Positioning guests in a Maybrit Illner talk show

In this paper we analyze techniques applied by the producers of a talk show in order to position the talk show guests as relevant participants with respect to the subject of fiscal evasion by celebrities. We analyze how the producers succeed in positioning their guests right from the beginning as prototypical representatives. This positioning is achieved through the coordination of a voice from offstage and the management of the cameras when the guests first appear on screen. Two of five guest introductions are analyzed in detail. The two presented guests demonstrate a clearly antagonistic relationship and their introduction is immediately consecutive. We have reconstructed the introduction of all five guests in detail which resulted in the identification of a network of positions. Unfortunately we cannot present all of our analyses here due to the lack of space. At the positional network’s center lies the thematic and personal “antagonism” which we reconstructed. At the periphery we have four representatives of societally relevant positions who contribute to the topic of the talk show. The four guests respectively represent jurisdiction, politics, and ethics via a lay perspective, psychology and theology. The analysis is theoretically framed by the multimodal notion of “positioning” and “recipient design”, while the applied methodology is multimodal interaction analysis.