If a pundit falls in the forest and nobody’s around: ‘having’ versus ‘doing’ expertise in broadcast talk

Miller, Paul K. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5611-1354 (2010) If a pundit falls in the forest and nobody’s around: ‘having’ versus ‘doing’ expertise in broadcast talk. In: University of Cumbria Research & Enterprise Conference, 9 July 2010, University of Cumbria, Lancaster, UK. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

There are two main problems that traditionally manifest in attempts to academically investigate ‘Expert Knowledge’: firstly, what constitutes ‘expertise’, and secondly, what constitutes ‘knowledge’. Moreover, many accounts of expert knowledge become further ‘bogged down’ in ostensibly philosophical arguments over whether the pertinent expertise derives from the expert, or from the knowledge. One might ask: if a qualified ‘expert’ in a domain raises a point that any ‘layman’ could have raised, does this remain expertise? Equally, if that unqualified layman produces insight that is both original and effective, does this become expertise? These largely intractable issues are grounded in an essentially Cartesian model of human activity; expertise as an ‘internal’ state that is then publicly communicated. This paper, however, stems from an ethnomethodological understanding that no knowledge is analysable knowledge until it is activated in the social domain. In short, if a tree falls in the forest and nobody’s around... Taking as its subject material the case of expert punditry on BBC1’s ‘Match of the Day’ programme, this paper explores a range of socio-linguistic methods involved in the public performance of expertise. Drawing primarily upon Conversation Analysis and Discursive Psychology, the empirical work describes specific techniques through which certified ‘experts’ microscopically attend to – and reinforce - that very identity when formulating their opinions on materials at hand. In short, rather than asking what expertise is, the focus herein is upon the public procedures through which people endeavour to demonstrate it in situated examples of activity.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Speech)
Departments:	Academic Departments > Medical & Sport Sciences (MSS) > Sports and Physical Activity
Depositing User:	Paul Miller
Date Deposited:	02 Mar 2018 16:21
Last Modified:	12 Jan 2024 09:30
URI:	https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/3639

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