Aaron Gurwitsch’s gestalt psychology and Law of Good Gestalt which theorises how participants prioritise functional Gestalts over other possible meanings of what is perceivable in their surroundings. While Gurwitsch illustrated his theory using images, in this paper we revisit Gurwitsch’s theory in light of the advances in recording real-time interaction to consider Gestalt in spatio-temporality of real-time interaction. We consider the Law of Good Gestalt in terms of the dimensions of time and space, and postulate two analytical principles—the Principle of Good Momentary Gestalt and the Principle of Good Temporal Gestalt—for analysing a multi-angle video segment of a monologue taken from a training event. The analysis examines how the monologue was embedded in a multi-layer projection structure, so that during the time of the monologue, the trainer and trainees can be seen as achieving a transition between one activity to another while sustaining the frame of the training event. Through this, the analysis highlights the multi-layered structure of participants’ field of perception that constitutes their experience of the social activity, and explores a “method” to reconstruct such a structured field of perception through re-coupling meanings to the assemblages of multimodal resources recoverable on video.
DOI: 10.4000/philosophiascientiae.3674
Publication Date: 2022
Publication Name: Philosophia Scientiae
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Time structures in ethnomethodological and conversation analysis studies of practical activity. Terry S.H. Au-Yeung, Richard Fitzgerald. (2022) Sociological Review. Open Accessmore
by Richard Fitzgerald
Time is regarded as the immanent dimension for the social experience. This phenomenologically informed perspective of time is built into the ethnomethodological programme jointly proposed by Garfinkel and Sacks as they set out to uncover... more
Time is regarded as the immanent dimension for the social experience. This phenomenologically informed perspective of time is built into the ethnomethodological programme jointly proposed by Garfinkel and Sacks as they set out to uncover social orders through examining the temporal sequence in practical activity. However, Garfinkel and Sacks took different paths from this initial proposal in their separate development of Ethnomethodological Studies of Work and Conversation Analysis. Focusing on different forms of data, the two programmes adopted different approaches to time and action in constructing the time structures in their sociological description of activity. However, the difference has seldom been subjected to discussion and much less attempt to explore a possible synthesis of the two programmes from there. This article attempts to address this gap by proposing a perspective of multi-layered temporality in social interaction. The analysis examines three extracts from a university communication workshop for students and explicates different modes of how simultaneous sequences can constitute participants' action in situ: (1) simultaneous sequences by different actors; (2) simultaneous sequences by the same actor; (3) simultaneous sequences within a participatory framework. Contending the social actors' phenomenological potential to perceive simultaneous sequences in different time frames, we conclude that the 'situational time' in EM and 'conversational time' in CA can be commensurable. Interweaving different layers of temporality into an ethnomethodological description, practitioners can better reconstruct a 'reasonable total picture' of social activity to manifest its complex, seen-but-unnoticed endogenous social order. Beyond ethnomethodology, the multi-layered perspective of time provides the basis for a holistic approach to time, allowing the enquiry of broader social time through studying social life in vivo.
DOI: 10.1177/00380261221103018
Publication Date: 2022
Publication Name: Sociological Review
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Populating 'solidarity' in political debate. Interrelational strategies of persuasion within the European Parliament in the aftermath of Brexit. (2022) Journal of Language and Politics. Hanna Rautajoki and Richard Fitzgerald.more
by Richard Fitzgerald
The article examines the various ways in which 'solidarity' is invoked and signified through narrative and categorial devices in a political debate following the UK's vote to leave the EU in 2016. Analysing a floor debate in the European... more
The article examines the various ways in which 'solidarity' is invoked and signified through narrative and categorial devices in a political debate following the UK's vote to leave the EU in 2016. Analysing a floor debate in the European Parliament concerning a white paper released by the European Commission on the future of the EU held in March 2017, we investigate how politicians deploy references to 'solidarity' in service of different political agendas. Our research highlights the strategic use of 'core' values in political debate through the way different speakers appeal to 'solidarity' as a selfevident positive value within the EU, but which is then mobilised through different relevant actors and scenarios to argue contrastive political positions. Our analysis demonstrates how narrative positioning and categorybound normative expectations are harnessed to serve the aims of political persuasion by "populating" a shared principle of governance with purposeful sets of identities and interrelations.
DOI: 10.1075/jlp.21023.rau
Publication Date: 2022
Publication Name: Journal of Language and Politics.
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CHAPTER 1, On Sacks: Methodology, Materials, and Inspirations. (2021) Smith, Fitzgerald, Housley. Introduction, Front Matter and References.more
by Richard Fitzgerald
This book is devoted to the re-introduction of the remarkably original approach to sociological inquiry developed by Harvey Sacks. We intend the volume as an incitement to experts to return to the original lectures of Sacks with fresh... more
This book is devoted to the re-introduction of the remarkably original approach to sociological inquiry developed by Harvey Sacks. We intend the volume as an incitement to experts to return to the original lectures of Sacks with fresh eyes, and a provocation for those unfamiliar to read Sacks for the first time. Sacks’ remarkable analyses offer a means of doing sociology that provides for highly technical, detailed, and yet stunningly simple solutions to some of the most trenchant troubles for the social sciences relating to language, culture, meaning, knowledge, action, and social organisation. The influence of Sacks’ work has not been widespread: something we aim to address with this collection. Yet certain areas of sociology, human geography, communication and media studies, psychology, and linguistics have been re-oriented to the sorts of analyses that are possible by starting with the lived detail of action and language-in-interaction; details that are discoverable, rather than contrived or modelled in and through social scientific theory, as they are actually produced, used, and accomplished by members engaged in actual activities. In this collection, scholars working in a range of different fields and with ranging interests, outline the ways in which their work has been inspired and influenced shaped by Sacks’ approach, and how their current research is taking those insights forward in new directions. As such, it provides both an introduction to, and an exploration of, the work and influence of Harvey Sacks.
DOI: 10.43249780429024849.
Publication Date: 2021
Publication Name: On Sacks. Methodology, Materials and Inspirations
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Chapter 8 Fitzgerald. Chapter 8. Fitzgerald. Sacks Omni-relevance and the layered texture of interaction. In On Sacks: Methodology, Materials, and Inspirations. (2021) Smith, Fitzgerald, Housley.more
by Richard Fitzgerald
In a series of lectures during spring 1966, Sacks examines an introduction sequence from a group therapy session where a new member is introduced (Sacks 1995, pp. 268–312). The lectures follow on from Sacks’s analysis of the beginning of... more
In a series of lectures during spring 1966, Sacks examines an introduction sequence from a group therapy session where a new member is introduced (Sacks 1995, pp. 268–312). The lectures follow on from Sacks’s analysis of the beginning of a child’s story, ‘The baby cried. The mommy picked it up’ (Sacks 1995, pp. 236–259), where he first introduces the main elements of his membership categorisation apparatus (see Housley, this volume), before then introducing a section of transcript from a group therapy session and switching to examine how category and sequential work are mutually entwined. Over the course of these lectures, Sacks builds up a multilayered analysis starting from examining the introduction sequence as a sequential action before combining this with membership category work in order to demonstrate how the sequential action and category work are mutually entwined and made relevant to the overall context of the therapy session. In this chapter, I trace Sacks’s analysis over the course of the lectures to high- light the way that Sacks artfully demonstrates the analysis of sequence and category work as mutually entwined. Moreover, the discussion also emphasises the import ance of examining the way Sacks develops his analysis over the course of the lectures, highlighting an approach to reading the lectures as a series of interrelated analyses that build on each other.
Publication Date: 2021
Publication Name: On Sacks: Methodology, Materials, and Inspirations. (2021) Smith, Fitzgerald, Housley.
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A Stranger in a Foreign Land: Identity Transition in Blogs about Transnational Relocation. (2020) Linda Walz and Richard Fitzgerald. Discourse, Context & Media (Volume 36, Article 100413)more
by Linda Walz and Richard Fitzgerald
Moving to a different country has become an established part of a globalised economy, and such transnational movement has engendered a rich genre of writing describing this phenomenon. The internet has provided a new means of making sense... more
Moving to a different country has become an established part of a globalised economy, and such transnational movement has engendered a rich genre of writing describing this phenomenon. The internet has provided a new means of making sense of this experience through 'expatriate' blogging. In these blogs the experience of dislocation and relocation, of moving from the taken for granted to uncertainty, is described from the position of being an 'expat', a 'non-local', or a 'stranger' (Schuetz 1944). Relocation provides a point of reflection as once familiar routines are questioned and initially unfamiliar ones are becoming more established. Whilst this transition is often experienced as a personal one, in the genre of expatriate blogging individuals relate their experience through personal and public self-reflection. Afforded by the chronological nature of these blogs, individuals draw on time as a resource to document their transition, highlighting an evolving identity. In this paper we use Membership Categorisation Analysis to examine expatriate blogging as a discursive practice, and we explore analytically how to approach social identity as fluid and evolving where transnational relocation is framed as categorial transition.
DOI: 10.1016/j.dcm.2020.100413
Publication Date: 2020
Publication Name: Discourse, Context & Media
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The Work to Make an Experiment Work (2020) Carol Ting and Richard Fitzgerald. International Journal of Social Research Methodology. Vol. 23, no 3, 329-345more
by Richard Fitzgerald
Contrary to its typical presentation in scientific publications as a certain and linear process, in reality the experimental method, not least the design aspect of it, requires a great deal of trial-and-error and ad hoc decision-making on... more
Contrary to its typical presentation in scientific publications as a certain and linear process, in reality the experimental method, not least the design aspect of it, requires a great deal of trial-and-error and ad hoc decision-making on the part of the researchers. This uncertain and contingent aspect of research, although little known outside of the circle of experts, has important implications for our understanding of the nature of science and scientific findings. This paper offers a backstage perspective to experiment design, where the uncertain and contingent nature of experimental research is at its starkest. It draws on insights from the sociological perspective of ethnomethodology through the auto-ethnographic first-hand experience of one of the author's own social psychology experiment (Ting, 2018). Based on detailed lab notes and planning documents on how and why design changes were made, the analysis focuses on the evolution of the experiment design, particularly the researcher's in situ practical reasoning for how to make the experiment work. From this we show how ethno-methods shape experiment results and highlight the inseparability of social science experimentation from in situ practical reasoning Keywords: behavioral experiment, lab ethnography, ethnomethodology, social life of methods 2
DOI: 10.1080/13645579.2019.1694621
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Membership Categorisation Analysis. (2019) Sage Research Methods. Richard Fitzgerald & Shing Hung Au-Yeungmore
by Au-Yeung S . H . Terry and Richard Fitzgerald
Membership categorisation analysis (MCA) is a qualitative sociological approach which studies membership categorisation practices—how social members achieve, use, and orient to membership categories in the process of performing some... more
Membership categorisation analysis (MCA) is a qualitative sociological approach which studies membership categorisation practices—how social members achieve, use, and orient to membership categories in the process of performing some social action. Using a range of data including texts, talk-in-interaction, and video recordings, the approach focuses on unpacking members’ routine categorisation practices in everyday and institutional contexts. The approach provides qualitative researchers with a rigorous and data-led perspective to examine the way membership categorisation practices are used to achieve social actions in the contexts of their use. Through its commitment to naturalistic data, grounded observations, and flexibility in scope, MCA is able to also contribute to other disciplines, such as linguistics, sociology, psychology, management studies, communication, cultural studies, politics and political media, gender studies, and social ...
DOI: 10.4135/9781526421036754839
Publication Date: 2019
Publication Name: SAGE Research Methods Foundations (SRMF)
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Entering the liminal zone: Generating news with occasioned objects in live TV news reporting. (2019) Journalism Studies. Fitzgerald and Evans.more
by Richard Fitzgerald
Abstract On December 2, 2015, Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik attacked a Christmas gathering in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 people and wounding 22. On December 4, the news media were granted access to the couple’s home by the... more
Abstract
On December 2, 2015, Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik attacked a Christmas gathering in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 people and wounding 22. On December 4, the news media were granted access to the couple’s home by the landlord. The ensuing news scrum entering the house was broadcast live to air, with reporters in the house identifying objects. In this paper we use Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA) and particularly categorial inferencing to examine the way journalists, on being granted access to the house for the first time, and under pressure to produce news live on air,
resorted to various forms of speculation and assumptions to generate news within the liminal zone. In particular, we examine how objects found in the home were used to
occasion newsworthy discourses through categorial reasoning around why and how these objects were used and what they might indicate about the people and events. It is through these routine social categorial reasoning practices that is possible to examine journalists’ routine work as displaying a ‘news-culture-in-action’ whereby individuals and their actions are rendered as news relevant categories and articulated through categorial inferred reasoning practices.

Key words. Live News Broadcasting, Liminal Zone, Membership Categorisation Analysis, Categorial Inferencing, Occasioned Objects, News-Culture-in-Action.
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The Data and Methodology of Harvey Sacks: Lessons from the archive. Journal of Pragmatics (2019). Volume 143 p205 -214.more
by Richard Fitzgerald
Despite Harvey Sacks' death over 40 years ago, his work continues to be a major influence gaining ever more attention across the social sciences. Although he published relatively few papers during his lifetime, Sacks' work was central to... more
Despite Harvey Sacks' death over 40 years ago, his work continues to be a major influence gaining ever more attention across the social sciences. Although he published relatively few papers during his lifetime, Sacks' work was central to the establishment and continued development of a number of major research approaches. While his published work continues to provide a rich resource for contemporary research there remains much within his published lectures which has not received attention, even less attention has been given to his archive. However, Sacks' published lectures and archive provide, not only a fascinating window into the early development of Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis, they also provide a valuable point of reflection for contemporary research and disciplinary debates. While the lectures and archive remain of historical interest the focus of this paper is not so much on these as historical artifacts but in how these resources provide a timely contribution to contemporary methodological challenges in the face of new forms of data and phenomena across the social sciences. In drawing on his lectures and archive the discussion focuses on Sacks as an imaginative, innovative and wide-ranging methodologist-inaction interested in the study of social life, wherever that could be captured.
DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2018.04.005
Publication Date: 2019
Publication Name: Journal of Pragmatics
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The categorial and sequential work of ‘embodied mapping’ in basketball coaching. Evans and Fitzgerald (2017) Journal of Pragmatics Vol 118.more
by Richard Fitzgerald
Abstract In this paper we seek to contribute to methodological discussions within ethnomethodology and conversation analysis related to the integration of sequential and categorial orders of organization within analysis. We suggest that... more
Abstract
In this paper we seek to contribute to methodological discussions within ethnomethodology and conversation analysis related to the integration of sequential and categorial orders of organization within analysis. We suggest that while video has facilitated the expansion of the analytic frame to include embodied conduct and the material environment as features of sequential order, there has been less systematic engagement with the categorial order as part of a multilayered flow of action formation. In this paper we use video data to explore social action within a multi-layered categorial and sequential flow in which multiple ‘layers’ of categorization become relevant as coordinated action unfolds sequentially. In doing this we seek to extend the analysis of categorial and sequential work to incorporate both embodied conduct and the material structure of the environment into empirical analyses. The analysis, based on video data recorded during basketball training sessions, describes the reflexive sequential and categorial organization of embodied activities in basketball coaching sessions, focusing on the organization of talk and conduct between the coach and players during correction activities. Specifically, we examine in detail the coach's use of ‘embodied mapping’ through spatial categorization devices in the process of correcting players’ conduct. In exploring the actions of the coach the paper highlights the contribution of membership categorization analysis for analyzing the systematic and situated organization of sense-making in instructed activities. We conclude by suggesting that further understanding of the organization of embodied activities may be gained by attending to the ways in which categorization devices may be invoked, maintained, and replaced not only through participants’ talk-in-interaction, but also through their bodily movements and employment of material structure in the environment.

Keywords
Membership categorization analysis; Conversation analysis; Multimodality; Embodied mapping; Multi-layered sequential flow; Sports coaching
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‘I’m a Scouser’ Membership categories and political geography in the 2015 UK Election Call Phone-in (2017) R. Fitzgerald and J. Thornborrow. Journal of Language and Politics (16:1) Special Issue on CA/EM approaches to political analysis.more
by Richard Fitzgerald
Despite the emergence of newer forms of web-based political engagement, radio phone-ins continue to have a significant role in the enactment of the democratic process, providing a live forum for direct encounters between members of the... more
Despite the emergence of newer forms of web-based political engagement, radio phone-ins continue to have a significant role in the enactment of the democratic process, providing a live forum for direct encounters between members of the public and politicians, beyond the professional forms of mediated encounters between studio journalists and politicians. In this paper, drawing on data from the BBC’s 2015 phone-in Election Call, we use Membership Categorisation Analysis to examine the ways in which political engagement is configured within this forum in the run up to the UK General Election in 2015. In particular, we examine how callers and politicians engage in live political debate through transforming personal experiences into politicised social categories. What emerges most significantly here is that, whereas in previous Election Call series participants configured political categories through personal social identities, in 2015 there is a particular emphasis on callers’ geographical locations as political categories.
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‘You Gotta See Both at the Same Time’: Visually Analyzing Player Performances in Basketball Coaching (2017) Evans, B., Fitzgerald, R. Human Studies.more
by Richard Fitzgerald
Abstract Developing novices’ proficiency in skilful activities is central to the reproduction of human societies. The interactional practices through which instruction is accomplished have provided a rich focus for ethnomethodological and... more
Abstract Developing novices’ proficiency in skilful activities is central to the reproduction of human societies. The interactional practices through which instruction is accomplished have provided a rich focus for ethnomethodological and conversation analytic studies examining classroom settings, and, more recently, non-classroom environments of instruction in practical and manual skills. This paper examines the work of instruction in basketball training and in particular the correction of player performances, which are a ubiquitous and central feature of instruction in basketball training sessions. A central part of this instructional action relies on the coach observing training activities to determine players’ competencies and to extract relevant correctables from the players’ embodied displays, which are in turn embedded within complex arrangements of rapidly moving bodies situated in material environments. In this paper we examine the visual-analytic work involved in both organizing and observing a basketball training activity, demonstrating the sequential layering of multiple membership categorization devices drawn upon in producing and recognizing actions in this setting. We argue that the coach deploys spatial orientations which function analogously to membership categorization devices, with players’ bodily positions relative to one another and the material structure of the surround generating category-like sets of rights, responsibilities, and sequential relevancies. As we demonstrate, these orientations provide crucial resources for the identification of players’ errors and thereby for the organization of instruction in interaction in this setting.

Keywords Ethnomethodology Conversationanalysis Membershipcategorization
analysis  Multimodal interaction  Visual perception  Instruction  Correction
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Rod Watson. (2017) [ Video] Reflections on the Origins and Development of Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis. March 2017, University of Macau. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQdT14fLl5Amore
by Richard Fitzgerald
In this talk I sketch out my academic career in Ethnomethodology and reflect on the development of ethnomethodology (EM), Conversation Analysis (CA) and Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA). My interest is not so much in describing... more
In this talk I sketch out my academic career in Ethnomethodology and reflect on the development of ethnomethodology (EM), Conversation Analysis (CA) and Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA).

My interest is not so much in describing my own intellectual  biography/career in much personal detail but rather use my biography in two ways. The first way will be to give an idea of the satisfactions and trials, the rewards and risks of taking on a career in EM/CA/MCA, and the second will be to illustrate how those approaches themselves developed over time.

Consequently, I hope to offer a view of what the major themes and methodological choices in those approaches were and how and why they emerged in their historical context, and how choices and ways of working in those approaches often changed accordingly. Included in this will be scattered recollections of major figures such as Harold Garfinkel, Harvey Sacks and and Emanuel Schegloff in the late 1960’s as well as discussing the contributions of lesser-known contributors to those approaches whose work is important and when undertaking research.

I hope that this will cast some (new) light on how these approaches came to be practiced as they currently are. Overall, I hope to furnish a historical view of the history and rationale of these approaches rather than a history and rationale of myself, providing a context for current work and future directions
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A Master Class in Membership Categorisation Analysis. (Fitzgerald, 2017) Book Review of Descriptions of Deviance. Stephen Hester [2016]. Symbolic Interactionismmore
by Richard Fitzgerald
Stephen Hester died in 2014 having been an influential figure in the field of Eth-nomethodology (EM) and particularly in the development of the approach of membership categorization analysis (MCA). During his lifetime, he published... more
Stephen Hester died in 2014 having been an influential figure in the field of Eth-nomethodology (EM) and particularly in the development of the approach of membership categorization analysis (MCA). During his lifetime, he published prolifically in MCA and, at the time of his death was working on this manuscript. The work of finishing the book was undertaken by two of Stephen's closest collaborators Peter Eglin and Dave Francis. In doing this, they had to make a number of decisions in respect to Stephen's wishes. One of these, as discussed in the introduction, was whether to work up some of the analysis that had not been thoroughly examined by Stephen or tidy up what was there and so allowing his style to come through as it was. Deciding to tidy up what was there means early analytic work sits alongside more fully worked up analysis and also that the book could be made freely available rather than through a commercial publisher. The decision means that the analysis remains at different stages and through this provides the reader with a valuable insight into the way Stephen approached his data and analysis from the early observations to the rich complexity of his more developed and more integrated analysis. Overall, the work comprises a number of interrelated intellectual threads that interested him throughout his career. His interests in educational psychology and the sociology of deviance are combined with his interest in EM and Sacks' work on category analysis and which evolved into MCA. The organization of the book begins with an Editors' introduction followed by ten chapters. This begins with two chapters discussing EM and MCA, seven chapters of analysis, and a final summary chapter where he also addresses some contemporary critiques of MCA. While the discussions of EM and the sociology of deviance provide a broad background and the discussion of MCA has a level of clarity and accessibility that is a hallmark of Stephen's writing.
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‘It’s Training Man’! Membership Categorization and the Institutional Moral Order of Basketball Training. (2016). Evans and Fitzgerald. Australian Journal of Linguistics.more
by Richard Fitzgerald and Bryn Evans
In this paper we examine how physical and verbal actions are constituted as morally accountable within an institutional context. Through the detailed examination of a video recording of the aftermath of an on-court altercation between... more
In this paper we examine how physical and verbal actions are constituted as morally accountable within an institutional context. Through the detailed examination of a video recording of the aftermath of an on-court altercation between players in a basketball training session, we explore how the members work to establish a locally organized institutional context for an action within which in situ moral reasoning practices are then brought to bear to make sense of the players’ actions and render them as morally accountable or not. In examining the moral organization of institutional accountability in an instance of basketball training activity, the paper develops a further level of detail to understand the reflexive organization of membership categories and the institutional moral order.
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Reorienting categories as a members’ phenomena (2015), Fitzgerald and Rintel. In Discursive Psychology, Classic and Contemporary Issues. Eds. Tileagă and Stokoe.more
by Sean Rintel and Richard Fitzgerald
Edwards’ paper, ‘Categories are for talking’ (1991), is a critical dissection of the static role of categories as conceived in traditional Cognitive Psychology and the then-recent work of Lakoff’s Women, Fire and Dangerous Things (1987)... more
Edwards’ paper, ‘Categories are for talking’ (1991), is a critical dissection of the static role of categories as conceived in traditional Cognitive Psychology and the then-recent work of Lakoff’s Women, Fire and Dangerous Things (1987) through the use of Harvey Sacks’ (1974; 1992) work on membership categorisation. Edwards uses Sacks to take aim at the prominent theoretical and methodological trends at the time, seeking to liberate members’ category work from ironically external conceptions of a shrouded realm located inside the head. However, while the focus for Edwards was on psychology, his detailed under- standing of Sacks’ work served to open a conceptual space for those working in discursive psychology to engage with members categorisation work as fundamental to the epistemological and methodological repertoires of Discursive Psychology (DP) in ways that ally with the emergence of Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA: Eglin and Hester, 1992; Watson,1994; Hester and Francis, 1994).

In this discussion we focus on how the paper shows three areas of intersection in the emergence of DP and MCA. First, we outline how the initial use of Sacks’ category work in the paper was directed towards psychological topics at a time when his ideas were largely confined to the sociological fields of ethnomethodology and conversation analysis. Second, we trace Edwards’ work to embed Sacks’ categorial work as an analytic method for DP while running parallel to the emergence and development of MCA. Finally, we situate the contemporary influence of Edwards’ paper and use of Sacks’ work in the creation of a rich confluence and openness to ideas that have become a hallmark of the contemporary DP approach – an approach that not only incorporates a deep understanding of Sacks’ categorisation work but, in turn, contributes significantly to the further development of MCA.
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Gail Jefferson Archive Catalogue. UCLA. Pdf. The Gail Jefferson archive have now been completed and is available at UCLA. The archive consists of 36 Boxes, the Title of the archive is Gail Jefferson Papers (Collection 2319). Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.more
by Richard Fitzgerald
The Gail Jefferson archive have now been completed and is available at UCLA. The archive consists of 36 Boxes, the Title of the archive is Gail Jefferson Papers (Collection 2319). Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research... more
The Gail Jefferson archive have now been completed and is available at UCLA.

The archive consists of 36 Boxes, the Title of the archive is

Gail Jefferson Papers (Collection 2319). Library Special Collections,
Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.


While it looks as though the actual list of 'boxes' has not yet been
uploaded to the UCLA site as yet (and so not searchable online) pdfs of
the catalogue are available. There are two pdfs - the second, smaller one, documents boxes 30 to 36 as these are audio visual material and needed to be re boxed and so expanded from the original archive list.
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Gail_Jefferson_Updated_Audiovisual_Inventory.pdf
Gail_Jefferson_York_Catalog.pdf
Introduction to Membership Categorisation Analysis. (2015) Housley and Fitzgerald. In Advances in Membership Categorisation Analysis. (Sage)more
by Richard Fitzgerald
Introduction This book is about an ethnomethodological approach to the study of talk-in-interaction that is gaining wider popularity and interest from across the social sciences. Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA) refers to the... more
Introduction
This book is about an ethnomethodological approach to the study of talk-in-interaction that is gaining wider popularity and interest from across the social sciences. Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA) refers to the study of the range of prac- tices that members of a given speech community deploy alongside complementary and aligned ethnomethods in the routine accomplishment of everyday social interaction. A core principle here is the anthropological notion of membership and its relationship to the categories of culture and society that form the stock in trade for the routine accom- plishment and co-ordination of social life. Categories are central to social life and experience and an empirical understanding of their actual use in real-time at the situ- ated and granular level can generate insights into a wide spectrum of social behaviours and problems. This book draws from the pioneering work of Harvey Sacks and his concern with membership categorisation (in addition to other aligned forms of conver- sational practice) and the wide range of rich and fecund studies that have followed. Many of these studies have explored the relationship between membership categorisa- tion practices, language and identity in a variety of settings and through the study of a diverse set of activities. Of course membership categorisation practices are more than the study of identities and identity work-in-action but this is a convenient place to begin our journey. Identity matters have been and continue to be an important site for sociological and related inquiry; not least because they represent a field through which individual and collective life intersect.
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Challenging Normativity Re-appraising Category Bound, Tied and Predicated Features (2015) Reynolds and Fitzgerald in Advances in Membership Categorisation Analysis (Sage)more
by Richard Fitzgerald and Edward Reynolds
Research in Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA) has illustrated a wide and varied use of activities, rights and obligations, variously related to categories and mem- bership devices (Hester and Eglin, 1992b; Jayyusi, 1984). As... more
Research in Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA) has illustrated a wide and varied use of activities, rights and obligations, variously related to categories and mem- bership devices (Hester and Eglin, 1992b; Jayyusi, 1984). As discussed in the Introduction to this volume, while these were initially described by Sacks (1974) as ‘category bound activities’ and later developed by Watson (1983) as ‘category bound predicates’, little recent attention has been paid to the subtle differences in the ways cat- egory features (rights, knowledge, activities, etc.) are deployed. While the term ‘category bound predicate’ has proven immensely useful it has also tended to serve as a catch-all term for all relationships between category features and categories, obscuring the action involved in the use of this category resource. In this chapter we touch off from Sacks’s initial discussion of predicates introduced in the Introduction to this volume and subsequent discussions to explore this relationship further by developing levels of sophistication to understanding the relationship between membership categories and locally invoked associated features. In this instance we examine the way in which par- ticipants engaged in a number of public arguments orient to three distinct differences in the types of relationship between categories and category features.
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Membership Categorisation Analysis. (2015) In K. Tracy, C. Ilie & T. L. Sandel, (Eds.). The International Encyclopedia of Language and Social Interaction. Boston: John Wiley & Sons more
by Richard Fitzgerald
Abstract: International Encyclopedia of Language and Social Interaction LASI-0018.R2 Entry n/a Fitzgerald, Richard; University of Queensland, communication research methods, identity, interpersonal communication, language and... more
Abstract:
International Encyclopedia of Language and Social Interaction
LASI-0018.R2
Entry
n/a
Fitzgerald, Richard; University of Queensland,
communication research methods, identity, interpersonal communication, language and social interaction, qualitative methods
Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA) is a qualitative approach to the study of social knowledge in action. The approach, originating from the work of Harvey Sacks, examines the ways in which descriptions of, and orientations to, social categories and their associated activities are used in everyday contexts and through which cultural reasoning practices are made visible. This entry identifies key figures in MCA’s development, describes the methodological principles underpinning the approach, and discusses some major methodological themes of the approach.
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From Lifeguard To Bitch: How a story character becomes a promiscuous category in a couple’s video call. (2013) Fitzgerald & Rintel. Australian Journal of Communication more
by Richard Fitzgerald
This paper concerns a single case of story telling between a long-distance couple via video chat. Our interest is on how a character’s relevance to the story is rendered uncertain by the teller, but how this uncertainty provides an avenue... more
This paper concerns a single case of story telling between a long-distance couple via video chat. Our interest is on how a character’s relevance to the story is rendered uncertain by the teller, but how this uncertainty provides an avenue for the relevance of the character to be recast by the recipient. Using Membership Category Analysis and Sacks’ work on story telling and omnirelevance we examine the evolution of the character in the story while also tracing the way the character is treated by the recipient. Our analysis highlights both the way categories can be withheld from devices for effect and also the way unfixed categories can become ‘promiscuous’ in the sense that they are free roaming and available to be allocated to other devices. In doing this we respecify the ‘problem of promiscuous category analysis’ as a members phenomena.
More Info: This paper is from a special issue containing papers from the Australasian Institute of Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis (AIEMCA) conference held in Brisbane in December 2013. This special issue is free online open access and has embedded media in the online versions of the papers.
Publication Name: Australian Journal of Communication Vol 40, No 2 (2013) http://austjourcomm.org/index.php/ajc/article/view/7/125
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Categories, norms and inferences. Generating entertainment in a daytime talk show. (2012). Discourse, Context, Media.more
by Richard Fitzgerald
This paper examines the way the host of a UK day time television talk show, The JeremyKyleShow, generates entertainment through framing guests’ stories using membership categories and category-based moral evaluations. The analysis draws... more
This paper examines the way the host of a UK day time television talk show, The JeremyKyleShow, generates entertainment through framing guests’ stories using membership categories and category-based moral evaluations. The analysis draws upon Membership Categorisation Analysis, and in particular Sacks’s(1995) discussion of categorial inferencing and category norms,to examine the way the host overlays individuals with membership categories and category-based actions. Moreover, this category work then provides for subsequent normative reasoning and moral judgements to be made for the overhearing audience. In summary the analysis demonstrates the way the show operates through making individuals and their actions morally accountable for the overhearing audience through routine categorisation work and related norms of behaviour.
More Info: Published in Discourse, Context, Media.
Publication Date: Nov 2012
Publication Name: Published in Discourse, Context, Media.
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Membership categorization analysis: Wild and promiscuous or simply the joy of Sacks? (2012). Discourse Studiesmore
by Richard Fitzgerald
The recent resurgence of Sacks’ work on membership categorization has highlighted the growing analytic interest in how members’ social category orientations operate at multiple levels of interactional work. One of the outcomes of this,... more
The recent resurgence of Sacks’ work on membership categorization has highlighted the growing analytic interest in how members’ social category orientations operate at multiple levels of interactional work. One of the outcomes of this, highlighted in Stokoe’s discussion, is the re-emergence of the question of whether membership categorization analysis (MCA) has been, is, or can be an approach in its own right. In this brief discussion I consider the emergence of ‘MCA’ as an approach to the study of social-knowledge-in-action, the relationship between MCA and contemporary directions in conversation analysis (CA), and finally the future of MCA as it continues to develop.
More Info: Discourse Studies June 2012 vol. 14 no. 3 305-311
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“My f***ing personality”: swearing as slips and gaffes in live television broadcasts. (2011) Butler, C.W., Fitzgerald. Text & Talk -. Volume 31, Issue 5more
by Richard Fitzgerald
This paper examines instances of swearing in live television broadcasts. While some cable television shows routinely involve swearing without censorship and recorded shows may include swearing “bleeped out,” our interest is in instances... more
This paper examines instances of swearing in live television broadcasts. While some cable television shows routinely involve swearing without censorship and recorded shows may include swearing “bleeped out,” our interest is in instances of swearing in contexts where swearing is prohibited. We look at live interviews and panel debates where swearing is clearly noticed and reacted to strongly—and in all cases retracted or apologized for in some way. The examples we examine thus involve a participant visibly moving outside the normative limits of the interaction, and as such reveal the boundaries that serve as organizational structures for the interactions. Drawing on Goffman's work on gaffes and slips and ethnomethodological conversation analysis, the paper explores how swearing is treated by the participants as a practical concern, and how swearing and its management implicates the identities and relationships of the participants and the specific context of the interaction. We discuss how swearing in live broadcasts reveals the limits of authenticity within informal, conversational interviews and debates.

Keywords: news interviews; live broadcast; expletives; ethnomethodology; conversation analysis; Goffman."
More Info: Text & Talk -. Volume 31, Issue 5, Pages 525–551
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Membership-in-action: Operative identities in a family meal. (2010) Butler, Fitzgerald. Pragmatics Volume 42, Issue 9more
by Richard Fitzgerald
One challenge for conversation analytic research on identity is to demonstrate that and how identities are made relevant and consequential for the participants of an interaction. Drawing on Harvey Sacks's work on membership categorization... more
One challenge for conversation analytic research on identity is to demonstrate that and how identities are made relevant and consequential for the participants of an interaction. Drawing on Harvey Sacks's work on membership categorization and conversation analytic methods, the aim of this paper is to explore the ‘reflexive codetermination’ (Schegloff, 2007a) of membership and social action—how participants make sense of particular actions through an orientation to locally relevant membership categories, and how category membership is invoked in the enactment of particular social actions. Using video-recordings of a meal shared by a young child, his parents, and his grandparents, the paper examines how identities are made operative in and through the moment-by-moment organization of specific sequences of action. The analysis examines how participants oriented to membership within stage-of-life and family categories, and as guests and hosts, and shows how the relevance of these memberships was enacted through, and consequential for, phenomena such as turn design, turn-taking organization and embodied action. In demonstrating how the relevance and consequentiality of a particular identity can shift over the course of a sequence the paper engages with analytic problems involved in research on identity—particularly with respect to the operation of social structural identities (such as child) when contextually bound identities (such as guest) are also potentially relevant and consequential.
More Info: Journal of Pragmatics Volume 42, Issue 9, September 2010, Pages 2462-2474
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Membership Category Analysis, culture and norms in action. (2009). Housley and Fitzgerald. Discourse & Societymore
by Richard Fitzgerald
In this article, we examine the extent to which membership categorization analysis (MCA) can inform an understanding of reasoning within the public domain where morality, policy and cultural politics are visible (Smith and Tatalovich,... more
In this article, we examine the extent to which membership categorization analysis (MCA) can inform an understanding of reasoning within the public domain where morality, policy and cultural politics are visible (Smith and Tatalovich, 2003). Through the examination of three examples, we demonstrate how specific types of category device(s) are a ubiquitous feature of accountable practice in the public domain where morality matters and public policy intersect. Furthermore, we argue that MCA provides a method for analysing the mundane mechanics associated with everyday cultural politics and democratic accountability assembled and presented within news media and broadcast settings
More Info: Co-authored with William Housley. Published in Discourse & Society 2009. Vol 20:3
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Media, Policy and Interaction: Introduction. (2009) Fitzgerald and Housley Media, Policy and Interaction (Ashgate)more
by Richard Fitzgerald
The chapters in this collection represent an examination of the discursive relationship between the public and policy articulated in and through mediated forms of public space. In a general sense the analyses that follow explore the... more
The chapters in this collection represent an examination of the discursive relationship between the public and policy articulated in and through mediated forms of public space. In a general sense the analyses that follow explore the organization and presentation of policy in the public sphere and in particular the language, interaction and discourse practices of policy makers, politicians and other ‘public agents’ when engaged in explanation, defence or promotion of ‘public matters’ within and through the media. In this the collection represents a departure from treating the analysis of public policy at the level of government programs by focusing on the situated practices of policy presentation and discussion as part of a mediated public sphere. The focus, then, is on examining the lived negotiated detail of policy work within a communicative domain which increasingly makes use of a range of ‘access’ technologies (e.g. open letters, interactive TV debates, phone-ins, e-mail, blogs and social networking sites) in constituting public debate in relation to policy and news management.
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Omnirelevance and interactional context. (2009) Fitzgerald, Housley, and Butler. Australian Journal of Communicationmore
by Richard Fitzgerald
"ABSTRACT: Within conversation analysis and membership categorisation analysis, the warrant for any instance of analytic interest is always the demonstrable relevance and consequentiality of the phenomena to the interactants.... more
"ABSTRACT: Within conversation analysis and membership categorisation analysis, the warrant for any instance of analytic interest is always the demonstrable relevance and consequentiality of the phenomena to the interactants. Demonstrating participants’ orientations to social structural contexts poses methodological difficulties, as such orientations are often fragmentary, which weakens the possibility of exploring social structural features as omnipresent and influencing the
understandings and actions of participants. In this paper, we revisit Sacks’s (1995) discussion of omnirelevance, in order to explore the possibility of approaching context within a multilayering of categorical relevances. We argue that, within the layering of membership devices in an episode of interaction, there is an analytically observable orientation to an omnirelevant device. This omnirelevant device operates as background to the occasioned topic devices as a kind of ‘default’ orientation that organises the participation context. The analysis draws upon a transcript of an (ordinary) conversation in which various touched-off topics generate interactional and membership devices. While these devices are seen to organise the topic at hand, there are occasions where topic talk is suspended and a different membership device is oriented to. The omnirelevant device reveals itself through the cracks, joints, and articulation of touched off-topic devices, suggesting a layering and hierarchy of membership devices. By exploring the notion of omnirelevant devices within interaction as part of a layering of topical membership devices, this paper argues for the possibility of exploring a wider participant orientation within interaction and the warrant to analytically invoke a backgrounded organisational device."
More Info: Co-authored with William Housley, and Carly W. Butler. Published in Australian Journal of Communication. Special Issue on Ethnomethodological approaches to communication. Available free at http://aiemca.net/?page_id=229
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The Underlying Orderliness In Turn-Taking. (2009) Rod Gardner, Richard Fitzgerald, and Ilana Mushin more
by Richard Fitzgerald and Ilana Mushin
ABSTRACT: The 1974 paper ‘Simplest systematics for the organization of turn taking in conversation’, by Sacks, Schegloff, and Jefferson, is widely regarded as groundbreaking for its detailed and methodical understanding of the routine... more
ABSTRACT: The 1974 paper ‘Simplest systematics for the organization of turn taking in conversation’, by Sacks, Schegloff, and Jefferson, is widely regarded as groundbreaking for its detailed and methodical understanding of the routine methods of turn taking in conversation. However, these findings also raise questions of what role, if any, a broader sociocultural context of the talk may play in organising social behaviour, and whether different kinds of orderliness, or even a different turntaking machinery, may be managed and attended to according to different social or cultural conventions. In this paper, we provide examples from a range of Australianface-to-face conversations that show that, even in talk involving extended overlap or extended gaps, the same foundational principles of order in turn-taking apply. From this evidence, we suggest that variations in length and proliferation of gaps and overlaps are not symptomatic of different turn-taking machinery, but rather are contingent on contextual and situational factors.
More Info: Rod Gardner, Richard Fitzgerald, and Ilana Mushin (2009) The underlying orderliness in turn-taking Examples from Australian talk. Australian Journal of Communication. Vol36 (3)
Publication Name: aiemca.net
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Beyond the Discursive: the Case of Social Organization--a Reply to Edwards, Hepburn and Potter. (2009) Housley and Fitzgerald Qualitative Researchmore
by Richard Fitzgerald
Publication Date: Jan 1, 2009
Publication Name: Qualitative Research
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Motives and Social Organization: Sociological Amnesia, Psychological Description and the Analysis of Accounts. (2008) Housley and Fitzgerald Qualitative Researchmore
by Richard Fitzgerald
"ABSTRACT During the course of this paper we explore the sociological tradition of analysing motives and accounts. In doing so we contrast this with more recent methodological developments that have analysed similar phenomenon as part of... more
"ABSTRACT
During the course of this paper we explore the sociological tradition of analysing motives and accounts. In doing so we contrast this with more recent methodological developments that have analysed similar phenomenon as part of a strategy of respecifying psychological theories of cognition. Through the use of analytic examples we demonstrate how accounts and the invocation of ‘inner’ or ‘underlying’ states must be understood not only in terms of situated action but also in terms of the situated accomplishment of social organisation. In this way the theoretical amnesia enveloping the analysis of accounts and motives can be confronted and their status as empirical sociological phenomena sustained within future avenues of qualitative research."
More Info: William Housley, Richard Fitzgerald
Publisher: qrj.sagepub.com
Publication Date: Jan 1, 2008
Publication Name: Qualitative Research
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Generating News: Agenda Setting in Radio Broadcast News (2008). Fitzgerald , Jaworski, Housley in Marcel Burger. (ed) L’analyse linguistique des discours des médiasmore
by Richard Fitzgerald
"INTRODUCTION The news broadcast is a highly familiar institutional event in which the latest ‘news’ is presented through routine discursive structures that provide a newsworthy framework for events to be reported into (Clayman and... more
"INTRODUCTION
The news broadcast is a highly familiar institutional event in which the latest ‘news’ is presented through routine discursive structures that provide a newsworthy framework for events to be reported into (Clayman and Heritage, 2002). However, as has been emphasised
by many authors, news is not only concerned with reporting ‘events’. Rather, media organisations are in the business of news production. ‘They construct it, they construct facts, they construct statements and they construct context in which these facts make sense. They
construct “a” reality’ (Vasterman, 1995, quoted in Harcup and O’Neill, 2001 : 265 ; see also Tuchman, 1978). Or, as Schudson puts it : ‘To ask “Is this news ?” is not to ask only “Did it just happen ?” It is to ask “Does this mean something ?”’ (Schudson, 1987 : 84). Thus,
while ‘breaking’ news, i.e. reporting on unanticipated major events, may still be the top priority among newsmakers, the work of new journalists has been likened to the work on the assembly line with
news being searched for, gathered, selected, and eventually turned into stories in a routinized process of news-making (e.g. Gans, 1980 ; Cook, 1998).

Reporting and presenting stories gathered by a programme, however, creates a possible site of tension where usual editorial values may be passed over in favour of carrying a story the programme has
sourced through its own investigative journalism. We explore this blurring by focusing upon the discursive placement of news and the creation of a news agenda through an examination of two examples taken from the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. Using the ethnomethodological approach of membership category analysis, we suggest that the presenters are seen to engage in complex categorial work in the process of creating a topical context for an issue to appear in the news programme as well as the subsequent development of the issue as a relevant news agenda during the programme."
More Info: Adam Jaworski and William Housley. Draft. Later published in Marcel Burger. (ed) L’analyse linguistique des discours des médias.
Publication Date: Mar 2008
Publication Name: Marcel Burger. (ed) L’analyse linguistique des discours des médias. SBN: 978-2-89518-303-7
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Accusation, Mitigation and Resisting Guilt In Talk (2008) Open Communication Journal.more
by Helena Austin and Richard Fitzgerald
Abstract: The notion of ‘guilt’ has been subject of examination through the methods of Membership Categorisation Analysis as a part of the work of formal institutions such as courts, police, and schools where the consequences of decisions... more
Abstract: The notion of ‘guilt’ has been subject of examination through the methods of Membership Categorisation Analysis as a part of the work of formal institutions such as courts, police, and schools where the consequences of decisions made may have direct effects on the person being judged. However whilst this research has provided access to the process of ‘negotiating’ guilt in these highly ritualized and formal contexts the ascription, negotiation and resistance of
guilt is not restricted to these institutions. Rather deciding someone’s ‘guilt’ or resisting such a categorisation can be seen as part of the routine everyday work of social life. In this paper we use the method of Membership Categorisation Analysis
to examine two instances where “guilt” is a matter of local negotiation between parties and where the consequences are purely a matter for the participants at hand: a narrative therapy counseling session and a conversation between friends. In the first site the negotiation is around a participant ‘feeling guilty’ whilst in the second, guilt is attributed to absent third party. Through our analysis we highlight that the interactional work of ascribing and resisting ‘guilt’ is both a routine feature of social interaction and that this routine feature is organised through members’ methodical use of descriptions and accounts embedded in a common sense relationship between individual and categorial actions.
Publisher: griffith.edu.au
Publication Date: Jan 1, 2008
Publication Name: The Open Communication Journal
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Membership Category Work In Policy Debate. (2007) Housley and Fitzgerald. Critical Discourse Studies Vol. 4, No. 2.more
by Richard Fitzgerald
During the course of this article the themes of public accountability, government policy, and interaction in media settings are examined. In particular, we examine empirical instances of media discourse as a means of exploring the use of... more
During the course of this article the themes of public accountability, government policy, and interaction in media settings are examined. In particular, we examine empirical instances of media discourse as a means of exploring the use of identity categories, pre- dicates, and configurations as a means of accomplishing policy debate in participatory frameworks such as radio phone-ins and the accountable frames of political interviews. This paper respecifies and explores the situated character of media settings as a means of documenting, describing, and illustrating the interactional methods associated with policy debate, public participation/representation, and democracy-in-action.
Publisher: espace.library.uq.edu.au
Publication Date: Jan 1, 2010
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Categorization, Interaction, Policy, and Debate. (2007) Housley and Fitzgerald Critical Discourse Studies 4(2) 201-224more
by Richard Fitzgerald
William Housley & Richard Fitzgerald CATEGORIZATION, INTERACTION, POLICY, AND DEBATE During the course of this article the themes of public accountability, government policy, and interaction in media settings are examined. In... more
William Housley & Richard Fitzgerald
CATEGORIZATION, INTERACTION, POLICY, AND DEBATE
During the course of this article the themes of public accountability, government policy, and interaction in media settings are examined. In particular, we examine empirical instances of media discourse as a means of exploring the use of identity categories, pre- dicates, and configurations as a means of accomplishing policy debate in participatory frameworks such as radio phone-ins and the accountable frames of political interviews. This paper respecifies and explores the situated character of media settings as a means of documenting, describing, and illustrating the interactional methods associated with policy debate, public participation/representation, and democracy-in-action.
More Info: Critical Discourse Studies Vol. 4, No. 2 August 2007, pp. 187–206
Publisher: ingentaconnect.com
Publication Date: Jan 1, 2007
Publication Name: Critical Discourse Studies
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Talkback, community and the public sphere. Fitzgerald. Media International Australia. 2007 No 122, pp150-163more
by Richard Fitzgerald
This paper explores the relationship between the audience of commercial talkback radio and the actual existing democratic public sphere in Australia. Drawing upon Anderson’s (1987) notion of an imagined community and Warner’s (2002)... more
This paper explores the relationship between the audience of commercial talkback radio and the actual existing democratic public sphere in Australia. Drawing upon Anderson’s (1987) notion of an imagined community and Warner’s (2002) discussion of publics, the paper suggests that two different but entwined modes of address operate around the talkback audience. The first centres on the active creation of an imagined community brought into being and maintained through host and caller interaction, whilst the second, which is dependent on this prior formation, involves the audience being treated as a political public within the public sphere.
More Info: Co authored with William Housley.
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Resisting Categorisation: An" Ordinary" Mother. (2007) Australian Review of Applied Linguisticsmore
by Helena Austin and Richard Fitzgerald
In this paper we use Membership Category Analysis to examine the way an interviewee utilizes category work in order to resist the possible accusation of being a bad mother and instead posit her mothering as ordinary. Through our analysis... more
In this paper we use Membership Category Analysis to examine the way an interviewee utilizes category work in order to resist the possible accusation of being a bad mother and instead posit her mothering as ordinary. Through our analysis we explore the interactional work of ascribing and resisting categorization organised through claims and counter-claims, making procedures routinely grounded in descriptions and accounts, and embedded in shifts between individual and categorial actions.
More Info: co authored with Helena Austin. Published in Australian Research In Applied Linguistics.
Publisher: eric.ed.gov
Publication Date: Jan 1, 2007
Publication Name: Australian Review of Applied Linguistics
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Categorisation, Narrative and Devolution In Wales. Housley and Fitzgerald (2005) Sociological Research Onlinemore
by Richard Fitzgerald
Categorisation, narrative and devolution in Wales William Housley and Richard Fitzgerald ABSTRACT Within this chapter we examine the use of extended story turns, within the accomplished context of a radio news debate, that... more
Categorisation, narrative and devolution in Wales

William Housley and Richard Fitzgerald

ABSTRACT

Within this chapter we examine the use of extended story turns, within the accomplished context of a radio news debate, that display various accounts of national identity in relation to a proposal for devolved democratic institutions within the United Kingdom. In this sense, they display a ‘world view’. These various positions are displayed through the use of various categories, inferences and connections in order to lend support to and promote positions of For and Against the proposal of the establishment of a devolved democratic assembly for Wales. In this sense the topics of national identity and political re-organisation are omni-relevant topics (Sacks 1992). However, our particular focus and interest is upon the various detailed ways such positions routinely rely on methods of categorisation and moral assessment in their construction, configuration and promotion of arguments. Furthermore, the analysis of such category work contributes to our understanding of the moral organisation of Welsh identity in relation to devolved forms of political organisation and representation.
Publisher: ideas.repec.org
Publication Date: Jan 1, 2005
Publication Name: Sociological Research Online
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Storying the News Through Category, Action, and Reason. Thornborrow and Fitzgerald (2004) Communication Review.more
by Richard Fitzgerald
Abstract From a sociolinguistic and discourse analytic perspective, news stories have often been considered as operating within a similar structural framework to oral narratives (Labov, 1972), sharing formal elements with narratives... more
Abstract

From a sociolinguistic and discourse analytic perspective, news stories have often been considered as operating within a similar structural framework to oral narratives (Labov, 1972), sharing formal elements with narratives produced in other contexts (although as Bell (1991) has demonstrated in relation to print news, these elements occur in temporal disorganisation). In this paper, in line with other recent treatments of news stories, we suggest that news does not conform to this kind of ‘narrative’ structure as such. Examining data taken from print and live broadcast TV news through a Sacksian (1995) lens, we argue that it is possible to simplify the analysis of news structure by approaching the news as ‘stories’, where the story elements are organised around the notions of category, action and reason rather than as a series of narrative clauses involving orientation, complicating actions, evaluation and resolution (Bell, 1991; van Dijk, 1988).
More Info: DRAFT. Thornborrow, J, Fitzgerald, R. (2004) Storying the News Through Category, Action and Reason. Communication Review 7/4 345-352.
Publisher: informaworld.com
Publication Date: Jan 1, 2004
Publication Name: The Communication Review
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Moral Discrepancy and Political Discourse: Accountability and the Allocation of Blame In a Political News Interview. Housley and Fitzgerald (2003) Sociological Research Onlinemore
by Richard Fitzgerald
"Abstract During the course of this article we intend to explore some issues surrounding government policy and actions and the moral organisation of political discourse surrounding the recent enquiry into the BSE crisis and the... more
"Abstract
During the course of this article we intend to explore some issues surrounding government policy and actions and the moral organisation of political discourse surrounding the recent enquiry into the BSE crisis and the publication of the Phillips Report in the UK. More specifically, we wish to develop the concept of moral discrepancy and it's use in politically accountable settings, in this case the political interview. The paper, through the use of membership categorisation analysis, explores issues surrounding the social organisation of interview settings, the discursive management of policy decisions and 'bureaucratic mistakes' and the allocation of blame in situated media/political formats. The paper then relates these issues to notions of democracy-in-action, public ethics and the respecification of structure and agency as a members phenomenon."
More Info: "William Housley and Richard Fitzgerald (2003) 'Moral Discrepancy and Political Discourse: Accountability and the Allocation of Blame in a Political News Interview'Sociological Research Online, vol. 8, no. 2,<http://www.socresonline.org.uk/8/2/housley.html>"
Publisher: ideas.repec.org
Publication Date: Jan 1, 2003
Publication Name: Sociological Research Online
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The Reconsidered Model of Membership Categorization Analysis. (2002). Housley and Fitzgerald Qualitative Researchmore
by Richard Fitzgerald
"ABSTRACT This article briefly investigates the role that ethnomethodology has played in sociological analyses of language and interaction. The work of Harvey Sacks is investigated in relation to membership categorization and the analysis... more
"ABSTRACT This article briefly investigates the role that ethnomethodology has played in sociological analyses of language and interaction. The work of Harvey Sacks is investigated in relation to membership categorization and the analysis of talk-in-interaction. More specifically, the authors focus on how this strand of work has been developed in recent years and now represents a powerful
apparatus for conducting sociological analyses of interaction in a diverse range of settings in a way that is sensitive to issues related to social organization, normativity, identity, macro–micro synthesis, knowledge and developments in social theory."
More Info: Housley, W., Fitzgerald, R. (2002) A Reconsidered model of Membership Categorisation Analysis. Qualitative Research 2(1) 59-84.
Publisher: qrj.sagepub.com
Publication Date: Jan 1, 2002
Publication Name: Qualitative Research
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Identity, Categorization and Sequential Organization: the Sequential and Categorial Flow of Identity In a Radio Phone-In. (2002) Discourse & Societymore
by Richard Fitzgerald
"Abstract Radio phone-in programmes have been the subject of a number of studies using the methodology of conversation analysis. Whilst this has been successful in making apparent the sequential organisation of this type of interaction... more
"Abstract

Radio phone-in programmes have been the subject of a number of studies using the methodology of conversation analysis. Whilst this has been successful in making apparent the sequential organisation of this type of interaction little has been said about its categorial organisation. Adopting an ethnomethodological approach, it is demonstrated in this paper that interaction on public access radio can be seen to rely upon categorial and sequential identities built up and developed upon over the course of interaction. By paying attention to the categorial features within media interaction together with the sequential organisation it is possible to examine the way identities are reflexively developed in conjunction with the sequential flow of interaction. This in turn allows an analysis able to address the multi-layered organisational methods used by members as part of the on-going flow of interaction."
More Info: Fitzgerald, R. Housley. W. (2002) Identity, categorisation and sequential organisation: the sequential and categorial flow of identity in a radio phone-in. Discourse and Society 13(5): 579-602.
Publisher: das.sagepub.com
Publication Date: Jan 1, 2002
Publication Name: Discourse & Society
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From Problematic Object to Routine add-on': Dealing With E-Mails In Radio Phone-Ins (2002). Thornborrow and Fitzgerald Discourse Studies 4(2) 201-224more
by Richard Fitzgerald
In this paper we investigate the new phenomenon of e-mailed questions to a radio phone-in programme, BBC Radio 4's 'Election Call'. Our interest in this phenomenon arose for several reasons. Firstly, as a new form, e-mails were singled... more
In this paper we investigate the new phenomenon of e-mailed questions to a radio phone-in programme, BBC Radio 4's 'Election Call'. Our interest in this phenomenon arose for several reasons. Firstly, as a new form, e-mails were singled out at the beginning of each broadcast for special instructions to listeners, although there was evidence that as the series progressed, dealing with e-mail became more of a routine event in each subsequent programme. Secondly, on listening to the Election Call broadcasts, the sequential introduction of an e-mail question appeared to be problematic for the host (Peter Sissons). First mentions of e-mailed questions were often subject to a noticeable amount of disfluency and repair work, in contrast to the well-rehearsed and highly routine introduction of callers’ questions. Thirdly, we are interested in the function of e-mail questions in terms of how they are handled by the host and guest. Are they given the same status as a 'call', and if not, where do the differences lie? In our analysis we show how the introduction of this new media form into a well-established context opens up new structural possibilities for both host as interviewer, and politician as interviewee, in terms of how questions get framed, and how they get responded to.
More Info: Thornborrow. J., Fitzgerald, R. (2002) From problematic object to routine ‘add-on’: dealing with e-mails in radio phone-ins. Discourse Studies 4(2) 201-224."
Publisher: dis.sagepub.com
Publication Date: Jan 1, 2002
Publication Name: Discourse Studies
Research Interests:
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Omni-Relevance and Interactional Context. Cardiff School of Social Sciences Paper: 109 Fitzgerald, Housley, Butlermore
by Richard Fitzgerald
Abstract During the course of this article the concept of omni-relevance is explored in relation to talk- in-interaction. Through the use of the reconsidered model of membership categorization analysis (Housley and Fitzgerald, 2002)... more
Abstract
During the course of this article the concept of omni-relevance is explored in relation to talk- in-interaction. Through the use of the reconsidered model of membership categorization analysis (Housley and Fitzgerald, 2002) issues relating to context and understanding within the local production of interactional order are discussed. The paper argues that the use of omni-relevant devices and associated ‘recognition work’ provide a means of empirically documenting how ‘extra-textual understanding’ and ‘background expectancies’ are made retrospectively apparent within the contours of membership work and alignment in story telling practices. To this extent we argue that an understanding of omni-relevance and membership categorization practices is central to debates concerning category, sequence and context within empirical studies of talk-in-interaction.
More Info: Co authored with William Housley and Carly Butler
Publication Name: jppsg.ac.uk
Research Interests:
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Conversation Analysis, Practitioner Based Research, Reflexivity and Reflective Practice: Some Exploratory Remarks.more
by Richard Fitzgerald
1 ABSTRACT During the course of this paper we intend to explore some possibilities that relate to ethnomethodology, conversation analysis, reflexive practice and practitioner based research. We intend to explore the way in which... more
1
ABSTRACT
During the course of this paper we intend to explore some possibilities that relate to ethnomethodology, conversation analysis, reflexive practice and practitioner based research. We intend to explore the way in which conversation analysis may facilitate some objectives and goals of reflexive practice and practitioner based research within professional practice. In order to fulfil this objective, this paper will discuss and describe the methodological approach of conversation analysis, explore the principles of reflexive practice and practitioner based research and consider the extent to which conversation analysis may be used as a means of fulfilling the aims of these inter-related projects within professional settings.
More Info: A version of this paper was published in Ethnographic Studies Issues. No.5, Autumn, 2000
Publisher: caerdydd.ac.uk
Publication Date: Jan 1, 2000
Publication Name: Ethnogr Stud
Research Interests:
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Chinese Social Media
Chinese social media: Technology, culture and creativity. Introduction to the Special Issue (2022) Richard Fitzgerald, Todd Sandel, WU Xiaoping. Discourse Context Mediamore
by Richard Fitzgerald
The aim of this article collection is to examine Chinese social media technology and culture as a distinctive form of mediated communication and practice. The Internet and social media have grown and become an essential part of the... more
The aim of this article collection is to examine Chinese social media
technology and culture as a distinctive form of mediated communication
and practice. The Internet and social media have grown and become an
essential part of the society and economy in China in ways that are
increasingly dissimilar from that of the social media platforms outside of
China. From the early roll out of the Internet, to the now pervasive
presence of social media, Chinese Internet culture continues to reflect
the unique interplay of technological changes, language affordances (i.e.
Chinese as a character-based script), software development, usergenerated
interactional practices, and government censorship. Social
media platforms and practices provide a rich, yet surprisingly underexplored
source for the analysis of new and innovative practices within
the distinct context of communication technologies and platforms for
nearly one billion users. The papers in this article collection contribute
further to examining how the technologies and technological affordances
of Chinese social media interact to afford distinctive discursive and
linguistic practices across a range of interactional contexts.
DOI: 10.1016/j.dcm.2022.100610
Publication Date: 2022
Publication Name: Discourse, Context and Media
Research Interests:
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"Hidden in plain sight": Expressing political criticism on Chinese social media (2021) Xiaoping WU, Richard Fitzgerald. Discourse Studies. Vol 23(3) 365-385.more
by Xiaoping Wu and Richard Fitzgerald
While the proliferation of social media technologies in China has empowered the public with new opportunities for public expression and political engagement in a virtual public sphere (Su, 2016), Chinese Internet censorship has meant that... more
While the proliferation of social media technologies in China has empowered the public with new opportunities for public expression and political engagement in a virtual public sphere (Su, 2016), Chinese Internet censorship has meant that users have to develop creative ways to engage in political criticism. In a context where both mechanical and human censors are employed, Chinese users have become adept at utilizing the affordances of technology, Chinese language and cultural resources to express their opinions through social media. Drawing upon data from the Chinese micro-messaging app Weibo surrounding the major chemical explosions in 2015 in Tianjin, the study explores three discursive techniques of indirection by Chinese social media users to express political criticism in the context of censorship. The study highlights that through the creative use of quotation, allusion and irony, users challenged the authority's official narratives of the event. The study not only demonstrates the pluralization and dynamics of Chinese online expression, but also points to a better understanding of Chinese censoring as a continuingly evolving interplay between technology and cultural forms and between layers of government and users.
DOI: 10.1177/1461445620916365
Publication Date: 2021
Publication Name: Discourse Studies
Research Interests:
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Reaching for the stars: DingTalk and the Multi-platform creativity of a ‘one-star’ campaign on Chinese social media. (2021) Xiaoping Wu, Richard Fitzgerald. Discourse, Context & Media (44) 100540more
by Richard Fitzgerald
This study explores mediated forms of creativity and multi-platform affordances used by Chinese social media users and producers in a ‘one-star’ rating campaign aimed at DingTalk, an online teaching platform. In February 2020, in response... more
This study explores mediated forms of creativity and multi-platform affordances used by Chinese social media users and producers in a ‘one-star’ rating campaign aimed at DingTalk, an online teaching platform. In February 2020, in response to delays to resuming in-person instruction due to the COVID 19 pandemic, DingTalk launched a new feature called ‘Zaixianxuexi’ (online learning) which was then used across the country. However, users became increasingly critical of the platform and mounted a ‘one-star’ campaign through the Apple’s App Store rating system to try to have the platform removed. In response, the produc- ers of DingTalk released a short-animated video and promotion campaign through Weibo and Bilibili, rather than the DingTalk platform. The video literally begged users to give it more stars. Adopting a social semiotic multimodal analytical approach, we examine the mediated interaction between users and the producers of DingTalk across three Chinese social media platforms. In particular, we examine the medi- ated forms of creativity and technological affordances across multiple social media platforms during the three stages of the event. The analysis focuses on the creative strategies adopted by both users and the producers of DingTalk as they engaged with each other across platforms. The study highlights Chinese social media as rich spaces where technological and cultural resources are creatively co-ordinated across platforms. In situating modality within a cross-media environment, the research underscores the creativ- ity that characterises Chinese social media within an interconnected multi-platform social media ecology.
DOI: 10.1016/j.dcm.2021.100540
Publication Date: 2021
Publication Name: Discourse, Context & Media
Research Interests:
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Ju.Sandel.Fitzgerald.2019.Chinese Internetmore
by Todd L Sandel and Richard Fitzgerald
In this chapter we set out to briefly sketch out a description of Chinese internet culture from its historical development through to some of its current characteristics. From the early roll out of the internet through to the use of... more
In this chapter we set out to briefly sketch out a description of Chinese internet culture from its historical development through to some of its current characteristics. From the early roll out of the internet through to the use of social media Chinee internet culture should be understood as emerging from the interplay of a number of forces: technological changes, software development, user-generated interactional practices, and government censorship. The discussion goes onto highlight how increasingly divergent forms of Chinese social media use provide a rich source of analysis of new and innovative practices as well as an awareness of the distinct context of communicative technological and social environment of its 772 million users.
More Info: In Marcel Burger (Ed.) Se Mettre en Scène en Ligne: La communication digitale, vol 2. [Presenting oneself online: Digital communication] (pp. 161-177). Cahiers de l’Institut de linguistique et des sciences du langage, No. 59. Lausanne, Switzerland: UNIL, University of Lausanne.
Page Numbers: 161-177
Publication Date: 2019
Publication Name: Understanding Chinese internet and social media: The innovative and creative affordances of technology, language and culture
Research Interests:
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Understanding Chinese Internet and Social Media. The innovative and Creative Affordances of Technology, Language and Culture. (2019) Bei Ju, Todd Sandel, Richard Fitzgerald. In SE METTRE EN SCÈNE EN LIGNE La communication digitale, vol. 2, Edited by Marcel Burgermore
by Richard Fitzgerald
In this chapter we set out to briefly sketch a description of Chinese internet culture from its historical development through to some of its current characteristics. From the early roll out of the internet through to the use of social... more
In this chapter we set out to briefly sketch a description of Chinese internet culture from its historical development through to some of its current characteristics. From the early roll out of the internet through to the use of social media Chinese internet cutlture should be understood as emerging from the interplay of a number of forces: technological changes, software development, user-generated interactional practices, and government censorship. The discussion goes onto highlight how increasingly divergent forms of Chinese social media use provide a rich source of analysis of new and innovative practices as well as an awareness of the distinct context of communicative technological and social environment of it its 772 million users.
Publication Date: 2019
Research Interests:
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Papers. Media/Discourse Analysis
Mind the Gap. The Fantasy and Façades of Macao’s Themed Resort Casinos (2022 vol 3. 2. Open Access). Critical Gambling Studies. This is a light commentary and walk through Venice, Paris, London, Hollywood and even Macau. R Fitzgerald, M Johnson. SI on Macau ed by Mario Wenning and Fiona Nicoll.more
by Richard Fitzgerald
The Great Exhibition of 1851 held at the Crystal Palace in London was a showcase of the British Empire designed to demonstrate to the world Britain’s role as an industrial powerhouse. Britain was at the height of its power and the event... more
The Great Exhibition of 1851 held at the Crystal Palace in London was a showcase of the British Empire designed to demonstrate to the world Britain’s role as an industrial powerhouse. Britain was at the height of its power and the event attracted exhibits of art and colonial raw materials from around the world, but most prominently from the four corners of the British Empire. The showcase of industry and cultures of the Empire bore testament to the power of Britain and its dominion around the globe where the sun never set, and it was always over the yardarm in some corner of the empire. The essence of the Great Exhibition was to display the power of Britain by bringing the world to London. In doing so the exhibition showcased Britain as the powerhouse of the global industrial economy, and to present its citizens and the newly emerging wealthy this power through the range of the goods produced.
Some one hundred and seventy years later China is now experiencing a similar boom, with the economy experiencing sustained growth and projected to overtake the US before 2030. The resulting rise in incomes lifting many out of poverty and creating a new middle class has also created an empire- sized population with money to spare, and a thirst for international travel, high end shopping, and gambling.
DOI: 10.29173/cgs144
Publication Date: 2022
Publication Name: Critical Gambling Studies
Research Interests:
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Discourse, context & media: Relevance in a changing world. (Editorial 2020) Caroline Tagg, Carmen Lee, Camilla Vásquez, Göran Eriksson, Clare Anderson, Richard Fitzgerald Article 100468more
by Richard Fitzgerald
Discourse, Context & Media was launched in 2012 under the editorship of Greg Myers. As the journal nears its first decade, it seems a good time to take stock of where the journal has come and where it might go. In less than ten years,... more
Discourse, Context & Media was launched in 2012 under the editorship of Greg Myers. As the journal nears its first decade, it seems a good time to take stock of where the journal has come and where it might go. In less than ten years, under the exceptional editorships of Greg Myers, Ruth Page and Richard Fitzgerald, DCM has grown to become an internationally renowned journal, with six volumes a year and an impact factor of 1.380, and is now the place to go to for debates and ideas around mediated discourse in context. The journal’s primary interest in the three keywords in its title, broadly defined and of increasing relevance to a tumultuous world, means that it has never been tied to a particular set of methodologies, theories or ideologies, but has been able to move with the times, exploring diverse discourses mediated by a growing range of technologies in rapidly changing political and social contexts. Importantly, the ways in which it has done so have not been determined solely by the editors – despite their outstanding leadership over the last nine years – but emerges instead from multiple ongoing dialogues between the editorial team (there are now five of us co-authoring this Editorial), the editorial board, authors, reviewers, readers, and the guest editors who imagine and put together the journal’s article collections. The journal is what it is today as a result of intellectual conversations between editors, authors and reviewers – and whatever it will become in the next few years will emerge similarly from such dynamics. And yet, it would be remiss of us, the editorial team, not to lay out what we see as the aims and remit of the journal and to consider where we might try to steer such conversations.
DOI: 10.1016/j.dcm.2021.100468
Publication Date: 2020
Publication Name: Discourse, Context and Media
Research Interests:
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The Art of Illusion as Government Policy. Analysing Political Economies of Surrealism. (2020) Nadira Talib and Richard Fitzgerald. Critical Discourse Studies (online first)more
by Richard Fitzgerald and Nadira Talib
This article advances a critical approach to the analysis of social policy texts drawing on the philosophical perspectives of hyperrealism, surrealism, ethics, and critical discourse analysis. Drawing on official government texts and... more
This article advances a critical approach to the analysis of social policy texts drawing on the philosophical perspectives of hyperrealism, surrealism, ethics, and critical discourse analysis. Drawing on official government texts and speeches on the continuing development of Singapore's education policy, the paper examines the way metaphors of flexibility, diversity, choice, and opportunity are used within an evolving ideological context that work to continually produce truth conditions as justifications for inequality. In doing this, the analysis foregrounds a functional aspect of policy metaphors as divisive mechanisms of neo-liberalism through associating individuals with the appearance of discriminatory forms of economic materiality which does not in fact exist in reality.
DOI: 10.1080/17405904.2020.1848891
Publication Date: 2020
Publication Name: Critical Discourse Studies
Research Interests:
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Good Professional Reasons for Bad Journalism Practice: Inventing Audience Contributions in a Live Tv Debate. (2019) Journalism Practice. Burger and Fitzgerald.more
by Richard Fitzgerald
ABSTRACT In this paper, we are interested in the decision making and use of an invented questioner by a journalist during a live televised political debate in Switzerland. By adopting a combined methodological perspective: between an... more
ABSTRACT
In this paper, we are interested in the decision making and use of an invented questioner by a journalist during a live televised political debate in Switzerland. By adopting a combined methodological perspective: between an ethnographic approach to journalism augmented with Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA), we consider in detail the preparation for the debate by the journalists behind the scenes as they raise and negotiate journalist ethics in relation to inventing an audience member to ask a question during the debate. Our analysis highlights how and why an “ideal” intervention (all the debaters agree the relevance of the question) is balanced against the journalism apparent ethics in using fictitious identities in the name of public interest.
DOI: 10.1080/17512786.2019.1582352
Publication Date: 2019
Publication Name: Journalism Practice
Research Interests:
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Web-TV as a backstage activity: Emerging forms of audience address in the post-broadcast era. Text and Talk Vol 39 (1) (2019) Eriksson and Fitzgeraldmore
by Richard Fitzgerald
Taking off from the Media Talk approach, this paper examines the communicative work of a Swedish sports webcast football show, Superlive, as an emerging form of web-based media format called Web-TV. This analysis is situated in a context... more
Taking off from the Media Talk approach, this paper examines the communicative work of a Swedish sports webcast football show, Superlive, as an emerging form of web-based media format called Web-TV. This analysis is situated in a context in which broadcasting is going through fundamental changes, and broadcasters are rethinking their content in order to face the challenges arriving with recent decades' technological developments, and especially the fact that television is no longer restricted to being broadcast but can be distributed through the web and be received on PCs, tablets and mobile phones. In this 'post-broadcasting era' producers are searching for new ways of reaching audiences through creating new forms of audience address. Superlive is a good example of these changes and how broadcasters now explore the possibilities of producing television exclusively for the Web. The analysis shows that what is taking place in Superlive is clearly in contrast to the performances one could expect in the conventional broadcast. Through the participants' favoring of an interactional style characterized by informality and spontaneity, this show situates itself as backstage to the conventional forms of airings. As a result, this discursive space implies an interactional orientation to " co-presence " with the audience.
DOI: 10.1515/text-2018-2018
Publication Date: 2019
Publication Name: Text and Talk
Research Interests:
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SPECIAL ISSUE on Ethics in Critical Discourse Studies. Putting philosophy back to work in Critical Discourse Analysis. Talib & Fitzgerald (2018). Critical Discourse Studies.more
by Nadira Talib and Richard Fitzgerald
This paper explores how philosophical inquiry and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) can mutually benefit from each other to produce new methodological and reflexive directions in neo-liberal policy research to examine the phenomenon of... more
This paper explores how philosophical inquiry and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) can mutually benefit from each other to produce new methodological and reflexive directions in neo-liberal policy research to examine the phenomenon of ‘What is (going on here)’. Through this we argue that augmenting linguistic analysis with philosophical perspectives develops and supports CDA scholarship more broadly by accommodating the shifting complexity of social problems of ideologically driven inequality that are inbuilt through, in our case, social policy texts. In discussing philosophical-methodological issues, the paper argues for the need to continually adapt CDA to the particular data so as to remain sensitive to and avoid hegemonic tendencies in analysis. Through adopting the principles of a working methodology, we discuss a micro-meso-macro CDA framework that draws on the analytical concepts of movement, metaphorical superfluidity, thematic condensation, and surrealism to conceive of a research approach capable of examining and comprehending evolving discourses of political economies. The most immediate benefit of this framework is its capacity to illustrate how forms of valuations perpetuated by and through policy discourse are the motivational locus of meaning making insofar as they strongly inform the moral underpinning the ideology of economic growth.
DOI: 10.1080/17405904.2017.1421242
Publication Date: 2018
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Business, Business Ethics, Discourse Analysis, Social Movements, and 364 more
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Une mauvaise pratique pour de bonnes raisons : quand un journaliste invente un membre du public dans un débat (2017) Burger, Fitzgerald. In Discours des réseaux sociaux : enjeux publics, politiques et médiatiquesmore
by Richard Fitzgerald
Cette étude de cas traite de quelques aspects du travail journalistique en tant que contraint par des enjeux liés à la généralisation de la communication digitale dans les espaces sociaux contemporains. Nous nous intéressons à... more
Cette étude de cas traite de quelques aspects du travail journalistique
en tant que contraint par des enjeux liés à la généralisation
de la communication digitale dans les espaces sociaux contemporains.
Nous nous intéressons à l’intervention par SMS d’un
membre de l’audience durant un débat politique télévisé en Suisse,
dans le contexte d’une votation importante en 2013. En adoptant
une perspective méthodologique combinée : entre une approche
ethnographique du journalisme et une analyse des interactions
au travail, nous considérons dans le détail la préparation au
débat depuis les coulisses de la rédaction. De fait, il s’avère que
l’intervention d’un téléspectateur adressée aux politiciens est une
pure invention journalistique, savamment configurée dans le souci
sinon de contrôler la teneur du débat, du moins de contraindre la
discussion. S’il s’agit d’une intervention « idéale » (tous les débatteurs
saluent d’ailleurs unanimement sa pertinence), il se pose
la question de la légitimité du journaliste à mettre en scène des
identités fictives fût-ce au nom d’une préoccupation citoyenne.
Mots-clés : journalisme, ethnographie des médias, public cible,
analyse des interactions au travail, débat télévisé.
Research Interests:
Analysing Social Media as Interactive Spaces: Ethics, Methods and Research. (2017) Burger, Thornborrow and Fitzgerald. In Discours des réseaux sociaux : enjeux publics, politiques et médiatiques.more
by Richard Fitzgerald
The Internet generally, and social media particularly, provide rich and varied environments for interactional encounters and exchanges between increasingly inter-connected networks of users. The consequences of this continuing evolution... more
The Internet generally, and social media particularly, provide rich and varied
environments for interactional encounters and exchanges between increasingly inter-connected networks of users. The consequences of this continuing evolution in and between digital communicative spaces are far-reaching. With the arrival of Web 2.0, and the imminent potential of Web 3.0 and 4.0, internet users have been able to routinely engage with each other through and across multiple sites and platforms which contain massive amounts of multi-modal content, uploading photos, videos and other formats that are shared across the spaces of the net. As these exchanges become more and more commonplace, and deeply embedded as social practice within and across contexts, one of the consequences has been the steady erosion of the boundaries between on line ‘virtual’ and off line ‘real life’ spaces for communicative actions. These spaces are becoming increasingly fluid: indeed, the terms barely seem appropriately delimited now as the ‘virtual’ environment is ever more tightly threaded through and interwoven with the ‘real’, and the very concepts of ‘virtual’ and ‘real’ become problematic1. This is the contextual backdrop to the analysis and discussion offered in this volume.
Research Interests:
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RF_final_Proof_EP2_9782807306028_I-268.pdf
FAQ_Research_Seminars_.docx
How Queensland newspapers reported public sector information reform. (2017) Breit, R, Fitzgerald, R., Liu, S, Neal, R. Media International Australia. 161(1)more
by Richard Fitzgerald
This article explores the role of media in Freedom of Information (FOI) policy transfer, using a case study of Queensland's 2009 FOI reforms. A multi-dimensional analysis was used to discover how newspapers reported changes in... more
This article explores the role of media in Freedom of Information (FOI) policy transfer, using a case study of Queensland's 2009 FOI reforms. A multi-dimensional analysis was used to discover how newspapers reported changes in Queensland's public sector information (PSI) policy to identify whether stories on PSI policy were reframed over time. At a quantitative level, the text analytics software Leximancer was used to identify key concepts, issues and trends in 786 relevant articles from national, metropolitan and regional newspapers. At a qualitative level, discourse analysis was used to identify key themes and patterns from the newspaper articles. Both qualitative and quantitative shifts in the media reporting of Right to Information (RTI) and FOI were revealed across three time periods representing the periods before, during and after the reform implementation. The findings offer insights into the role of newspapers in policy diffusion, revealing how Queensland media reports framed the shift in PSI policy from pull model FOI to push model RTI.
Research Interests:
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Ripples of mediatization: Social media and the exposure of the pool interviewmore
by Sean Rintel and Richard Fitzgerald
During the 2011 UK public sector protests, controversy ignited over the ‘Miliband Loop’, an unedited video from a pool interview showing Labour leader Ed Miliband to have provided largely the same answer in response to six questions. The... more
During the 2011 UK public sector protests, controversy ignited over the ‘Miliband Loop’, an unedited video from a pool interview showing Labour leader Ed Miliband to have provided largely the same answer in response to six questions. The interviewer subsequently complained in a TwitLonger that the incident epitomized the clash of public relations and journalism. In this paper we unpack the practical production of the pool interview as a delamination of the interview-as-lived from the interview-as-media-production-mechanism. We then explore professional and public understanding (or lack thereof) of exposure of this delamination issue and its relation to politics. While the controversy did not directly affect Miliband’s position as leader, it is clear that the Internet is a dangerous place for the old rules of mediatization.
More Info: Vol 11, pp. 50-64
Publisher: Elsevier
Journal Name: Discourse, Context, and Media
Publication Date: Apr 2016
Research Interests:
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Micro–meso–macro movements; a multi-level critical discourse analysis framework to examine metaphors and the value of truth in policy texts. (2016) Talib and Fitzgerald. Critical Discourse Studiesmore
by Nadira Talib and Richard Fitzgerald
This paper presents detailed methods for constructing a flexible philosophical–analytical model through which to apply the analytic principles of CDA for the interpretation of metaphors across policy texts. Drawing on a theoretical... more
This paper presents detailed methods for constructing a flexible philosophical–analytical model through which to apply the analytic principles of CDA for the interpretation of metaphors across policy texts. Drawing on a theoretical framing from Foucault and the augmentation of Nietzsche’s views on valuation, we sketch a framework for examining ways in which evaluative semantic categories can be linked to sociological theories in order to bring out their relevance for the purpose of critical discourse analysis. This multi-level research framework draws upon a relationship between language analysis, the philosophical study of valuation, and political economy as a composite formulation of values through which neo-liberalism is discursively entwined and progressed through a system of principles of e/valuation.
Research Interests:
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Using visual text analytics to examine broadcast interviewing (2016) Angus, Fitzgerald, Atay, Wiles. Discourse, Context, Media.more
by Daniel Angus and Richard Fitzgerald
Broadcast interview hosts are increasingly adopting hybrid forms of interview through the utilization of interview techniques from different genres within the one interview (Ekström and Kroon Lundell, 2011; Montgomery, 2008). Methods that... more
Broadcast interview hosts are increasingly adopting hybrid forms of interview through the utilization of interview techniques from different genres within the one interview (Ekström and Kroon Lundell, 2011; Montgomery, 2008). Methods that can visually represent interviews in their entirety have the potential to assist in tracking and tracing genre shifts within a single interview. In this paper we examine traditional genres and hybrid forms of broadcast interviewing using a visual text analytic software Discursis (Angus et al., 2013, 2012a, 2012b). Discursis provides visual representations of whole interviews at-a-glance as well as the ability to focus into particular sections for closer analysis. Drawing on a corpus of 101 interviews from a single television program, this study examines if Discursis can meaningfully visually represent forms of interviewing genres (Montgomery, 2008) and highlight where shifting techniques (Ekström and Kroon Lundell, 2011) are used within a single interview.
Research Interests:
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Ripples of Mediatization: Social media and the exposure of the pool interview (2016) Rintel, Angus, Fitzgerald. Discourse Context Media.more
by Daniel Angus and Richard Fitzgerald
Abstract During the 2011 UK public sector protests, controversy ignited over the “Miliband Loop”, an unedited video from a pool interview showing Labor leader Ed Miliband to have provided largely the same answer in response to six... more
Abstract
During the 2011 UK public sector protests, controversy ignited over the “Miliband Loop”, an unedited video from a pool interview showing Labor leader Ed Miliband to have provided largely the same answer in response to six questions. The interviewer subsequently complained in a TwitLonger that the incident epitomized the clash of public relations and journalism. In this paper we unpack the practical production of the pool interview as a delamination of the interview-as-lived from the interview-as-media-production-mechanism. We then explore professional and public understanding (or lack thereof) of exposure of this delamination issue and its relation to politics. While the controversy did not directly affect Miliband׳s position as leader, it is clear that the Internet is a dangerous place for the old rules of mediatization.
Research Interests:
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INEQUALITY AS MERITOCRACY The use of the metaphor of diversity and the value of inequality within Singapore’s meritocratic education system. (2015) Talib and Fitzgerald. Critical Discourse Studiesmore
by Richard Fitzgerald and Nadira Talib
This paper examines the way the metaphor of diversity provides a moral basis for inequality in Singapore’s meritocratic education system. Based upon a collection of policy texts from 2002 to 2012, our analysis illustrates that the... more
This paper examines the way the metaphor of diversity provides a moral basis for inequality in Singapore’s meritocratic education system. Based upon a collection of policy texts from 2002 to 2012, our analysis illustrates that the metaphor of diversity in policy texts provides ways for systemic discrimination within the education system and that this inequality is given legitimacy as necessary through various moral discourses. The paper employs a critical discourse analysis that draws upon the relationship between language analysis, the philosophical study of valuation, and political economy as a composite formulation of values to highlight the ways in which an argument for inequality permeates policy from within a frame of meritocracy, and to analyse how changes associated with new modes of value determination serve to legitimize inequality.
Research Interests:
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Groundhog Day: Extended repetitions in political news interviews. (2014) Ekström & Fitzgerald. Journalism Studies more
by Richard Fitzgerald
"Abstract In this paper we focus on the use of extended repetitions in political news interviews. Drawing on conversation analysis and discourse analysis we examine a corpus of examples where particular forms of repeated questions and/or... more
"Abstract
In this paper we focus on the use of extended repetitions in political news interviews. Drawing on conversation analysis and discourse analysis we examine a corpus of examples where particular forms of repeated questions and/or answers appear within two main practices of political interviewing. We refer to these as the spectacular live interview and the non-live interview. Our analysis shows that the design of repetitions, which we describe as either “stripped” or “embedded”, differs significantly in these practices as they are oriented to differing political/media communication work. We argue that the use of repeated repetition highlights a locally organized powerful form of control of the interactional event with implications for the professional status of the parties involved."
Publication Date: Feb 13, 2014
Publication Name: Journalism Studies
Research Interests:
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Controversial new sciences in the media: Content analysis of global reporting of nanotechnology during the last decade. (2014) Fisk, Fitzgerald and Cokley. Media International Australia more
by Richard Fitzgerald
Abstract: The potentially controversial science of nanotechnology is only now beginning to infiltrate mainstream public consciousness through media channels. This article suggests the infiltration is taking different forms, depending on... more
Abstract: The potentially controversial science of nanotechnology is only now beginning to infiltrate mainstream public consciousness through media channels. This article suggests the infiltration is taking different forms, depending on the nationality of journalists reporting on the science. Having completed analysis of a large longitudinal international sample of news and feature articles about nanotechnology, we report that journalists in Australia and New Zealand deploy sources 'direct from the lab' to highlight scientific advancements; those in Asia emphasise the nation-building potential of nanotechnology; US journalists provide positive coverage across all areas; and those in the United Kingdom offer the most critical analysis and risk reporting. These messages have also evolved over time in each region. Results are integrated with existing research about public perceptions of nanotechnology, and suggest several themes common to all media reporting of nanotechnology, the most important of which reflects positive reporting or acceptance, although safety concerns and health risks also arise.
Publication Name: Media International Australia 2014 (issue 150)
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“Grab a pen and paper” Interaction v. interactivity in a political radio phone-in. (2013) Thornborrow & Fitzgerald. Journal of Language and Politicsmore
by Richard Fitzgerald
In this paper we analyse the discursive frameworks for interaction in a UK political radio phone-in between 2001 and 2010, and the implications of those frameworks for public engagement with politicians. The BBC Radio 4 phone-in program... more
In this paper we analyse the discursive frameworks for interaction in a UK political radio phone-in between 2001 and 2010, and the implications of those frameworks for public engagement with politicians. The BBC Radio 4 phone-in program Election Call, broadcast in the run-up to a general election, has experimented with ‘new’ interactive technology (TV simulcast, web broadcasting and e-mail) in its attempt to provide listeners with the opportunity to engage with politicians and political parties live on air. By 2010 however, the program had returned to the original ‘old’ media format of telephone interaction only. Building on previous research in the discourse of radio phone-in broadcasts (Hutchby 1996; Thornborrow 2001a, 2001b, 2002; Hester & Fitzgerald 1999; Fitzgerald & Housley 2002; Thornborrow & Fitzgerald 2002), our analysis focuses on the empirical implementation of the 2010 shift in editorial policy which explicitly invited callers to engage with issues rather than just giving opinions. We will argue that while interactivity may broaden access to democratic debate, it is through live interaction that callers are best able to challenge politicians and hold them to account.
Publication Name: Journal of Language and Politics 12:1 (2013) 1-28
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Just like home: Remediation of the social in contemporary news broadcasting. (2012) Richard Fitzgerald, Susan McKay.more
by Richard Fitzgerald
In this paper we examine contemporary news presentation, noting some of the discursive and textual features as broadcasters endeavour to capture and hold target audiences in an intensely competitive and connected environment. Drawing on... more
In this paper we examine contemporary news presentation, noting some of the discursive and textual features as broadcasters endeavour to capture and hold target audiences in an intensely competitive and connected environment. Drawing on Bolter and Grusin’s (1999) notion of ‘remediation’ we examine how the news studio and presentation style has begun to borrow artefacts and language styles that resemble the domestic sphere in layout and discourse. We begin by noting the increasing use of domestic furniture from which news is presented before then examining how the presenters in a particular news program present a newspaper review section during the program. What is notable here is the way the presenters do not stick to the topical news stories of the day but use the stories to touch off further personal stories about themselves, and which take up most of the allocated time slot. In the final section we examine how this level of informality is utilised in integrating viewer comments and feedback into the going interaction maintaining a level of synchronicity of topical comment.

Keywords
Broadcast news; Remediation; Discourse; Furniture"
More Info: "Discourse, Context & MediaVolume 1, Issue 1, March 2012, Pages 1–8"
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'This Poll Has Not Happened Yet': Temporal Play In Election Predictions (2008) Discourse and Communication.more
by Richard Fitzgerald
Although the past plays a large part in election campaigns, predictions and promises are its lifeblood, with the various parties promising great things if elected and predicting doom if not. Indeed the ‘manifestos’ usually published at... more
Although the past plays a large part in election campaigns, predictions and promises are its lifeblood, with the various parties promising great things if elected and predicting doom if not. Indeed the ‘manifestos’ usually published at the beginning of an election campaign are a study in pledges, promises and wishes that parties use to entice the electorate to vote for them. Whilst talk of the future often dominates election discourse, one aspect of the future that is largely passed over without comment is the actual make up of the result, despite the relentless publication of opinion polls results. However, towards the end of the general election campaign in Britain in 2001 the Conservative Party began to warn of the dangers of the Labour Party winning the election by a large majority. If this were to happen, they argued, the new government would be in a position to push through almost any legislation and policy it saw fit to do so and in this way was almost unaccountable to the checks and balances of the Parliamentary process. Whilst the media gave wide prominence to this event, seen as tantamount to conceding defeat to the Labour Party, the reaction of all the political parties was to downplay its significance. In this paper, we explore the way the three main UK political parties treated and reacted to the media’s interpretation of the warning and the way the political discourse utilised temporal play in taking up their positions. Through this, we suggest that the warning offered by the Conservative Party was a ‘breach’ in the routine election prediction structure and that this particular ‘breach’ was a temporal one.
More Info: DRAFT DISCOURSE & COMMUNICATION February 2008 vol. 2 no. 1 5-27
Publisher: dcm.sagepub.com
Publication Date: Jan 1, 2008
Publication Name: Discourse & Communication
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An initial exploration of the role of Talkback Radio in Hong Kong and Singapore. (2007) Media International Australia.more
by Richard Fitzgerald
Abstract Politicians increasingly treat radio talkback as a valuable resource through which to communicate directly with the public. Whilst research has examined the role of talkback in the public sphere in the USA, UK and recently... more
Abstract
Politicians increasingly treat radio talkback as a valuable resource through which to communicate directly with the public. Whilst research has examined the role of talkback in the public sphere in the USA, UK and recently Australia, little is known about the use of talkback in Asia. This paper begins an initial examination of the role of talkback in Singapore and Hong Kong as a vehicle of public opinion and political engagement by those who produce and host the programs.
More Info: Published in Media International Australia. 2007, No 124
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The Language of Radio. (2006) Encyclopedia of Language & Linguisticsmore
by Richard Fitzgerald
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Beyond Recency: The Discourse of the Future In BBC Radio Newsmore
by Richard Fitzgerald
ABSTRACT This article briefly investigates the role that ethnomethodology has played in sociological analyses of language and interaction. The work of Harvey Sacks is investigated in relation to membership categorization and the analysis... more
ABSTRACT This article briefly investigates the role that ethnomethodology has played in sociological analyses of language and interaction. The work of Harvey Sacks is investigated in relation to membership categorization and the analysis of talk-in-interaction. More specifically, the authors focus on how this strand of work has been developed in recent years and now represents a powerful
apparatus for conducting sociological analyses of interaction in a diverse range of settings in a way that is sensitive to issues related to social organization, normativity, identity, macro–micro synthesis, knowledge and developments in social theory.
Publisher: espace.library.uq.edu.au
Publication Date: Jan 1, 2010
Publication Name: … : Belgian Journal of …
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Busy saying nothing new: Live silence in TV reporting of 9/11. (2005) Multilinguamore
by Richard Fitzgerald
Abstract News of the attacks on New York and Washington on September 11th 2001 spread fast, mainly through dramatic images of the events broadcast via a global television media, particularly 24-hour news channels such as BBC News 24 and... more
Abstract
News of the attacks on New York and Washington on September 11th 2001 spread fast, mainly through dramatic images of the events broadcast via a global television media, particularly 24-hour news channels such as BBC News 24 and CNN. Following the initial report many news channels moved to dedicated live coverage of the story. This move, to what Liebes (1998) describes as a ‘disaster marathon’, entails shifting from the routine, regular news agenda to one where the event and its aftermath become the main story and reference for all other news. In this paper, we draw upon recordings from the BBC News 24 channel on September 11th 2001 during the immediate aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon
to argue that the coverage of this event, and other similar types of
events, may be characterised as news permeated with strategic and emergent silences. Identifying silence as both concrete and metaphorical, we suggest that there are a number of types of silence found in the coverage and that these not only act to cover for lack of new news, or give emphasis or gravitas, but also that the vacuum created by a lack of news creates an emotional space in which collective shock, grieving or wonder are managed through news presented as phatic communion.
More Info: ADAM JAWORSKI, RICHARD FITZGERALD and ODYSSEAS CONSTANTINOU
Publication Date: 2005
Publication Name: Multilingua
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Radio Leaks: Presenting and Contesting Leaks In Radio News Broadcasts (2004) Journalism, Theory and Practice 5/2more
by Richard Fitzgerald
"Abstract This paper analyses the discursive construction and contestation of ‘leaked’ stories in news broadcast programmes.1 Drawing on a sample of BBC Radio 4 news programmes recorded between May and June 2000, we analyse four items of... more
"Abstract
This paper analyses the discursive construction and contestation of ‘leaked’ stories in news broadcast programmes.1 Drawing on a sample of BBC Radio 4 news programmes recorded between May and June 2000, we analyse four items of news presented as leaks about upcoming events. We suggest that these examples highlight the leaking of information as a valuable newsworthy commodity in that it not only allows news organisations to report what is going to be news before it happens but also enables speculative discourse as to the meaning of the event yet to happen. However, in order for a story to be accepted as a leak it must be seen to fulfil a number of criteria. With this in mind, we identify four features accompanying the introduction of the news items as leaks in the process of authentification: secrecy, authorship/ownership and future orientation. The paper then discusses how these features are used when contesting the status of a news story as a leak, and how temporal play contributes to the downgrading the content of the leak and hence its relevance, immediacy and newsworthiness."
More Info: Jaworski, A., Fitzgerald, R. Morris, D. (2004) Radio leaks: Presenting and contesting leaks in radio news broadcasts. Journalism, Theory and Practice 5/2: 183-202.
Publisher: jou.sagepub.com
Publication Date: Jan 1, 2004
Publication Name: Journalism
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Certainty and Speculation In News Reporting of the Future: the Execution of Timothy McVeigh (2003) Discourse Studies Vol 5(1)more
by Richard Fitzgerald
Abstract This paper explores the temporal organisation and manipulation of time in the production and presentation of news reports. Time is often cited as one of the most central organising concepts of news production. Indeed one of the... more
Abstract
This paper explores the temporal organisation and manipulation of time in the production and presentation of news reports. Time is often cited as one of the most central organising concepts of news production. Indeed one of the major features of news reporting is the breaking of stories and the reporting of events ‘as they happen’. However, whilst much emphasis is placed upon time within media production much of this pertains to the reporting of past and present events with little examination given to the reporting of the future in news. In this paper we begin to explore the future within news reporting through an examination of sequential events leading up to a main scheduled newsworthy event. Through an examination of the week’s news reports leading up to, and including the execution of Timothy McVeigh, the paper explores how the production of ‘news’ utilises the future by relying upon prediction and speculation about what will happen. In the first section we explore how news can be seen to depend to a large degree on uncertainty for its value. That is, how news reports utilise predictions about future events and possibilities emanating from present events for their newsworthiness. Furthermore, we explore the way that once an event has happened or a future event is decided the news value of an event becomes downgraded. In the second part of the paper we examine the use of time frames within the media reporting. Here the focus is upon the organisation of cycles of time where as an event gets closer different levels of time are oriented to. Finally, the paper examines the way time is manipulated in the service of the recency and immediacy of news reporting. In this section we examine the way print and broadcast media may manipulate time reference in order to report on an event which has not happened as yet, or talk about an event which is supposed to be happening ‘now’. This analysis contributes to media discourse research by highlighting the importance of the ‘future’ in understanding the organisation of media production and media time in particular.
More Info: Jaworski, A, Fitzgerald, R, Morris, D. (2003) Discourse Studies Vol 5(1): 33–49. http://dis.sagepub.com/content/5/1.toc
Publisher: dis.sagepub.com
Publication Date: Jan 1, 2003
Publication Name: Discourse Studies
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Linked Co Authored Papers
Putting philosophy back to work in Critical Discourse Analysis. Talib and Fitzgerald (2018) Critical Discourse Studiesmore
by Richard Fitzgerald and Nadira Talib
ABSTRACT This paper explores how philosophical inquiry and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) can mutually benefit from each other to produce new methodological and reflexive directions in neo-liberal policy research to examine the... more
ABSTRACT
This paper explores how philosophical inquiry and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) can mutually benefit from each other to produce new methodological and reflexive directions in neo-liberal policy research to examine the phenomenon of ‘What is (going on here)’. Through this we argue that augmenting linguistic analysis with philosophical perspectives develops and supports CDA scholarship more broadly by accommodating the shifting complexity of social problems of ideologically driven inequality that are inbuilt through, in our case, social policy texts. In discussing philosophical-methodological issues, the paper argues for the need to continually adapt CDA to the particular data so as to remain sensitive to and avoid hegemonic tendencies in analysis. Through adopting the principles of a working methodology, we discuss a micro-meso-macro CDA framework that draws on the analytical concepts of movement, metaphorical superfluidity, thematic condensation, and surrealism to conceive of a research approach capable of examining and comprehending evolving discourses of political economies. The most immediate benefit of this framework is its capacity to illustrate how forms of valuations perpetuated by and through policy discourse are the motivational locus of meaning making insofar as they strongly inform the moral underpinning the ideology of economic growth.

KEYWORDS: Critical Discourse Analysis, philosophy, data-led methodology, valuation, evaluation, political economy, neo-liberalism, social policy, metaphor, surrealism
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Introduction Membership Categorisation Analysis. Technologies of social actionmore
by Sean Rintel and Richard Fitzgerald
The origin of this special issue was a panel organised at the International Institute of Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis (IIEMCA) on Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA), held at Kolding in Denmark in 2015. The panel, in... more
The origin of this special issue was a panel organised at the International Institute of Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis (IIEMCA) on Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA), held at Kolding in Denmark in 2015. The panel, in memory of Stephen Hester who died in 2014, brought together a number of researchers to discuss the current state of the field and present new directions in research in MCA. Building on the pioneering work of Harvey Sacks and the later work of Hester and others the special issue highlights the contemporary development of MCA as a rigorous empirical approach to the study of situated identity within the flow of social interaction. The papers, placed at the intersection between pragmatics and sociology in examining multiple sequentially organised layers of category work, examine the organisation of social knowledge and knowledge entitlement, of moral ordering and the deployment of social norms, but also new and emergent areas of interest around spatial and embodied social action within the frame of technology and technologies of interaction.
DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2017.07.012 0378-2166
Volume: 118
More Info: Introduction to the Journal of Pragmatics Special Issue on Membership Categorisation Analysis: Technologies of Social Action
Journal Name: Journal of Pragmatics
Page Numbers: 51-55
Publication Date: Aug 5, 2017
Publication Name: Journal of Pragmatics
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From lifeguard to bitch: How a story character becomes a promiscuous category in a couple’s video callmore
by Sean Rintel and Richard Fitzgerald
This paper examines a single case of story telling between a couple in a long-distance relationship conducted via video calling. Drawing on Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA) we examine the way the teller incrementally reveals... more
This paper examines a single case of story telling between a couple in a long-distance relationship conducted via video calling. Drawing on Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA) we examine the way the teller incrementally reveals information about a character in order to build a story of coincidences. In doing this, however, the recipient begins to treat the evolving character as relevant to a different device, that of their relationship. Our discussion develops on the analysis of omnirelevance devices (Sacks, 1995) by examining how categories can be shifted between devices. In so doing, we highlight the way categories introduced for one task may be put to other uses; that is, how categories may become ‘promiscuous’.
More Info: Volume 40 Issue 2, pp.101-118
Journal Name: Australian Journal of Communication
Publication Date: Oct 25, 2013
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Internationalization as De-Westernization of the Curriculum: The Case of Journalism at an Australian University. (2013) Breit, Obijiofor, Fitzgerald.more
by Richard Fitzgerald
Internationalization of the curriculum points to the interdependent and interconnected (globalized) world in which higher education operates. However, while international awareness is crucial to the study of journalism, in practice this... more
Internationalization of the curriculum points to the interdependent and interconnected (globalized) world in which higher education operates. However, while international awareness is crucial to the study of journalism, in practice this often means an Anglo-American curriculum based around Western principles of journalism education and training that are deeply rooted in Western values and traditions. This tendency to privilege Western thought, practice, and values obscures from view other journalism practices and renders Western models of journalism desirable, replicable, and transplantable to any part of the world. This article discusses the engagement of a small group of staff in the process of thinking through the meaning of internationalization of the curriculum in their particular disciplinary and institutional context. The staff are located in a school of journalism and communication at a large research intensive university in Australia. The article describes the thinking behind their decision to focus internationalization of the curriculum on “critical de-Westernization” and social imaginaries. This was a gestalt shift resulting from discussion of the way in which “taken for granted” disciplinary canons had hitherto been uncritically embedded into the curriculum. It is argued that treating internationalization of the journalism curriculum as critical de-Westernization has conceptual and practical benefits in a globalized world.
Publication Name: Journal of Studies in International Education 2013
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INEQUALITY AS MERITOCRACY: The use of the metaphor of diversity and the value of inequality in Singapore's meritocratic education system. Talib & Fitzgerald (2015). Critical Discourse Studies.more
by Nadira Talib and Richard Fitzgerald
This paper examines the way the metaphor of diversity provides a moral basis for inequality in Singapore’s meritocratic education system. Based upon a collection of policy texts from 2002 to 2012, our analysis illustrates that the... more
This paper examines the way the metaphor of diversity provides a moral basis for inequality in Singapore’s meritocratic education system. Based upon a collection of policy texts from 2002 to 2012, our analysis illustrates that the metaphor of diversity in policy texts provides ways for systemic discrimination within the education system and that this inequality is given legitimacy as necessary through various moral discourses. The paper employs a critical discourse analysis that draws upon the relationship between language analysis, the philosophical study of valuation, and political economy as a composite formulation of values to highlight the ways in which an argument for inequality permeates policy from within a frame of meritocracy, and to analyse how changes associated with new modes of value determination serve to legitimize inequality.

1. The article questions and challenges the official meritocratic principle of ‘equal opportunities’ (Wong, 2000) in Singapore's education system. Drawing on Foucault's and Nietzsche's philosophical perspectives, there is an explicit illustration through an in-depth analysis of how inequality is inbuilt in policy report/speech.

2. Discourse builds in/tangible structures in society and greatly determines the possibilities of the now. As such, I am also arguing that it would be more difficult to 'help' any 'community' if the structural discrimination which has been deeply embedded, is not made explicit through national policies, and by this I mean an explicit illustration through an in-depth policy analysis of how inequality is inbuilt in Singapore's education policies. It may be through this that discriminatory structures could be substantially challenged.

An initial analysis of the original 1979 policy on primary school streaming which I conducted illustrates how dichotomous (arbitrary) categorization of pupils, i.e. 'slow' and 'fast' learners legitimates and sustains increasing institutional/structural access (over the years terms like 'talents' have been employed in policy discourse), of who gets privileged knowledge access. Through this, I also ask then to what ends do forms of 'categorization' or conventional designation entail? By this, given that categorization legitimizes structural access, my question is, what is 'Malay/Muslim community' and how is this categorization necessary?

3. Even though the analysis in the article was based on Singapore's education system, it provides possible ways of understanding how inequality is continuously being inbuilt through policies on the basis of the ideology that economic growth is the (only) way forward. A way to critique this ideology is to expose its underlying assumptions. I believe the findings have much resonance with the widening inequality across many developed nations, as Singapore's policies have parallels with that of the U.K., U.S., and international organizations such as the World Bank.

4. Economically considered, the transliteration of meritocratic discourse into the metaphor of diversity pinpoints how the appeal of development for all necessarily also demands the advance of inequity for the sake of the whole, i.e. advancing the 'growth with inequity' principle.

5. The analysis highlights that value judgments are continually at work in the policy discourse and that despite the strong discourse of meritocracy that the Singapore education system promotes, it is argued that it is in the interests of the Singapore people that 'talents' should get privileged access to knowledge as it is through this that more 'opportunities' for the rest of the population are created. The findings demonstrate that although the underlying assumptions of this 'logic' that has been constructed in policies are unsubstantiated, the logic is continuously legitimated through forms of e/valuations.



This article has been featured in websites such as: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150428105815.htm
http://www.eurasiareview.com/28042015-what-is-value-of-inequality-within-singapores-education-system/
Publication Date: Apr 23, 2015
Publication Name: Critical Discourse Studies
Research Interests:
Business Ethics, Discourse Analysis, Economic History, Political Sociology, Social Movements, and 340 more
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Storying the News through Category, Action, and Reasonmore
by Joanna Thornborrow and Richard Fitzgerald
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From problematic object to routine ‘add-on’: dealing with e-mails in radio phone-insmore
by Joanna Thornborrow and Richard Fitzgerald
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Generating news: Agenda setting in radio broadcast newsmore
by Adam Jaworski and Richard Fitzgerald
Location: Richard Fitzgerald, Adam Jaworski and William Housley. 2008. Generating news: Agenda setting in radio broadcast news. In Marcel Burger (ed.) L'analyse linguistique des discours médiatiques: Entre sciences du langage et sciences de la communication. Québec: Les Éditons Nota bene. 133–151.
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Challenging Normativity: re-appraising category, bound, tied and predicated featuresmore
by Edward Reynolds and Richard Fitzgerald
Research Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA) has illustrated a wide and varied used of activities, rights and obligations, variously related to categories and membership devices (Hester and Eglin, 1992b; Jayyusi, 1984). As discussed... more
Research Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA) has illustrated a wide and varied used of activities, rights and obligations, variously related to categories and membership devices (Hester and Eglin, 1992b; Jayyusi, 1984). As discussed in the Introduction to this volume, while these were initially described by Sacks (1974) as ‘category bound activities’ and later developed by Watson (1983) as ‘category bound predicates’, little recent attention has been paid to the subtle differences in the ways category features (rights, knowledge, activities, etc.) are deployed. While the term ‘category bound predicate’ has proven immensely useful it has also tended to serve as a catch-all term for all relationships between category features and categories, obscuring the action involved in the use of this category resource. In this chapter we touch off from Sacks’s initial discussion of predicates introduced in the Introduction to this volume and subsequent discussions to explore this relationship further by developing levels of sophistication to understanding the relationship between membership categories and locally invoked associated features. In this instance we examine the way in which participants engaged in a number of public arguments orient to three distinct differences in the types of relationship between categories and category features. In order to explore the use of category features we draw on data taken from public arguments posted on the social media website engaged in what has been described as ‘enticing a challengeable’ (Reynolds, 2011, 2013). The first of these adopts Sacks’s (1995) term ‘category tied’ to refer to the link between category and category feature which is treated by participants as not taken for granted and needing to be made explicit. The second relationship examines the way in which features are treated by members as naturally related to a category, in a taken-for-granted, but nevertheless explicit way. For this link we use Sacks’s (1972a, 1972b) term ‘category-bound’. Thirdly we examine where a category feature is directly implied, by the operation of a membership device or category. For this type of relationship we use ‘category-predicate’ (Hester and Eglin,
1992b). These three different relationships between category features and categories/membership devices are explored through an analysis of the operation of the practice of ‘enticing a challengeable’ (Reynolds, 2013). This term refers to an adversarial method of enacting a strategic manipulation of social knowledge (often using categories and category ties) as a basis for later challenging an opponent’s normativity (again,
using norms related to a membership device). This chapter uses the description of these three different forms of  relationship between category features and categories/devices
to develop the argument that a new level of technical sophistication in the labelling of phenomena is now possible in MCA.
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Linked Papers
'You Gotta See Both at the Same Time': Visually Analyzing Player Performances in Basketball Coaching. (2016) Evans, B., Fitzgerald, R. Human Studies. (Full text view available at attached Url)more
by Bryn Evans and Richard Fitzgerald
Developing novices’ proficiency in skilful activities is central to the reproduction of human societies. The interactional practices through which instruction is accomplished have provided a rich focus for ethnomethodological and... more
Developing novices’ proficiency in skilful activities is central to the reproduction of human societies. The interactional practices through which instruction is accomplished have provided a rich focus for ethnomethodological and conversation analytic studies examining classroom settings, and, more recently, non-classroom environments of instruction in practical and manual skills. This paper examines the work of instruction in basketball training and in particular the correction of player performances, which are a ubiquitous and central feature of instruction in basketball training sessions. A central part of this instructional action relies on the coach observing training activities to determine players’ competencies and to extract relevant correctables from the players’ embodied displays, which are in turn embedded within complex arrangements of rapidly moving bodies situated in material environments. In this paper we examine the visual-analytic work involved in both organizing and observing a basketball training activity, demonstrating the sequential layering of multiple membership categorization devices drawn upon in producing and recognizing actions in this setting. We argue that the coach deploys spatial orientations which function analogously to membership categorization devices, with players’ bodily positions relative to one another and the material structure of the surround generating category-like sets of rights, responsibilities, and sequential relevancies. As we demonstrate, these orientations provide crucial resources for the identification of players’ errors and thereby for the organization of instruction in interaction in this setting.
Research Interests:
Micro–meso–macro movements; a multi-level critical discourse analysis framework to examine metaphors and the value of truth in policy texts. Talib & Fitzgerald (2016). Critical Discourse Studies.more
by Nadira Talib and Richard Fitzgerald
This paper presents detailed methods for constructing a flexible philosophical–analytical model through which to apply the analytic principles of CDA for the interpretation of metaphors across policy texts. Drawing on a theoretical... more
This paper presents detailed methods for constructing a flexible philosophical–analytical model through which to apply the analytic principles of CDA for the interpretation of metaphors across policy texts. Drawing on a theoretical framing from Foucault and the augmentation of Nietzsche’s views on valuation, we sketch a framework for examining ways in which evaluative semantic categories can be linked to sociological theories in order to bring out their relevance for the purpose of critical discourse analysis. This multi-level research framework draws upon a relationship between language analysis, the philosophical study of valuation, and political economy as a composite formulation of values through which neo-liberalism is discursively entwined and progressed through a system of principles of e/valuation.
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Business, Business Administration, Business Ethics, Discourse Analysis, and 348 more
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Accusation, Mitigation and Resisting Guilt in Talkmore
by Elke Emerald and Richard Fitzgerald
Publication Date: 2008
Publication Name: The Open Communication Journal
Research Interests:
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Evans, B., & Fitzgerald, R. (2016). 'It's training man'! Membership categorisation and the institutional moral order of basketball training. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 36(2). doi:10.1080/07268602.2015.1121531more
by Bryn Evans and Richard Fitzgerald
In this paper we examine how physical and verbal actions are constituted as morally accountable within an institutional context. Through the detailed examination of a video recording of the aftermath of an on-court altercation between... more
In this paper we examine how physical and verbal actions are constituted as morally accountable within an institutional context. Through the detailed examination of a video recording of the aftermath of an on-court altercation between players in a basketball training session, we explore how the members work to establish a locally organized institutional context for an action within which in situ moral reasoning practices are then brought to bear to make sense of the players’ actions and render them as morally accountable or not. In examining the moral organization of institutional accountability in an instance of basketball training activity, the paper develops a further level of detail to understand the reflexive organization of membership categories and the institutional moral order.
Journal Name: Australian Journal of Linguistics
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Busy saying nothing new: Live silence in TV reporting of 9/11more
by Adam Jaworski and Richard Fitzgerald
Location: Adam Jaworski, Richard Fitzgerald and Odysseas Constantinou. 2005. Busy saying nothing new: Live silence in TV reporting of 9/11. Multilingua 24/1–2: 121–144.
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Certainty and speculation in news reporting of the future: The execution of Timothy McVeighmore
by Adam Jaworski and Richard Fitzgerald
Location: Adam Jaworski, Richard Fitzgerald and Deborah Morris. 2003. Certainty and speculation in news reporting of the future: The execution of Timothy McVeigh. Discourse Studies 5/1: 33–49.
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‘This poll has not happened yet’: Temporal play in election predictionsmore
by Adam Jaworski and Richard Fitzgerald
Location: Adam Jaworski and Richard Fitzgerald. 2008. ‘This poll has not happened yet’: Temporal play in election predictions. Discourse & Communication 2/1: 5–27.
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Radio leaks: Presenting and contesting leaks in radio news broadcastsmore
by Adam Jaworski and Richard Fitzgerald
Location: Adam Jaworski, Richard Fitzgerald and Deborah Morris. 2004. Radio leaks: Presenting and contesting leaks in radio news broadcasts. Journalism 5/2: 183–202.
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Method in Media Interaction: An Ethnomethodological Analysis of a Radio Phone-in Showmore
by Richard Fitzgerald
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Omni-relevance and Interactional Context. Cardiff School of Social Sciences Paper: 109more
by Richard Fitzgerald
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The underlying orderliness of turn-taking: Examples from Australian talkmore
by Richard Fitzgerald
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INEQUALITY AS MERITOCRACYmore
by Richard Fitzgerald
Publication Date: 2015
Publication Name: Critical Discourse Studies
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Editorial: Knowledge and asymmetries in action: Proceedings of the 2012 Conference of the Australasian Institute of Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysismore
by Richard Fitzgerald
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Talking about Politics: Informal Groups and Social Identity in American Life. (2005)Book Review. The Sociological Reviewmore
by Richard Fitzgerald
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Publication Date: 2004
Publication Name: Perspectives on Politics
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Membership categorization, culture and norms in actionmore
by Richard Fitzgerald
Publication Date: 2009
Publication Name: Discourse & Society
Research Interests:
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Method in Media Interaction: An Ethnomethodological Analysis of a Radio Phone-in Showmore
by Richard Fitzgerald
The aim of this research is to examine the lived work of a radio broadcast. Within this two main aims are undertaken: the first methodological the second analytic. The methodological discussion takes the form of a critical examination of... more
The aim of this research is to examine the lived work of a radio broadcast. Within this two main aims are undertaken: the first methodological the second analytic. The methodological discussion takes the form of a critical examination of conversation analysis and membership categorisation analysis as separate methods for analysing members interaction. It is argued that, rather than any one method being applied to the exclusion of others, the analysis of members&#x27; methods should be able to demonstrate a sensitivity to ...
Publication Date: 1999
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The role of talkback radio in Hong Kong and Singapore: An initial explorationmore
by Richard Fitzgerald
Politicians increasingly treat radio talkback as a valuable resource through which to communicate directly with the public. Whilst research has examined the role of talkback in the public sphere in the United States, United Kingdom and... more
Politicians increasingly treat radio talkback as a valuable resource through which to communicate directly with the public. Whilst research has examined the role of talkback in the public sphere in the United States, United Kingdom and recently Australia, little is known about the use of talkback in Asia. This paper begins an initial examination of the role of talkback in Singapore and Hong Kong as a vehicle for public opinion and political engagement by those who produce and host the programs.
Publisher: School of English, Media Studies & Art History in association with the Centre for Critical & Cultural Studies, The University of Queensland
Publication Date: Aug 1, 2007
Publication Name: Media International Australia
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Branching out: Ethnomethodological approaches to communicationmore
by Richard Fitzgerald
Publisher: The University of Queensland
Publication Date: 2009
Publication Name: Australian Journal of Communication
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Omnirelevance and interactional contextmore
by Richard Fitzgerald
ABSTRACT: Within conversation analysis and membership categorisation analysis, the warrant for any instance of analytic interest is always the demonstrable relevance and consequentiality of the phenomena to the interactants. Demonstrating... more
ABSTRACT: Within conversation analysis and membership categorisation analysis, the warrant for any instance of analytic interest is always the demonstrable relevance and consequentiality of the phenomena to the interactants. Demonstrating participants&#x27; orientations to social structural contexts poses methodological difficulties, as such orientations are often fragmentary, which weakens the possibility of exploring social structural features as omnipresent and influencing the understandings and actions of ...
Publisher: aiemca.net
Publication Date: 2009
Publication Name: Australian Journal of Communication
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Talkback, community and the public spheremore
by Richard Fitzgerald
This paper explores the relationship between the audience of commercial talkback radio and the actual existing democratic public sphere in Australia. Drawing upon Anderson&#x27;s (1987) notion of an imagined community and Warner&#x27;s... more
This paper explores the relationship between the audience of commercial talkback radio and the actual existing democratic public sphere in Australia. Drawing upon Anderson&#x27;s (1987) notion of an imagined community and Warner&#x27;s (2002) discussion of publics, the paper suggests that two different but entwined modes of address operate around the talkback audience. The first centres on the active creation of an imagined community brought into being and maintained through host and caller interaction, whilst the second, ...
Publisher: School of English, Media Studies & Art History in association with the Centre for Critical & Cultural Studies, The University of Queensland
Publication Date: Feb 1, 2007
Publication Name: Media International Australia
Research Interests:
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Papers
On Algorithmic Time andDaily Contingencies intheLived Work ofFood Delivery Servicemore
by Ricardo Moutinho, Richard Fitzgerald, and Todd L Sandel
This study takes a praxiological perspective (drawing on ethnomethodology, conversation analysis and membership categorization analysis) to examine the working practices of food delivery service workers in China. The analysis explicates... more
This study takes a praxiological perspective (drawing on ethnomethodology, conversation analysis and membership categorization analysis) to examine the working practices of food delivery service workers in China. The analysis explicates how delivery drivers deal with daily algorithm-generated information and contingencies through the production and mobilization of tacitly assumed conventions to maintain their flow of work. In other words, while the logic of the algorithm-generated information is a phenomenon exhibited in the app’s delivery itinerary, actual delivery work is a reality on its own, not just a surrogate of a company’s administrative designs.
Three intertwined phenomena are identified: (1) coordinating pick up and deliveries involves a high degree of practical interactional work; (2) the job is practice oriented around routine contingencies of time, travel, and waiting, and (3), the job is collaborative and organized through a moral order that involves the mobilization of resources which operate alongside, but separate from the technology. The study shows how a detailed analysis of the lived work of couriers provides a powerful tool to highlight and examine what is often hidden (and lost) in studies of food delivery service.
DOI: 10.1007/s10606-024-09500-2
Journal Name: Computer Supported Cooperative Work
Publication Date: 2024
Publication Name: Computer Supported Cooperative Work
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Mind the Gapmore
by Richard Fitzgerald
This article is a commentary by Richard Fitzgerald and Mark R. Johnson, written for the Philosophy and Gambling: Reflections from Macao special issue of Critical Gambling Studies.  
Publisher: University of Alberta Libraries
Publication Name: Critical Gambling Studies
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Time structures in ethnomethodological and conversation analysis studies of practical activitymore
by Au-Yeung S . H . Terry and Richard Fitzgerald
Time is regarded as the immanent dimension for the social experience. This phenomenologically informed perspective of time is built into the ethnomethodological programme jointly proposed by Garfinkel and Sacks as they set out to uncover... more
Time is regarded as the immanent dimension for the social experience. This phenomenologically informed perspective of time is built into the ethnomethodological programme jointly proposed by Garfinkel and Sacks as they set out to uncover social orders through examining the temporal sequence in practical activity. However, Garfinkel and Sacks took different paths from this initial proposal in their separate development of Ethnomethodological Studies of Work and Conversation Analysis. Focusing on different forms of data, the two programmes adopted different approaches to time and action in constructing the time structures in their sociological description of activity. However, the difference has seldom been subjected to discussion and much less attempt to explore a possible synthesis of the two programmes from there. This article attempts to address this gap by proposing a perspective of multi-layered temporality in social interaction. The analysis examines three extracts from a university communication workshop for students and explicates different modes of how simultaneous sequences can constitute participants' action in situ: (1) simultaneous sequences by different actors; (2) simultaneous sequences by the same actor; (3) simultaneous sequences within a participatory framework. Contending the social actors' phenomenological potential to perceive simultaneous sequences in different time frames, we conclude that the 'situational time' in EM and 'conversational time' in CA can be commensurable. Interweaving different layers of temporality into an ethnomethodological description, practitioners can better reconstruct a 'reasonable total picture' of social activity to manifest its complex, seen-but-unnoticed endogenous social order. Beyond ethnomethodology, the multi-layered perspective of time provides the basis for a holistic approach to time, allowing the enquiry of broader social time through studying social life in vivo.
DOI: 10.1177/00380261221103018
Publication Date: 2022
Publication Name: The Sociological Review
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Understanding chinese internet and social media : the innovative and creative affordances of technology, language and culturemore
by Richard Fitzgerald
In this chapter we set out to briefly sketch out a description of Chinese internetculture from its historical development through to some of its current characteristics.From the early roll out of the internet through to the use of social... more
In this chapter we set out to briefly sketch out a description of Chinese internetculture from its historical development through to some of its current characteristics.From the early roll out of the internet through to the use of social media Chineseinternet cutlture should be understood as emerging from the interplay of a numberof forces: technological changes, software development, user-generated interactionalpractices, and government censorship. The discussion goes onto highlight howincreasingly divergent forms of Chinese social media use provide a rich source ofanalysis of new and innovative practices as well as an awareness of the distinct contextof communicative technological and social environment of it its 772 million users.
Publisher: Cantonal and University Library Fribourg
Publication Name: Cahiers du Centre de Linguistique et des Sciences du Langage
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Challenging Normativity Re-appraising Category Bound, Tied and Predicated Featuresmore
by Richard Fitzgerald
Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
Publication Name: Advances in Membership Categorisation Analysis
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Entering the Liminal Zonemore
by Richard Fitzgerald
On 2 December 2015, Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik attacked a Christmas gathering in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 people and wounding 22. On 4 December, the news media were granted access to the couple’s home by the landlord.... more
On 2 December 2015, Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik attacked a Christmas gathering in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 people and wounding 22. On 4 December, the news media were granted access to the couple’s home by the landlord. The ensuing news scrum entering the house was broadcast live to air, with reporters in the house identifying objects. In this paper, we use Membership Categorisation Analysis and particularly categorial inferencing to examine the way journalists, on being granted access to the house for the first time, and under pressure to produce news live on air, resorted to various forms of speculation and assumptions to generate news within the liminal zone. In particular, we examine how objects found in the home were used to occasion newsworthy discourses through categorial reasoning around why and how these objects were used and what they might indicate about the people and events. It is through these routine social categorial reasoning practices that it is possible to examine journalists’ routine work as displaying a “news-culture-in-action” whereby individuals and their actions are rendered as news relevant categories and articulated through categorial inferred reasoning practices.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Publication Name: Journalism Studies
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Membership Categorisation Analysis. Technologies of social actionmore
by Richard Fitzgerald
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Publication Name: Journal of Pragmatics
Research Interests:
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Good Professional Reasons for Bad Journalism Practice: Inventing Audience Contributions in a Live Tv Debatemore
by Richard Fitzgerald
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Publication Name: Journalism Practice
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Introduction to Membership Categorisation Analysismore
by Richard Fitzgerald
Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
Publication Date: 2000
Publication Name: Advances in Membership Categorisation Analysis
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The Reconsidered Model of Membership Categorisation Analysismore
by Richard Fitzgerald
Publication Date: Apr 1, 2002
Publication Name: Qualitative Research
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Certainty and Speculation in Broadcast News Reporting of the Future: The Execution of Timothy McVeighmore
by Richard Fitzgerald
Publication Date: 2011
Research Interests:
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Motives in Social Organization: Editor's Introduction to the Themed Issuemore
by Richard Fitzgerald
Publication Date: Dec 1, 2013
Publication Name: Journal of Comparative Research in Anthropology and Sociology
From lifeguard to bitch: How a story character becomes a promiscuous category in a couple’s video callmore
by Richard Fitzgerald
Publication Date: Oct 25, 2013
Publication Name: Australian Journal of Communication
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Resisting categorisation: An ordinary mothermore
by Richard Fitzgerald
Helena Austin, Griffith University Helena Austin is a lecturer in Communication and Research at Griffith University. Previous publications include an analysis of the achievement of the categories child and student in the context of the... more
Helena Austin, Griffith University Helena Austin is a lecturer in Communication and Research at Griffith University. Previous publications include an analysis of the achievement of the categories child and student in the context of the classroom Schooling the Child: The Making of Students in Classrooms (Routledge Falmer, 2003). Her current work investigates the achievement of the category Mother, especially in the context of mothering children with disability. Correspondence to Helena Austin: h.austin@griffith.edu.au Richard Fitzgerald, University of Queensland ...
Publication Date: Dec 1, 2007
Publication Name: Australian Review of Applied Linguistics
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Discourse and Identity [Book Review]more
by Richard Fitzgerald
To cite this article: Fitzgerald, Richard. Discourse and Identity [Book Review] [online]. Media International Australia, Incorporating Culture &amp;amp;amp; Policy, No. 121, Nov 2006: 202-203. Availability:... more
To cite this article: Fitzgerald, Richard. Discourse and Identity [Book Review] [online]. Media International Australia, Incorporating Culture &amp;amp;amp; Policy, No. 121, Nov 2006: 202-203. Availability: &amp;amp;lt;http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=094382667226938;res=IELHSS&amp;amp;gt; ISSN: 1329-878X. [cited 06 Dec 11].
Publication Date: Nov 1, 2006
Research Interests:
Australian Journal of Communication. Knowledge and asymmetries in action: Proceedings of the 2012 Conference of the Australasian Institute of Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysismore
by Richard Fitzgerald
Publication Date: 2013
Moral discrepancy and political discourse: Accountability and the allocation of blame in a political news interviewmore
by Richard Fitzgerald
During the course of this article we intend to explore some issues surrounding government policy and actions and the moral organisation of political discourse surrounding the recent enquiry into the BSE crisis and the publication of the... more
During the course of this article we intend to explore some issues surrounding government policy and actions and the moral organisation of political discourse surrounding the recent enquiry into the BSE crisis and the publication of the Phillips Report in the UK. More specifically, we wish to develop the concept of moral discrepancy and it&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s use in politically accountable settings, in this case the political interview. The paper, through the use of membership categorisation analysis, explores issues surrounding the social organisation of interview settings, the discursive management of policy decisions and ‘bureaucratic mistakes’ and the allocation of blame in situated media/political formats. The paper then relates these issues to notions of democracy-in-action, public ethics and the respecification of structure and agency as a members phenomenon.
Publication Date: 2003
Publication Name: Sociological Research Online
Research Interests:
Advances in Membership Categorization Analysismore
by Richard Fitzgerald
ABSTRACT &amp;quot;This is an exciting addition to the dynamic, multidisciplinary field of membership categorization analysis. Bringing together the biggest names in MCA this landmark publication provides a contemporary analysis of the... more
ABSTRACT &amp;quot;This is an exciting addition to the dynamic, multidisciplinary field of membership categorization analysis. Bringing together the biggest names in MCA this landmark publication provides a contemporary analysis of the field and a platform for emerging researchers and students to build upon. The book sets out the current methodological developments of MCA highlighting its analytic strength – particularly when examining social identity and social knowledge. It provides a sophisticated tool of qualitative analysis and draws from a wide range of empirical studies provided by global scholars. The culmination of years of international research this agenda-setting text will be essential reading for academics and advanced students using membership categorization across the social sciences; particularly in media and communication studies, sociology, psychology, education, political science and linguistics.&amp;quot; Contents. Chapter 1: Introduction to Membership Categorization Analysis. William Housley and Richard Fitzgerald Chapter 2: De Reifiying Categories. Rod Watson Chapter 3: Prospective and Retrospective Categorization: Category proffers and inferences in social interaction and rolling news media. Elizabeth Stokoe and Frederick Attenborough Chapter 4: Categorization Work in the Courtroom: The ‘foundational’ character of membership categorization analysis. Christian Licoppe Chapter 5: Challenging Normativity: re-appraising category, bound, tied and predicated features. Edward Reynolds and Richard Fitzgerald Chapter 6: Omnirelevance in Technologized Interaction: Couples coping with video calling distortions.. Sean Rintel Chapter 7: Membership Categorization and Methodological Reasoning in Research Team Interaction. William Housley and Robin Smith.
Publication Date: Mar 1, 2015
Media, policy and interaction: introductionmore
by Richard Fitzgerald
ABSTRACT
Publication Date: Dec 1, 2009
Omnirelevance and interactional contextmore
by Richard Fitzgerald
Publication Date: Nov 1, 2009
Publication Name: Australian Journal of Communication
Research Interests:
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Radio Languagemore
by Richard Fitzgerald
Membership Category Work In Policy Debate moremore
by Richard Fitzgerald
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Publication Date: 2010
The underlying orderliness in turn-taking: Examples from Australian talkmore
by Richard Fitzgerald
Publication Date: 2009
Publication Name: Australian Journal of Communication
Editorial: Knowledge and asymmetries in action: Proceedings of the 2012 Conference of the Australasian Institute of Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysismore
by Richard Fitzgerald
Publication Date: Oct 25, 2013
Publication Name: Australian Journal of Communication
Research Interests:
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The art of illusion as government policy. Analysing political economies of surrealism. Talib & Fitzgerald (2020). Critical Discourse Studies.more
by Nadira Talib and Richard Fitzgerald
This article advances a critical approach to the analysis of social policy texts drawing on the philosophical perspectives of hyperrealism, surrealism, ethics, and Critical Discourse Analysis. Drawing on official government texts and... more
This article advances a critical approach to the analysis of social policy texts drawing on the philosophical perspectives of hyperrealism, surrealism, ethics, and Critical Discourse Analysis. Drawing on official government texts and speeches on the continuing development of Singapore’s education policy, the paper examines the way metaphors of flexibility, diversity, choice, and opportunity are used within an evolving ideological context that work to continually produce truth conditions as justifications for inequality. In doing this, the analysis foregrounds a functional aspect of policy metaphors as divisive mechanisms of neoliberalism through associating individuals with the appearance of discriminatory forms of economic materiality which does not in fact exist in reality.
DOI: 10.1080/17405904.2020.1848891
Publication Date: 2020
Publication Name: Critical Discourse Studies
Research Interests:
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