This book offers a collection of conversation analytic investigations into how one US-based philanthropic organization communicates its mission of improving public health. In contrast to political speeches or news interviews with prominent figures, much communication with the public involves the routine work undertaken by institutional representatives as they interact with external audiences: this book considers precisely how this work is accomplished.Communicating with the Public broadens the scope of conversation analysis by unveiling the interactive, multi-party, and multi-modal nature of institutional messaging that might otherwise be construed as a scripted, monologic undertaking. To this end, it examines a diverse array of contemporary platforms, including webinars, podcasts, and television interviews, as well as face-to-face conversations following public talks and panel discussions. Chapters reveal how both foundation representatives and their interlocutors target messaging to specific audiences that may or may not be present, manage the logistics of delivering this messaging, and position themselves as credible experts or a unified institutional collective.

Foreword, John Heritage (UCLA, USA) Part I: Overview 1. Introduction, Elizabeth Reddington and Hansun Zhang Waring (both Teachers College, Columbia University, USA) Part II: Doing Messaging 2. Beyond Neutrality and Adversarialness: The Case of Platform Questions, Hansun Zhang Waring (Teachers College, Columbia University, USA) 3. Enabling Institutional Messaging: TV Journalists' Work with Interviewee Responses, Carol Hoi Yee Lo and Di Yu (Teachers College, Columbia University, USA) 4. Constructing the Audience in Media Interviews, Nadja Tadic and Di Yu (Teachers College, Columbia University, USA) Part III: Managing Logistics 5. But-prefacing for Refocusing in Public Talk, Ann Tai Choe (University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA) and Elizabeth Reddington (Teachers College, Columbia University, USA) 6. Curating the Q&A: The Art of Moderating Webinars, Allie Hope King (Teachers College, Columbia University, USA) 7. Narrating the Visual in Webinar Q&As, Di Yu and Nadja Tadic (Teachers College, Columbia University, USA) Part IV: Negotiating Identities 8. Constructing Expertise: Person Reference in Audience Members' Self-Identification in Public Talk Q&A Sessions, Ignasi Clemente (City University of New York, USA and University College London, UK) 9. Gaze as a Resource for Creating Coherence across Speakers during Moderated Panel Discussions, Christopher D. Van Booven (College of the Holy Cross, USA) Index