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4.2 The position of the viewing audience
In general, the viewing audience is regarded as ordinary people who lack not only factual information but also scientific knowledge; therefore, they require experts to provide the knowledge of the issue in question.
This study finds that the interviewer tends to ask questions and comment on the interviewee’s answers on behalf of the audience who is imaged as ignorant. In addition, not only the interviewer, but also the interviewees often issued rhetorical questions that the aim is to make a point, involving the audience, rather than elicit answers. They usually asked rhetorical questions from the viewer’s perspective, for example, the interviewer said, “When you watch it, you must wonder that, isn’t it the scene in the movie, 2012?” One of the interviewees, the senior journalist, said,
“Everyone will think…an igloo is warm, isn’t it?” In these questions, the viewing audience is regarded as ordinary people, who know about the world mainly in terms of personal experiences and have minimal knowledge of news topics. It is the experts themselves who are capable of providing facts and the knowledge of the issue in question. For instance, one of the interviewees looked directly at the camera and asked a rhetorical question on behalf of the viewer, using subjective modality “think,”
“Everyone thinks that, is it possible?” Subsequently, he gave an answer, “I told you, it’s possible,” asserting his strong knowledge claims and expert authority.
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Therefore, even most of the time, the camera follows the current speaker whom is shot from eye-level and shown in medium shots, connoting equality and sociability, it does not mean that the audience is regarded as knowledgeable as the interviewees. In this interview, while looking directly at the camera which represents the audience, the speakers are often reminding (”We would like to remind everyone that you do not think…”), instructing (“So you know…”), warning (“You can’t be too careful.”), and suggesting (“You should go as early as possible…”). It is obvious that the viewing audience addressed is deemed as someone having less knowledge and being powerless. Further, if the speaker looks and points directly at the camera, warning the viewing audience, “Don’t underestimate the one point five degrees…” as figure 1 shown, he is displaying his knowledge and authority, making the audience powerless.
Figure 1: The multimodal coordination to construct expert authority
On the other hand, different from the interviewer who always looks at the camera, talking to the audience, while speaking, the interviewees shown in medium shots tend to look back and forth between the interviewer and the camera representing the audience. Occasional medium shots of the interviewer listening to and looking toward the interviewees construct the interviewer as the addressee and further, the interview is regarded as a performance staging for the viewer, who is an observer.
What is interesting is that the viewing audience can be invited to join “the staged performance” by the speaker’s multimodal coordination. For instance, while talking about his conversation with his friend, the senior journalist looked directly at the camera and acted out the conversation, saying “please don’t do that” to position the viewing audience as his friend.
5. Conclusions
This study may be significant in exploring how TV news interviews use multimodality to construct the scientific knowledge. This paper indicated that the interviewer asked questions on behalf of the audience who is regarded as having less knowledge of global warming and the interviewees as experts were supposed to provide facts. In addition, the interviewees also used rhetorical questions to strengthen their expert authority, constructing their answers as undoubtable truths. Further, the interviewer and interviewees tended to, on the one hand, use visual materials as evidences to support their statements, and on the other hand, use gestures to focus, complement, and enforce the meaning conveyed by their speech.
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Although the interviewees were shot from eye-level and shown in medium shots indicating equality and sociability respectively, while responding to the interviewer’s questions, the interviewees often looked at and talked to the camera with instructing, warning, suggesting, and reminding, representing the audience as ordinary people lacking the knowledge of the issue in question. Through the multimodal coordination of speech, gaze, facial expression, and gesture, the interviewees position themselves as experts who provide viewers facts and truths.
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科技部補助專題研究計畫出席國際學術會議心得報告
日期： 106 年 1 月 25 日