Defining Controversy

Q. What is a controversy?

A.…

Controversy = “a situation where actors disagree (or better, agree on their disagreement)”

OR

Controversy = a number of issues revolving around a closely connected set of questions

– Issue = disagreement

– “Controversies begin when actors discover that they cannot ignore each other and controversies end when actors manage to work out a solid compromise to live together.”

Basics of controversy analysis: Through the action of speech, actors 1) map the action of other actors (however inaccurately or partially), 2) let or make other actors (e.g., polar bears, other speakers) do things/act/make a difference to a controversy. Actors tell an analyst who or what is doing what to or with whom or what. In a way, they do the research for you. You are researching their research, their action, their ideas, and their perspectives. You take account of their accounts, and in so doing, you make an account of your own.

Possible actors in a controversy: talkers (i.e., speakers, writers, commenters/commentators, respondents, journalists, scientists, newscasters, etc.), things-as-topics (e.g., polar bears, monarch butterflies, people, etc.), images (i.e., pictures, visualizations, diagrams, graphs, animations, video, etc.)…

– Topic-actor = accounted-for-actor, talked-about-actor – these are the things talked about in a controversy: topics make talker-actors act by giving them something to speak about

– Talker-actor = accounting/accountant-actor – these are the ones doing the talking in a controversy: talkers make topic-actors act through their speech