An Affect-Theory-Based Discourse Analysis of Interview Talk: A Case Study of An Exciting Offer 7

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-611-6_144How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Affect Theory; Emotionality; Interview Discourse; Mediated Interaction; Reality Television; Communication Studies

Abstract

This study examines how interview discourse operates as an affective communication practice in the mediated context of reality television. Taking two interview tasks in An Exciting Offer 7 as cases, namely the interview tasks involving Zhelai Nv and Fly, the paper draws on affect theory and the concept of emotionality to analyze how discursive practices shape interaction, mobilize emotions, and construct relationships between interviewer and interviewee. The analysis focuses on three dimensions, including the establishment of mutual trust, the narration of personal experience, and the expression of emotion. The findings show that interview talk in reality-show settings does not merely transmit information; rather, it initiates affective alignment through emotional self-disclosure, reconstructs interpersonal relations through identity positioning and caring expressions, activates memories through detailed questioning, and amplifies resonance through empathetic and emotion-oriented prompts. The study argues that affect is not a secondary element of interview tasks in the program but a central mechanism through which communicative quality and audience engagement are produced. By applying affect theory to a program-within-the-program interview task, this paper offers a useful perspective for understanding how discourse functions in controlled media environments and how interview strategies contribute to affective meaning-making and communication effects.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Jingyi Yu
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/07
TI  - An Affect-Theory-Based Discourse Analysis of Interview Talk: A Case Study of An Exciting Offer 7
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 12th International Conference on Digital Humanities and Frontiers in Social Sciences (DHFSS 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 1347
EP  - 1356
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-611-6_144
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-611-6_144
ID  - Yu2026
ER  -