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Abstract
In previous work on the news interview, considerable attention has been devoted to its role as an instrument for holding politicians to account, leading to studies of evasion, of challenges to questions by interviewees, of how neutrality is performed, and of how issues are pursued by interviewers. Apart from Clayman (Citation1992) and Ekstr⊘m (Citation2001), however, few accounts of the news interview examine the other roles that it can serve and its place within the overall economy of news discourse. This article sets out to explore the range of types of news interviews and suggests that it is a mistake to regard the accountability interview with a public figure as the principal or defining type, despite their public salience and despite the way which broadcasters themselves routinely regard them as the cornerstone of their public-service remit.
Notes
1. The data on which this article is based receive a more extended treatment, especially with regard to “witnessing”, in Montgomery (Citation2007). Earlier drafts of this article were much improved by detailed commentary from John E. Richardson and Michael Hamo. Its faults, of course, remain my own.
2. A full treatment of the affiliated interview in the form of the live two-way may be found in Montgomery (Citation2006).
3. Strictly speaking, of course, Snow's questions in any case are almost impossible to answer. How can one have every reason to believe anyone? How can anyone know what their thoughts will be tomorrow? The last question (“if you had to would you shake his hand”) looks tautological.
