Lang & Gender Text Analysis

Geordie Shore - Language and Gender text
The piece I chose to do was the interview with Ricci and Vicky from Geordie Shore I chose it because I thought it had some interesting language in it; I thought it would be interesting to see how these reality stars acted outside of the series, without all the housemates around to cause any social pressure.
I also found some interesting theories to link it to
First I decided to look at the first topic that comes up in the interview
Int; are we going to see a Geordie wedding this season?
Vicky; No (1) we're not(.) er i think in(.) oh(.) um(.)
Because of the nature of this question, it might natural grab a woman’s interest more than a man’s interest, because traditionally, women are more driven towards to topic or weddings and engagement than men. Also the conations of the word wedding may also interest an audience to watch the interview, and then to watch the latest series, because they might be expecting a wedding.
I applied a few different theories to this text like the dominance theory; This is the theory that in mixed-sex conversations men are more likely to interrupt than women.
But I found from transcribing the text that the theory is completely reversed in this case
Vicky makes 4 interruptions in comparison to 3(Ricci) and does the majority of the talking in this text, this shows that in this case that the dominance theory is not always true, this could be because Vicky feels embarrassed about her earlier false starts and wants to now dominate the conversation, or it could be that she is talking about something very passionate to her and does not want anybody, even her fiancé to interrupt her thoughts.
Both Ricci and Vicky use a lot of fillers e.g. like, kind of, y’know?
This could be because of their geographical dialect(Newcastle) who are known to use a fair amount of fillers in language because of the natural tone of their accent. It could also be because they are directly on camera by themselves, it could affect their natural speech because they are aware they are on TV.
I then decided to look at how the show presented these two people as a couple
In the video the couple are sat on a sofa cuddling, the question I asked is why are they led like that, not stood up or sat down next to each other?
It is probable that the producers of the show want to play these two as a budding couple, in order to interest other couples to watch the show, maybe because they feel like they could be like the couple on the screen, or because of the topic being discussed; Marriage, which might attract a female dominated audience.





Then I decided to look at the effect the camera may have had on them

we know that Vicky isn’t camera shy because she’s a star in a reality TV programme and is used to talking to her peers and housemates in front of a camera, but when asked directly about her personal life she stutters and uses fillers and false starts, this gave me the impression she wasn't used to being asked such personal questions. we can also tell this is unusual behaviour because of Ricci's reaction
Lost for words babe? *laughs* are you feeling alright?(1) is she feeling alright
Ricci's reaction also seems to suggest that she is not normally lost for words, and that she is in fact the opposite; a loudmouth. There is even a reference to the fact there is a camera there by Ricci, and Vicky flatly denies that is the reason, possibly because she is embarrassed, or maybe just proud.
Having previous knowledge of the show I noticed that their language was quite tame in comparison to the show itself, it is possible that the language had been toned down for that interview as not to offend certain audiences, or they could have had to edited the interview so it was less volatile.
I noticed during the interview as well as a false start, Vicky also uses several hedges and intensifiers
V; all these decisions you had to make?
all these e-mails you had to send?
At the time she said this she was speaking to Ricci about planning an engagement party, she did not feel Ricci was involved enough, she could be using intensifiers to increase the tension of the conversation, or to make Ricci feel guilty.