Speaking public?

How to approach the concept of 'audience/public' from a linguistic standpoint? First, I try to identify elements of a semantic frame 'public'. Then, concerning the issue of '(partial) dialogicity', follows a short review of our research on television reception which is focussed on connected speaking activities. In the central part, I ask how certain television formats like political talk shows try to compensate for the lacking interactivity by a studio audience. I look at some examples of Maybrit Inner where the audience does not really speak, but is staged by acoustic and visual means as a bridge to the recipient, with all risks of bias and polarisation. So its function as a reception model reveals further qualities of the frame 'audience/ public': reflexivity and discursive raise/reduction of complexity.