Political talk radio and democratic participation: caller perspectives on Election Call

Abstract

There has been much recent discussion about the changing nature of ‘the public sphere’ with the relatively new genre of reality TV being viewed as a space in which the public can at least perform, if not always engage in meaningful debate. This article considers the perspectives of callers to a political talk show - Election Call- in terms of why they call in, what they think about their interactions with politicians and how they regard the programme’s potential to constitute a public sphere. It also looks at the gendered aspects of caller experiences and beliefs in order to tease out whether gender has any influence on the public’s practice of politics. Election Callis a BBC production, which has been broadcasting since 1974, going out simultaneously on radio and TV (and the web for 2001), in the days immediately preceding the British general election. I argue that while callers mostly felt very positive about the experience of appearing on the show and having the opportunity to put their point of view, and believed that Election Callfulfils an important democratic function, they were much more negative in their assessment of their interactions with politicians, believing that it continues to be difficult to get a straight answer out of those elected to serve and represent us.

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