In this article I examine the differences between broadcast political interviews in commercial and public service broadcasters in Spain. The study focuses in particular on political interviews broadcast on ‘morning show’ type programmes. The analysis distinguishes the characteristics that make up the news interview turn-taking system in order to explore the degree to which information and entertainment come together in political interviews broadcast on morning shows. The results show, primarily, that political interviews shown on public service broadcasters’ morning shows adhere to the journalistic standards of neutralism and adversarialness. This is precisely how they strive to make the politician publicly accountable. In political interviews broadcast by commercial broadcasters, however, these rules are followed intermittently. The aim of these interviews appears to be different: to penetrate politicians’ personal sphere with the discernible purpose of entertaining. These differences reflect different interview styles which, in turn, reveal different conceptions of journalism, politics and society. This investigation utilizes the research tools developed in conversation analysis (CA).
AntakiCBarnesRLeudarI (2005) Diagnostic formulations in psychotherapy. Discourse Studies7(6): 627–647.
2.
BaumMA (2005) Talking the vote: Why presidential candidates hit the talk show circuit. American Journal of Political Science49(2): 213–234.
3.
BeckerA (2007) Are you saying . . .? A cross-cultural analysis of interviewing practices in TV election night coverages. In: FetzerALauerbachGE (eds) Political Discourse in the Media. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 109–137.
4.
Blum-KulkaS (1983) The dynamics of political interviews. Text3(2): 131–153.
5.
CantavellaJ (2002) Historia de la entrevista en prensa. Madrid: Editorial Universitas.
6.
ClaymanSE (1992) Footing in the achievement of neutrality: The case of news interview discourse. In: DrewPHeritageJ (eds) Talk at Work: Interaction in Institutional Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 163–198.
7.
ClaymanSE (2002) Disagreements and third parties: Dilemmas of neutralism in panel news interviews. Journal of Pragmatics34(10–11): 1385–1401.
8.
ClaymanSE (2010) Address terms in the service of other actions: The case of news interview talk. Discourse & Communication4(2): 161–183.
9.
ClaymanSEHeritageJ (2002) The News Interview: Journalists and Public Figures on the Air. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
DavisK (1986) The process of problem (re)formulation in psychotherapy. Sociology of Health & Illness8(1): 44–74.
13.
DrewP (2003) Comparative analysis of talk-in-interaction in different institutional settings: A sketch. In: GlennPLeBaronCDMandalbaumJ (eds) Studies in Language and Social Interaction: In Honor of Robert Hopper. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 293–308.
14.
ErikssonG (2010) Politicians in celebrity talk show interviews: The narrativization of personal experiences. Text & Talk30(5): 529–551.
15.
FaircloughN (1995) Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language. London: Longman.
16.
GarfinkelHSacksH (1970) On formal structures of practical actions. In: McKinneyJCTiryakianEA (eds) Theoretical Sociology: Perspectives and Developments. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, pp. 338–366.
17.
GlennPJ (1995) Laughing at and laughing with: Negotiating participant alignments through conversational laughter. In: ten HavePPsathasG (eds) Situated Order: Studies in the Social Organization of Talk and Embodied Activities. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, pp. 43–56.
18.
GlennPJ (2003) Laughter in Interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
19.
GoffmanE (1981) Forms of Talk. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
20.
GreatbatchD (1986) Some standard uses of supplementary questions in news interviews. Belfast Working Papers in Language & Linguistics8: 86–123.
21.
HallinDC (1996) Commercialism and professionalism in the American news media. In: CurranJGurevitchM (eds) Mass Media and Society. London: Arnold, pp. 243–262.
22.
HallinDCManciniP (2004) Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
23.
HeritageJ (1985) Analyzing news interviews: Aspects of the production of talk for an overhearing audience. In: van DijkTA (ed.) Handbook of Discourse Analysis, Volume 3: Discourse and Dialogue. London: Academic Press, pp. 95–117.
24.
HeritageJ (2002) The limits of questioning: Negative interrogatives and hostile question content. Journal of Pragmatics34(10–11): 1427–1446.
25.
HeritageJClaymanS (2010) Talk in Action: Interactions, Identities, and Institutions. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
26.
HeritageJGreatbatchD (1991) On the institutional character of institutional talk: The case of news interviews. In: BodenDZimmermanDH (eds) Talk and Social Structure: Studies in Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis. Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 93–137.
27.
HeritageJWatsonDR (1979) Formulations as conversational objects. In: PsathasG (ed.) Everyday Language: Studies in Ethnomethodology. New York: Irvington, pp. 123–162.
28.
HeritageJCRothA (1995) Grammar and institution: Questions and questioning in the broadcast news interview. Research on Language and Social Interaction28(1): 1–60.
29.
HutchbyI (1996) Confrontation Talk: Arguments, Asymmetries, and Power on Talk Radio. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
30.
HutchbyI (2011) Non-neutrality and argument in the hybrid political interview. Discourse Studies13(3): 349–366.
JeffersonG (1984) Notes on a systematic deployment of the acknowledgement tokens ‘Yeah’ and ‘Mm hm’. Papers in Linguistics17(2): 197–216.
33.
LabovW (1972) Language in the Inner City: Studies in the Black English Vernacular. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
34.
LabovWFanshellD (1977) Therapeutic Discourse: Psychotherapy as Conversation. New York: Academic Press.
35.
LauerbachG (2004) Political interviews as hybrid genre. Text24(3): 353–397.
36.
Martínez-VallveyF (1995) La entrevista periodística desde el punto de vista conversacional. Salamanca: Publicaciones Universidad Pontificia.
37.
Mateos-PérezJ (2009) La información como espectáculo en el nacimiento de la televisión privada española (1990–1994). Estudios sobre el mensaje periodístico15: 315–334.
38.
MedinaMOjerT (2010) El nuevo modelo de la televisión pública española. Comunicación y Sociedad23(2): 329–359.
39.
MontgomeryM (2000) Televised talk: Face work, politeness and laughter in the Mrs. Merton show. In: Dialogue Analysis VII: Working with Dialogue. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, pp. 121–135.
40.
MontgomeryM (2008) The discourse of the broadcast news interview. Journalism Studies9(2): 260–277.
41.
MontgomeryM (2011) The accountability interview, politics and change in UK public service broadcasting. In: EkstromMPatronaM (eds) Talking Politics in the Broadcast Media: Evolving Forms of Journalism and Political Accountability. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 33–56.
42.
PapatheodorouFMachinD (2003) The umbilical cord that was never cut: The post-dictatorial intimacy between the political elite and the mass media in Greece and Spain. European Journal of Communication18(1): 31–54.
43.
PomerantzA (1984) Agreeing and disagreeing with assessments: Some features of preferred/dispreferred turn shapes. In: AtkinsonJMHeritageJ (eds) Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 57–101.
44.
Rendle-ShortJ (2007) Neutralism and adversarial challenges in the political news interview. Discourse & Communication1(4): 387–406.
45.
Roca-CuberesC (2011) Making psychotherapy visible: A conversation analytic study of some interactional devices employed in psychiatric interviews. Text & Talk31(2): 221–245.
46.
SacksH (1987) On the preferences for agreement and contiguity in sequences in conversation. In: ButtonGLeeJRE (eds) Talk and Social Organization. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, pp. 54–69.
47.
SacksH (1992) Lectures on Conversation, Volumes I and II, ed. JeffersonG.Oxford: Blackwell.
48.
SchwartzH (1976) On recognizing mistakes: A case of practical reasoning in psychotherapy. Philosophy of the Social Sciences6(1): 55–73.
49.
StamperSBrantsK (2011) A changing culture of political television journalism. In: BrantsKVoltmerK (eds) Political Communication in Postmodern Democracy: Challenging the Primacy of Politics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
50.
ThornborrowJ (2001) ‘Has it ever happened to you?’ Talk show stories as mediated performance. In: TolsonA (ed.) Discourse, Performance, Spectacle: The Talk Show Phenomenon. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 117–137.
51.
TolsonA (2006) Media Talk: Spoken Discourse on TV and Radio. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
52.
WatsonDR (1990) Some features of the elicitation of confessions in murder interrogations. In: PsathasG (ed.) Interaction Competence. New York: Irvington Publishers, pp. 263–295.
53.
WietenJPanttiM (2005) Obsessed with the audience: Breakfast television revisited. Media, Culture & Society27(1): 21–39.
