[Commlist] CfP IPrA 2027: Positioning in Mediated Political Talk

Conference

Helsinki, Finnland

Date: 27/06/2027 - 2/07/2027
Call for papers ending on: 15/10/2026

Call for Panel Contributions
20th International Pragmatics Conference (IPC20)
International Pragmatics Association (IPrA), 27 June to 2 July 2027,
University of Helsinki

Positioning in mediated political talk

In mediated political talk, participants continuously position themselvesand
others in relation to each other as well as to broader political discourses
that shape and constrain their interaction. Through such positioning
practices, situated interaction becomes interwoven with and related to wider
(trans-situational) discursive formations. This panel invites contributions
that explore this intersection between interaction and discourse by focusing
on positioning and stancetaking (cf. Du Bois 2007) in mediated political
talk. Drawing on conversation analytic and discourse analytic approaches,the
panel examines how participants use linguistic and multimodal resources to
negotiate social relations, identities, common ground, and stances across
political media formats such as televised debates, interviews, podcasts, or
live streaming.
Special attention will be paid to the role of indexicality in political
positioning. Linguistic forms are not merely used to convey propositional
content but simultaneously index social identities, evaluative orientations,
historical references, and future projections (cf. Silverstein 2003). Such
indexical practices are not static; rather, they are shaped by the mediality
of the communicative setting (cf. Dang-Anh 2024; Luginbühl/Schneider 2020).
Participants negotiate their positions within complex media settings
conditioned by multiple audiences, layered addressivity, and political
interests that may extend beyond the situated interaction. The fundamental
mechanisms of face-to-face interaction (sequence organization, turn-taking,
repair) are accordingly reconfigured by the affordances of the respective
media formats (cf. Albert 2024; Clayman/Heritage 2002).
By integrating positioning theory and stancetaking research with the 
concepts
of indexicality and mediality, this panel aims to develop a nuanced
understanding of how political positioning operates across and beyond the
boundaries of situated interaction.
We invite empirically based contributions that address, among others, the
following questions:

• How are positioning and stance-taking accomplished by linguistic means
and multimodal resources in different mediated political formats and,
further, shaped by their mediality?
• In what ways are knowledge and common ground discursively constructed,
negotiated, or contested in mediated political interaction?
• What kind of characteristic interactional phenomena do we find in
mediated political talk with regard to general conversational mechanisms or
different political styles (e.g., conversational behavior of populists)?
• What are particular methodological challenges in analysing audio-visual
data of mediated political talks and how can we solve them?

Please submit your abstract (up to 500 words) via the conference website
(https://ipra2027.exordo.com/) by 15 October 2026. In step 4 (‘Topics’)
of the submission process select the panel ‘Positioning in mediated
political talk’. Further information on submitting abstracts can be found
in the IPC20 Call for Papers 
(https://pragmatics.international/page/CfP2027).
Please note that an active IPrA membership is required to submit an 
abstract.
If you have any further questions regarding the panel, please feel free to
contact us directly.

Contact
Georg Albert (RPTU Landau), (georg.albert /at/ rptu.de)

Mark Dang-Anh (IDS Mannheim), (dang /at/ ids-mannheim.de)

Myriam Goll (RPTU Landau), (m.goll /at/ rptu.de)

Alessandro Stephan (IDS Mannheim), (stephan /at/ ids-mannheim.de)

References
Albert, Georg. 2024. Playing one’s part within a medial procedure: A talk
show host’s role-specific interaction. In Luginbühl, Martin/Schneider, Jan
Georg (eds.), Media as Procedures of Communication, 98–123. Amsterdam:
Benjamins.
Clayman, Steven E./Heritage, John. 2002. The news interview: Journalists and
public figures on the air. Cambridge: CUP.
Dang-Anh, Mark. 2024. Handling signs medially: On mediality and indexicality
in semiotic media practices. In Luginbühl, Martin/Schneider, Jan Georg
(eds.), Media as Procedures of Communication, 220–245. Amsterdam:
Benjamins.
Du Bois, John W. 2007. The stance triangle. In Robert Englebretson (ed.),
Stancetaking in Discourse, 139–182. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Luginbühl, Martin/Jan Georg Schneider. 2020. Medial Shaping from the Outset.
On the Mediality of the Second Presidential Debate, 2016. Journal für
Medienlinguistik 3(1). 57–93.
Silverstein, Michael. 2003. Indexical order and the dialectics of
sociolinguistic life. Language & Communication 23(3–4). 193–229.
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