POWER DYNAMICS IN TURN-TAKING STRATEGIES: A CONVERSATION ANALYSIS OF A PAKISTANI TV SHOW THE OTHER SIDE

Abstract

The current study explores the power dynamics in the turn-taking mechanism in an entertainment show that focuses on influencing the psychology of celebrity guests. Unlike previous research that focuses on the political talk show discourse, this study examines structure and topic control within the host-guest interaction in the selected episodes of The Other Side, a Green Entertainment TV show, by drawing on Sacks et al.’s concepts of Turn-Constructional Unit (TCU) and Transitional Relevance Place (TRP). The findings reveal that the host uses carefully selected lexical choices, sequential cues, false alternatives, and dramatic timing to handle interactions. He uses syntactic completion points, signaling TRPs, to maintain control and a collaborative illusion by allowing the guest to respond in affirmation. The host also dominates the conversation by giving specific instructions for the tasks, thus maintaining the floor and strategically assigning turns to the guest. The guest's minimal responses tend to be supportive rather than dialogically equal, as occurs in the magician-audience or host-performer context of power asymmetry. Turn-taking is not only structural in dialogue but also concerns power, thereby indicating that turn-taking influences the notion of power in televised shows. The study is significant in revealing how institutional role, psychological authority, and entertainment framing integrate to govern transitions, interruptions, and topic control in ways that have not been extensively explored in Pakistani conversation analysis research.