This research extends the work done by West & Zimmerman (1983) and Zhao & Gantz (2003) to examine gender differences in interruptions on non-fictional political television programming. The goal was to find out if the findings of previous research, namely that males interrupt more and more disruptively than females, apply to group cross-sex talk among professionals, as well as to learn if age and political affiliation might be relevant to interruptions. A sample of approximately 40 minutes of cross-sex talk of the HBO TV show Real Time with Bill Maher was recorded from three different episodes and transcribed using Jeffersons transcription method. The findings showed that women were more likely to be interrupted and with more disruptive interruptions. In addition, women were interrupted at a higher frequency and on average talked less. It was also found that the age of the women correlated with the amount of interruptions, the way they were interrupted, and the amount of talk. Implications of these findings are discussed. This manuscript is being submitted for the special undergraduate research issue of the 75th volume of Pennsylvania Communication Annual.
Key words: interruptions, gender, interpersonal communication, political communication, discourse analysis
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