A Study On Power Relation In You Are Hired From The Perspective Of Turn-taking

Nowadays,employment is becoming an increasingly serious social problem to which much attention is paid.Under such circumstances,TV job-seeking reality show comes into being and achieves a great success.You Are Hired is a famous job-seeking reality show in China.Each period of the program includes four parties: the host,Mr.job,job seekers and interviewers composed of company executives.This thesis takes the turn-taking mechanism proposed by Sacks et al(1974)as theoretical basis.Through analyzing the interaction in You Are Hired,the present study tries to find answers to three research questions.The first one is how turn-taking system is operating in You Are Hired.Second,what the difference in selection of turn-taking strategies among different participants is.The third one is how show participants use language to exert power in terms of turn-taking.Both quantitative and qualitative methods are utilized in this paper.The Excel software is used to calculate turn quantity,turn-length and the frequency of turn-taking strategies used by show participants.Qualitative research is reflected in the case study.The research results are listed as follows.As for turn-construction,the interviewees have more turns than the interviewers,while the interviewers' turns are longer.This finding is different from other research.In terms of turn-allocation,the interviewers either allocate the turn to the interviewees or self-select to claim a turn.In the respect of turn-taking strategies,the interviewers use turn-claiming and turn-yielding more often,while the interviewees are more inclined to use turn-holding.Due to the nature of the program,the host has the least turn numbers and the shortest turn length.However,turns of other participants are all allocated by the host who employs turn-yielding most frequently.The above differences uncover the three parties' disparity in position.The host is in the dominant position,controlling turn-allocation in the show.The interviewers are more powerful than the interviewees,which can be reflected in turn length,turn-allocation,initiating questions and interruption.In the process of interview,they are the controller who affects the interviewees' performance by making comments and giving suggestions.The imbalanced power relation can be explained by the following factors: the social identities of the participants,professional knowledge and social experience,psychological factors and the media nature of the program.