Interviews as communicative resources in news and current affairs broadcasts

• In this article, we quantitatively establish 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 allows for a cross-national comparison in between the UK and Sweden that point to differences in practice between the  countries. We argue that our findings may be used to critically 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.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Broadcasts

communicative resources

interviews

news

politics

quantitative methodology

Media and communication studies

Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap

Media and Communication Studies

Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)