Decentering the analysis: The authority of spectators, journalists and others

Studies of social interactions generally focus on the relationship and dynamics between the main participants. However, other parties in the interaction contribute, sometimes very significantly, to the unfolding of the events. This chapter turns the focus onto these other participants, which include those who do not speak or speak minimally. The chapter presents four different approaches to authority and power, in relation to how these are constructed by the “marginal” or “invisible” parties. In doing this, the chapter explores how meaning-making comes about through signs of presence, discourse, multimodal elements and distribution of interactional resources. One approach studies authority relationally, as an effect of presence; another examines the role of the presenter of information in performing authority; the third discusses media power in the encounters between the main participants; and the fourth brings in conversation analysis to study the interactional process of negotiating authority. The chapter shows that decentering the analysis to include a broader range of people and objects than the main participants helps to render explicit some of the ways in which authority is established.