The ethics of the everyday: Mauritian morning talk radio as a space for democratic engagement

Abstract

Morning talk radio in Mauritius has established itself as a popular platform where participants phone in to raise problems they encounter in their everyday lives. The first wave of liberalization of the airwaves in Mauritius has allowed private radio stations to schedule talk programmes, especially in their morning editions, that create spaces for the voices of ordinary people to be heard as they speak, contest decisions of powerholders and look for alternatives through the mediation of talk radio. Through discourse theoretical analysis, this article looks into a set of five cases and argues that morning talk radio has mediated a process of democratization conflicts and engaged popular cultural dynamics in the unequal context of Mauritius. It argues that through the prism of ‘proper distance’, the mediation of everyday life can be deciphered highlighting the moral and political dimensions of these morning programmes.