This book presents a collection of studies on political interviews in a variety of broadcast media worldwide. Following the growing scholarly interest in media talk as a dominant form of political communication in contemporary society, a number of eminent international scholars analyze empirical material from the discourse of public figures and interviewer–journalists to address questions related to the characteristics, conduct, and potential effects of political interviews. Chapters span a varied array of cultural contexts: the U.S.A., U.K., Israel, Japan, Italy, Turkey, Greece, Australia, Philippines, Finland, Brazil, Malaysia, Spain, Venezuela, Montenegro, and the European Community, enabling a comparison of the different structures and contents of political interviews in societies from West to East. Authors bring an interest in discourse and conversation analysis, as well as in rhetorical techniques and strategies used by both interviewers and interviewees, from different disciplinary viewpoints including linguistic, political, cultural, sociological, and social–psychological. In doing so, the book develops a framework to assess the extent to which media political interviews and talk shows, and regular news programs, play a central role in transmitting accurate and genuine political information to the general public, and how audiences can make sense of these programs’ output.
Author(s): Ofer Feldman
Series: The Language of Politics
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 397
City: Singapore
Preface
Contents
Contributors
1 Introduction: Political Interviews—An Analytical Model
1.1 Introduction: Political Interviews
1.2 Media Broadcast Interviews
1.3 Examining Political Interviews
1.4 A Model: Elements and Research Questions in Political Interviewing
1.4.1 The Participants
1.4.2 The Interviewers’ Questions
1.4.3 The Interviewees’ Replies
1.4.4 The Question/Reply Sequences
1.4.5 The Interview’s Social/Political Atmosphere
1.4.6 Media Organization
1.4.7 The Setting of the Interview Session
1.4.8 The Interview’s Political and Socio-Cultural Environment
1.5 Overview of the Volume
References
Part I Reciprocal Interactions Between Interviewers and Interviewees
2 Neutrality, Non-neutrality, and Hybridity in Political Interviews
2.1 The Changing Relationship Between Journalists and Politicians
2.2 Types of Political Interview
2.3 Pursuing a Polar Question
2.4 Quotative Questioning
2.5 Going Meta: Which “Truth,” Whose “People”?
2.6 Conclusion
Appendix 2.1. Transaction Conventions
References
3 Manifestations of Integrated Hybridity in Journalistic Questioning During the 2012 Elections in Greece
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Data and Methodology
3.3 Results
3.3.1 Data Analysis: The Use of Hybridity When Sanctioning Interviewee Resistance
3.3.2 Data Analysis: Integrated Hybridity in Journalists’ Adversarial Challenges
3.4 Discussion and Conclusions
Appendix 3.1. Transaction Conventions
References
4 Interviewing Styles: Reciprocal Positioning and Power in the Israeli Context
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Reciprocal Positioning
4.3 Normative Expectations and Discourse Norms: The Israeli Context
4.4 Corpus and Context
4.5 Comparing Two Interviews: A Case Study
4.5.1 Setting the Stage: The Openings
4.5.2 Setting the Agenda: Negotiating Initial Interviewer Challenges
4.5.3 Topic Shifts
4.5.4 By Way of Conclusion: Two Interviewing Styles
4.6 Discussion
Appendix 4.1 Transaction Conventions
References
5 Threat to Face and Equivocation in Televised Interviews of Italy’s Politicians For and Against the 2016 Constitutional Referendum
5.1 Introduction
5.1.1 Theory of Equivocation and Impartiality
5.1.2 The TV Broadcast Channels: Case Studies
5.2 Aims and Expectations
5.3 Method
5.3.1 Sample
5.3.2 Category Systems
5.3.3 Reliability of Category Systems
5.3.4 Data Analysis
5.4 Results
5.4.1 Descriptive Results
5.4.2 Impartiality of Channels and Interviewers Toward Politicians in Favor of or Against the Referendum
5.4.3 Does the Equivocation of the Answer Depend on the Face-Threatening Level of the Preceding Question?
5.4.4 Does the Face-Threatening Level of the Question Depend on the Equivocation of the Preceding Answers?
5.5 Discussion, Examples, and Conclusions
5.5.1 Discussion of Descriptive Results
5.5.2 Discussion of Impartiality
5.5.3 Discussion of Equivocation Theory
5.5.4 Conclusions
References
6 Aristotelian Framing in Political Discourse: A Case Study of Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s Exclusive Interview with Radio Televisyen Malaysia and the News Agency Bernama
6.1 Introduction
6.1.1 Malaysia and Its Political Players
6.1.2 They Call Me Abah
6.1.3 Rationale and Aim
6.2 Political Interviews in Malaysia
6.2.1 The Local Parlance of Cakap Berlapik
6.2.2 Persuasion and Aristotelian Framing
6.3 Methodology
6.4 Findings and Discussion
6.4.1 Logos
6.4.2 Ethos
6.4.3 Pathos
6.4.4 Telos
6.4.5 Kairos
6.5 Conclusions
References
7 Beyond the Question–Answer Format: How Montenegrin Interviewers Depart from the “Normative” Political Interview Structure
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Interviewer-Initiated Departures from the Normative News and Political Interview Structure
7.3 Data and Method
7.4 Interviewer-Initiated Departures from the Question–Answer Format in Montenegrin Political Interviews
7.4.1 Rapport Builders
7.4.2 Counter-Assertions
7.4.3 Acknowledgements
7.4.4 Management Turns
7.4.5 Collaborative Completions
7.4.6 Clarifications
7.4.7 Replies
7.5 IR-Initiated Departures from the Question–Answer Format—A Matter of Interviewing Style, Local Interviewing Conventions, and/or the IE?
7.6 Conclusion
References
Part II Argumentative and Persuasive Strategies During Political Interviews
8 A Metafunctional Analysis of Two Televised U.K. Political Interviews with Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Brief Exegesis into Theory
8.3 Analysis 1: Keir Starmer Interview
8.3.1 Experiential Meanings—What is Going on?
8.3.2 Interpersonal Meaning—Evaluations and Actions
8.3.3 What is New and Who Said It
8.4 Analysis 2: Boris Johnson Interview
8.4.1 Experiential Meanings—What is Going on?
8.4.2 Interpersonal Meaning—Evaluations and Actions
8.4.3 What is New and Who Said It
8.5 Conclusion
Appendix 3.1 Transaction Conventions
References
9 Argumentative Strategies and Self-image Projection in Spanish Political Interviews
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Corpus and Methodology
9.3 The Interview and Its Participants
9.4 Interviews on Public Television
9.4.1 La Hora de la 1: The Interview of Rocío Monasterio by Mónica López
9.4.2 La Hora de la 1: The Interview of Rosa Díez by Mónica López, Cristina Monge, and Juan de Dios Colmenero
9.4.3 La Noche: The Interview of Salvador Illa by Xavier Fortes
9.5 Interviews on a Network Aligned with the Politician: The Interview of Santiago Abascal by María Durán and Julio Ariza
9.6 Interviews on a Private Network, Progressive-Oriented: The Interview of Pedro Sánchez by Antonio García Ferreras
9.7 Conclusions
References
10 Crisis Response Strategies in Political Interviews: A European Union Perspective
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Political Interviews as Argumentative Practices: Implications for Crisis Responses
10.2.1 Argumentation in Political Interviews
10.2.2 Crisis Responses in Political Interviews
10.3 Cases Studies: A European Union Perspective
10.3.1 Case Study 1: Accommodating Strategies
10.3.2 Case Study 2: Defensive Strategies
10.4 Conclusion
References
11 The Finnish “Famous Five” in Television Interviews: Cultural Characteristics of Party Leaders’ Response Style
11.1 Introduction
11.2 Communication Styles of Finnish Politicians on Television
11.3 The Functional Theory of Campaign Discourse
11.4 Gender and Image in Finnish Politics
11.5 Aim and Method of the Study
11.6 Results
11.6.1 Time-Orientation in the Responses
11.6.2 Functions of Responses
11.6.3 Combining the Models
11.6.4 Communication Styles of Party Leaders
11.7 Discussion
References
12 A Linguistic Analysis of Interviewing Discourse During a Talk Show in the U.K.
12.1 Introduction
12.2 The TV Political Interview as a Mediatized Genre
12.3 The Corpus
12.4 The Methods
12.4.1 What Is Stance? The Case of Stance Adverbs
12.5 The Corpus-Driven Investigation
12.5.1 Interviewers
12.5.2 Interviewees
12.6 A Close-up on Stance Adverbs
12.6.1 Epistemic Stance Adverbs
12.7 Wrap-up
References
13 Reference Statements and Quotes as Communication Strategy: Effects of Source Use During Japanese Televised Political Interviews
13.1 Introduction
13.2 Methodology
13.2.1 The Interviews
13.2.2 Procedure
13.2.3 Coding
13.3 Results
13.3.1 Internal and External Sources
13.3.2 External Sources
13.3.3 Tendencies Among the Different Groups
13.3.4 The Effect of Sources
13.4 Discussion and Conclusions
References
Part III Creating and Shaping Images in Interviews with Populist Politicians
14 Adversarial Rhetoric or Lapdog Journalism? Political Interviews During the 2018 Brazilian Presidential Elections
14.1 Introduction
14.2 Literature Review
14.2.1 Journalistic Interviews
14.2.2 Interviews with Presidential Candidates on Roda Viva
14.3 Methodology and Data Collection
14.4 Results
14.4.1 Interviewers’ Profile
14.4.2 Interview Dynamic
14.4.3 The Role of the Moderator
14.4.4 Mentions of Competing Candidates
14.5 Discussion and Conclusions
References
15 Pejoration in Political Interviews: Contrasting U.S. President Donald J. Trump with Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro
15.1 Introduction
15.2 Pejoration
15.3 Methodology
15.4 Results
15.4.1 President Trump (TR)
15.4.2 President Maduro (MA)
15.4.3 President Trump and President Maduro Compared
15.5 Discussion and Conclusions
References
16 Sustaining a Populist Persona: CNN Philippines’ Political Interview with President Rodrigo Roa Duterte as Image Restoration
16.1 Introduction
16.1.1 Benoit’s Image Restoration Theory and the Crafting of a Populist Persona
16.2 Method and the Case Under Investigation
16.3 A Critical Analysis of Duterte’s Interview
16.3.1 Repudiating the Political Other
16.3.2 Bolstering the Presidential Persona
16.3.3 Making Excuses for a Foreign Ally
16.3.4 Reaffirming the Populist Appeal
16.4 Discussion
16.5 Conclusions
References
17 Understanding Turkish Political Culture Through Televised Interviews: The Case of President Recep Tayyip Erdoǧan
17.1 Introduction
17.2 Media and Political Culture in Turkey
17.2.1 Setting the Context: Changes in Media Structure and Its Effects on Journalism
17.2.2 Politicians on Television
17.3 Conceptual Frame
17.4 Method and the Interview Setting Background
17.5 Findings
17.5.1 Questions and Replies
17.5.2 Turn Taking and Sequence
17.6 Conclusion
References
18 The Role of Political Interviews in Mainstreaming and Normalizing the Far-Right: A View from Australia
18.1 Introduction
18.2 The Media, Populism and the Far-Right
18.2.1 Pauline Hanson and the Australian Media: A Love/Hate Relationship
18.2.2 Political Interviews: Strategies for Dealing with the Far-Right
18.3 Research Approach
18.4 Case Studies
18.4.1 Interview One: Humanization and Accommodation
18.4.2 Interview Two: Confrontational and Deferential
18.4.3 Interview Three: Adversarial and Confrontational
18.5 Discussion and Practical Recommendations
References
Part IV Coda: The Past, Present, and Future of Television Interview Studies
19 Political Interviewing Research: Commonalities, Contrasts, Conclusions & Critiques
19.1 Introduction
19.2 Commonalities and Contrasts
19.3 Methodological Critiques
19.3.1 Do Televised Political Interviews Influence Anyone?
19.4 Towards Future Research
19.4.1 Social Media and the Future of TV Political Interviews
19.4.2 Methodologies of Future Audience Research
19.4.3 Culture and Media Economics
19.4.4 The Interviewing Journalist as Celebrity
19.4.5 Political Environment and Interviewee Socio-demographics
19.5 Coda
References
Index
