Week 5b - Gossip (Essay topic)

Question 1

What are the stereotypes for gossip?

Answer 1

• Meaningless
• Spiteful
• Rumours about other people
• Mostly associated with women

Question 2

Who spoke about reclaiming gossip?

Key points

Answer 2

• Jones 1980

- Departs from the negative stereotyping of gossip as trivial activity

Question 3

What is the setting of gossip?

2 Names and years

Answer 3

• Jones 1980: home, hairdressers, supermarket
  eg. brief encounters
• Coates 1988: private setting, sessions of up to 3 hrs, wine and food

Question 4

Coates 1988

Participants
Topic

Answer 4

Participants:
- Women’s group, particularly young mums

Topic:

• Avoids focus on role as mothers, child-related topic appear
• Feelings

Question 5

Jones 1980

Participants
Topic

Answer 5

Participants:
- Talk between women in common role as women

Topic:

• Crucially related to roles as wives, mothers etc.
• Feelings

Question 6

What is the function of gossip?

Answer 6

• Maintenance of good social relationships
• Focus on co-operativity
• Focus on social meaning

Question 7

How does topic development occur in gossip?

Answer 7

• Topic, anecdotes, discussion, summarise
• Long turns with intervening voices expressing interest
• Problem sharing and experience swapping
• Overlapping talk
• Smooth transition to other topics

Question 8

What are some other perspectives on gossip?

2 names and dates

Answer 8

Jaworski and Coupland 2005

Eggins and Slade 1997

• Derogatory talk about absent 3rd party
• Strategic info sharing
• Policing of moral boundaries
• Socialisation

Question 9

Men and gossip

Study, where, what?

Who and when?

Answer 9

Johnson and Finlay 1996

• Investigated TV about football on ITV
• Casual superficial talk not often branded ‘gossip’
• Outside of work
• Bonding achieved through banter and playful aggression
• Professional lives and experiences

Question 10

What was Johnson and Finlay’s conclusion about gossip?

Answer 10

1996

Males DO gossip

Men and women participate to construct gender identities and solidarity

Personal for women, public for men

Formal features the same

Question 11

What is the function of male gossip?

Answer 11

• Display identity as a man without presence of women
• Display emotion in sanctioned ways
• Negotiating between public and private spheres

Question 12

Who spoke about male mateship culture?

When, key points?

Answer 12

Pilkington 1998

• long silences
• little use of minimal feedback
• frequent disagreement or hostility
• sudden topic change
• abuse as solidarity, appropriate
• flouting social norms

Question 13

What are the key points of the reading?

Name and date

Answer 13

Guendouzi 2001

• Bitching can be co-operative and competitive
• Bitching allows social capital to be claimed at expense of peers
• Bitching involves face threats
• Bitching behind backs affects front-stage image
• Gossip is backstage talk
• Power driven