Allocating Voice
From early Greece to present-day researchers in communication, the belief is strong that the concepts the members of an audience hold of a speaker do affect how they respond to what is being said. ( Cripe 1985 : 348) Part of conversation consists in allocating voice—that is, determining who has standing to demand responses from us within the conversation and who has not. For example, we must decide which questions we are warranted in ignoring (for example, if they derail the conversation, if they change topic in an authoritarian way, etc.) and which we must respond to. In general, if a speaker has standing, she has the responsibility of displaying (and sometimes, even signaling) such standing and the hearers have the responsibility of recognize her standing. Allocation of voice is important because ignoring people can be, well, horrible: To be ignored is to be excluded while physically present. One's opinions are unsolicited, comments unwanted, approval unneeded. It is the vi...