ABSTRACT
We are in the age of “talk.” With the proliferation of interactive electronic media including radio and television talk shows, Internet chat rooms, news groups and other new media forms, talk as a mode of communication, rooted in dialogue or conversation, is changing not only the political process but also how we communicate in society. These changes are visibly blurring the traditional boundaries between communicators and audiences, news and entertainment, information and opinion, journalists and talking heads, political and nonpolitical issues, interpersonal and mass communication, as well as political communication, mobilization, and participation (e.g., Gamson, 1992; Jamieson, Cappella, & Turow, 1998; Livingstone & Lunt, 1994; Munson, 1993; Owen, 1995; Verba, 1993).
