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Article published In:
The micro-politics of sequential organization: Contributions from conversation analysis and ethnomethodology
Edited by Lorenza Mondada and Sara Keel
[Journal of Language and Politics 16:1] 2017
► pp. 19–39

Hardballs and softballs

Modulating adversarialness in journalistic questioning

 | UCLA
 | UCLA
The design of questions in news interviews and news conferences has proven to be an illuminating window into the tenor of press-state relations. Quantitative studies have charted aggregate variations in adversarial questioning, but less is known about variations in the intensity of adversarialness within any particular question. Such variation is captured by the vernacular distinction between “hardball” versus “softball” questions. Hardballs advance an oppositional viewpoint vigorously, while softballs do so at most mildly. In this paper we investigate recurrent language practices through which journalists modulate the oppositionality of a question, thereby either hindering or facilitating response. The objective is to better understand how adversarialness is enacted in direct encounters between politicians and journalists.
Keywords: Questions, news interviews, news conferences, journalism, journalistic norms, objectivity, adversarialness, adversarial journalism, press-state relations
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Adversarial Viewpoints: Articulated Versus Advocated
  • 3.Elaborating factualistic Grounds
  • 4.From factualistic grounds to adversarial conclusion
  • 5.Soliciting response: Hardening/softening by inviting affirmation/rejection
  • 6.Soliciting response: Hardening/softening by implicating the difficulty/ease of response
  • 7.Vernacular characterizations revisited: The subversiveness of a “simple question”
  • 8.Discussion
  • References
Published online: 25 April 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.16.1.02cla
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