Conversation Analysis in the News Interview
The news interview is a familiar and readily recognizable genre of broadcast talk, one that differs from
other genres in its distinctive conjunction of participants, subject matter and interactional form.
In the news interview, turn-taking is partially predetermined in accordance with a simple rule:
interviewers should restrict themselves to asking questions, and interviewees should restrict
themselves to answering such questions.
Consistent with the ideal of objectivity, broadcast journalists are supposed to remain impartial and
thus avoid questions that are biased or express a contentious point of view. At a very basic level, a
semblance of neutralism is achieved through the turn - taking system sketched above — that is, by
IRs adhering to the activity of questioning and avoiding the turn receipt tokens (e.g. uh huh , yeah , oh
, okay ,right ), which may indicate acceptance of/or agreement with prior speakers ’remarks.
Three dimensions of question design (setting agendas, encoding presuppositions, displaying
expectations) are exploited by IRs to address another journalistic norm, which is to be adversarial in
the treatment of politicians and other public figures.
Some interrogative forms are problematic for journalists because their extreme assertiveness
overwhelms their ‘ questioning ’ character, others are recognizably‘ questions ’ but are problematic
nonetheless because of sensitivities surrounding the topics they raise or the projects they pursue.
To preserve the legitimacy of questions: personal - life questions, pop quiz questions, and other highly
aggressive forms, journalists may go to extra lengths to justify such interrogations, including framing
their questions as being asked on behalf of the audience or the broader public, thereby presenting
themselves as a ‘ tribune of the people ’ who is acting in the public interest (Clayman, 2002c ; Higgins,
2010 ).
Resistant responses are attractive to IEs because they enable IEs to exert agency and stay ‘ on message
’ in a context where IRs normally control the discussion agenda. But they are also risky, because they
subvert the question - answer norm and usurp the IR ’ s role and prerogatives.
Researchers have documented the distinctive design features of news interview openings (topical
headlines, IE introductions, etc.),analyzed how they reflect various peculiarities of the broadcasting
context, and how they also convey information about the type of interview to follow (Clayman, 1991
; Greatbatch, 1988 ; Martinez, 2003 ). The closing process has also been explicated, with particular
attention to the question of how IRs manage to wind down the interview and bring it to a close at a
prespecified time (Clayman, 1989 ;Greatbatch, 1988 ; Martinez, 2003 ).
Montgomery (2007) offers a broad overview of the features distinguishing news interview genres:
accountability interviews and expert interviews. For each of these forms, many of the generic
interviewing turn - taking procedures, professional norms and practices continue to apply, but there
may be variations in emphasis, in the balance between neutralism and adversarialness, and in the
pursuit of more specialized tasks and relevances.
Reference:
Clayman, S. E. (2012). Conversation analysis in the news interview. In J. Sidnell & T. Stivers (Eds.), The handbook
of conversation analysis (pp. 630-656). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.