著者

南 保輔

出版者

成城大学

雑誌

コミュニケーション紀要 (ISSN:02887843)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.20, pp.1-76, 2008-03

---

Tetsuko Kuroyanagi has been a hostess of a TV talk show, Tetsuko's Room, for more than thirty years. In order to provide a demonstrative description of Tetsuko's skills as a talk show hostess, a comparison is made between this program and another one broadcast by NHK, Hello from Studio Park. Three shows from the two programs are compared, each pair of shows having the same guest. For each of the three paired shows, the portions dealing with the "same" topic are chosen and transcribed for analysis. When a singer and actor, Tetsuya Takeda, was a guest, he replayed interchanges which mark some moments of his career as an entertainer. While at Hello, Tetsuya replayed these interchanges without prompting from the hosts, however, at Room, Tetsuko made focused attempts to solicit a specific exchange that included the words of encouragement of Tetsuya's wife who worked to keep their spirits high while they were struggling economically. Tetsuko's personal knowledge and memory about the guest seem critical to eliciting this exchange. When a speed skater and Olympic bronze medalist, Tomomi Okazaki, was a guest, the size of her thighs was one of major topics. In both shows, the hostess touched her thigh. While the hostess of Hello just rubbed, Tetsuko slapped Okazaki's thigh twentyeight times. She made slapping sounds that could be heard by the audience so as to show how "good" Okazaki's muscles are. Tetsuko even slapped her own thighs to make a contrast. Although Tetsuko's superior skills usually work well and make the talk interesting and enjoyable, she remained silent while Mami Yamase changed styles of the clothes of her designing from skirts to pants. Pauses of few seconds long were heard while watching Yamase change styles. Because the audience was distracted during the time Yamase was changing styles, the length of the pauses was not as noticeable as it might have been otherwise. Still, the fact that Tetsuko did not talk for that long stood out. Comparisons of the same guests talking about the "same" topics have provided several important findings. First, Tetsuko Kuroyanagi has superior skills of eliciting interesting stories from her guests. Second, however, even Tetsuko is sometimes forced to remain silent while the talk show guest engages in preparatory activities. Third, therefore, "chattiness" should not be attributed to a person but should be considered an attribute of the situation.