Les apparitions médiatisées et leurs effets performatifs le cas des sonneries téléphoniques et la « crise de la sommation »

This article introduces the notion of ventriloquism, metaphorically conceived of as the process through which interlocutors animate their figures (the term that ventriloquists use to refer to their dummies) or make them talk. These same figures are likewise supposed to animate the interlocutors in situations of interaction. Ventriloquizing figures (e.g. values, principles, rules, facts, etc.) means talking on their behalf and thus gaining in authority by lending weight to what one says. Phenomena of power can thus be identified in the interaction without having to depart from a performative and interactionist approach to the social world.