Göran Eriksson

Adversarial moments: A study of short-form interviews in the news

Through an analysis of news journalism in Sweden, the development of a more adversarial, critical or interpretive news journalism is discussed in this article. A frequent form of politicians’ appearances in the news is in short-form interviews in news stories. Such interviews are often reduced to single turns or answers. The aim of this study is to identify the more communicative techniques used, when politicians’ answers are cut and incorporated into news stories, and how these techniques are related to the roles set up for politicians and reporters. What potential relationships are set up between politicians, reporters and the viewers? Swedish television data from 1978, 1993 and 2003 have been analysed. The analysis shows that in the early period, news journalism appears as a mediator or interrogator. In the latter periods, news journalism appears in an adversarial role. It becomes more of an interpreter or a critical interrogator of politician’s actions.

Cooperative or adversarial? journalists' enactment of the watchdog function in political news production

This study examines how power relations between journalism and political actors vary across the news production process. Applying a process approach, it addresses this issue by exploring journalists’ enactment of the watchdog role in two key moments of news production: the interactional phase and the news-construction phase. The study is conducted in the context of press conferences with the Swedish Government and involves data from question-and-answer sessions and published news content that was initiated by such press conferences. With a low or moderate extent of journalistic aggressiveness in the interactional phase, the results indicate that this moment is characterized by cooperativeness and can be described in accordance with an exchange model. By contrast, the analysis of the published news content demonstrates a high extent of criticism and is in line with an adversary model. Altogether, the findings contribute new evidence to suggest that the power relations between journalists and political actors vary across the moments of news production, and that journalistic autonomy increases in the later phases of the process. The differences in the extent of watchdog-role performance are discussed in terms of a strategic ritual by which news journalism promotes a favorable image of itself as a public watchdog institution.

INTERVIEWS AS COMMUNICATIVE RESOURCES IN NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS BROADCASTS

This study quantitatively establishes the centrality and importance of interviews in news and current affairs broadcasts. We show how segments of interviews (from soundbites to longer recorded, or live, question-and-answer interactions) are deployed as communicative resources in the construction and presentation of news in various ways. The data allow for a cross-national comparison between the United Kingdom and Sweden which points to differences in practice between the countries. We argue that our findings may be used critically to examine various conceptualisations of broadcast interviews in general and political interviews in particular. We also show how journalists outnumber politicians as interviewees in the news, a finding that is in need of further exploration from a range of perspectives. We also believe that our study provides solid ground on which to base future critical studies of the authority of journalism, dialogical and soundbite journalism, and the alleged fragmentisation of news.

BIASED INTERROGATIONS?: A multi-methodological approach on bias in election campaign interviews

This study, based on Swedish data from three elections (2002, 2006 and 2010) and on a revised version of Claymans and Heritages conceptualization of aggressive questioning, examines bias in election campaign interviews with leading political figures. In the first part of the study, the prevalence of partisan bias is explored, and this analysis confirms that such bias does not exist. Informed by Conversation Analysis, a limited number of interviews from the 2006 election are investigated in the second part. This analysis also involves questions scripted by journalists, and it compares both quantitatively and qualitatively the differences between the manuscripts and live interaction. The results question the assumption that bias is solely related to journalistic values and actions. The level of aggressiveness in the interviews is also dependent on how the politicians manage the interview questions.

Citizen Participation in Journalist Discourse: Multiplatform Political Interviews in the Swedish Election Campaign 2010

Election campaigns are times of extraordinary journalistic effort. New practices and media formats are explored (Thorsen, 2012). In recent campaigns, broadcast formats and web facilities have been integrated in order to expand forms of citizen participation. The extent to which such initiatives transform established roles and relationships, and contest what has been described as the crisis of political communication (cf. Blumler and Gurewitch, 1995; Blumler and Coleman, 2010), is, however, disputable. While some studies describe how the relationships between journalists and citizens change radically when citizens are invited to participate in what was previously restricted to professional journalism (Steensen, 2011a; Thorsen, 2012), other studies show how citizens’ voices are effectively controlled and integrated into traditional journalistic discourses (Lewis et al., 2005; Carlson and Ben-Porath, 2012). Given the complexity of the question and the diversity of forms of citizen participation, it is no surprise that different conclusions have been reached. An important challenge is to understand in detail how tensions in citizen involvement are dealt with in the diversity of media formats developed (cf. Lorenzo-Dus, 2011: 218; Carlson and Ben-Porath, 2012).

The management of applause and laughter in live political interviews

In the competition for the audience’s attention, TV journalism’s mode ofaddressisbecomingmoreandmoreimportant(Ben-Porath,2007;Ekstrom,2000),andinterviewswithpoliticiansarewithoutdoubtapartofthisdevel-opment.Withinfluencesfrommoreentertaininggenres,establishedformsofpoliticaldebatesandinterviewsareredefinedandnewonesareproduced(seee.g.Clayman,2006;Lauerbach,2004).Interviewstakingplaceinfrontofalivestudioaudiencemightbeseenasasignofsuchchange.Inpoliticalinterviews,thepresenceofastudioaudiencecanbeseenasanoutcomeofwhatScannell(2003)describesasthe

See the error of your ways: Belligerent expertise and the curative power of ‘tough love’

This article examines a particular form of popular expertise, one that uses aggressive, face-threatening confrontations as a means of achieving its goals. The specific case under scrutiny is the Swedish home renovation programme The Angry Carpenter (Sw: Arga snickaren), here considered as an instance of what has been labelled belligerent broadcasting. The analysis demonstrates that belligerent outbursts and emotional displays serve essential, but varying functions in the construction of the host’s expertise. Belligerence is both a method to achieve epistemic status and for the enactment of expertise. Paradoxically, through his belligerence the host promotes a common-sense theory of good communication. A key lesson to be learned from programmes like this is the curative power of ‘tough love’. When nothing else works, belligerence is justified as a method for diagnosing problems, dealing with personal difficulties and restoring healthy households.

Live co-produced news: emerging forms of news production and presentation on the web

New technologies offer new interactional possibilities for news journalism, but they also pose a challenge to broadcasters who are accustomed to the practices of ‘old’ television news. The web is one such arena where broadcasters are in the process of mastering a sense of sociability and ‘communicative ease’ in relation to audiences. They struggle to find ways to engage audiences in the roles of both viewers and users in line with the technological affordances of the web. Rather little attention has yet been paid to how the general sociability of broadcasting is influenced by the development of digital media. This article presents a case showing how broadcasters orient to their audience(s) in a so-called live news co-production on the web. The main point is to highlight both possibilities and dilemmas in the management of audience-oriented activities on a new technological platform with its different conditions for production and reception. We argue that broadcasters interested in producing web news both need to adhere to the professional principles and standards of ordinary broadcasting, and at the same time show that they are competent enough to also produce unpolished, layman-like material normally associated with unprofessionality.

Rethinking the rethinking : the problem of generality in qualitative media audience research

Abstract During the last few decades, the possibilities and limitations of qualitative media audience research have regularly been discussed in media and communication research. Quantitatively oriented researchers have claimed that qualitatively oriented research is incapable of producing general knowledge. From a ‘radical ethnographic’ point of view it has been stated that such knowledge is more or less useless, while other qualitatively oriented researchers have approached the question of generality in a more balanced way, and argued for the necessity to interpret specific events within a framework of more general theories. But these solutions are not satisfactory. The aim of this article is to suggest an alternative conceptualisation of generality. From the meta-theoretical viewpoint of critical realism, this article states that generalisations have to take into consideration the domain of the deep structures of reality. Qualitative media audience research should aim at producing general knowledge about the constituent properties or transfactual conditions of the process of media consumption.

Messy interviews: changing conditions for politicians’ visibility on the web

This article provides an updated analysis relating to John B. Thompson’s argument about political visibility and fragility. It does so in light of recent years’ development of communication technologies and the proliferation of nonbroadcasting media organizations producing TV. Instances of a new mediated encounter for politicians is analyzed in detail – the live web interview – produced and streamed by two Swedish tabloids during election campaigning 2014. It is argued that the live web interview is not yet a recognizable ‘communicative activity type’ with an obvious set of norms, rules, and routines. This fact makes politicians more intensely exposed to moments of mediated fragility which may be difficult to control. The most crucial condition that changes how politicians are able to manage their visibility is the constantly rolling ‘non-exclusive’ live camera which does not give the politician any room for error. The tabloids do not seem to mind ‘things going a bit wrong’ while airing; rather, interactional flaws are argued to be part and parcel of the overall web TV performance.