Difference between revisions of "Heritage-Clayman2013"

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|Volume=7
 
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|URL=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17512786.2013.802485
 
|DOI=10.1080/17512786.2013.802485
 
|DOI=10.1080/17512786.2013.802485
|Abstract=This paper uses a single question form*the negative interrogative*as a window into the
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|Abstract=This paper uses a single question form—the negative interrogative—as a window into the increasing aggressiveness of American journalists and hence the increasingly adversarial relationship between press and state in the United States. The negative interrogative in English is a type of yes/no interrogative (e.g., “Isn't it …”, “Don't you …”) often understood as asserting rather than merely seeking information. Its frequency in the construction of yes/no questions is an index of the propensity for journalists to depart from a formally neutral posture and express a point of view on the subject of inquiry. Previous quantitative research documented their growing use in US presidential news conferences since the 1950s, with the Nixon Administration as an historical turning point. Here we incorporate a more nuanced qualitative analysis of single cases in use. Beyond their growing frequency, negative interrogatives were increasingly mobilized to raise substantively adversarial matters, increasingly prefaced by adversarial assertions, and increasingly likely to treat such prefaces as presuppositionally given. Together these trends indicate journalists' growing willingness to highlight administration problems and failings and to hold Presidents to account, with Presidents since Nixon facing a harsher climate of journalistic questioning than did their predecessors.
increasing aggressiveness of American journalists and hence the increasingly adversarial
 
relationship between press and state in the United States. The negative interrogative in English
 
is a type of yes/no interrogative (e.g., ‘‘Isn’t it ...’’, ‘‘Don’t you ...’’) often understood as asserting
 
rather than merely seeking information. Its frequency in the construction of yes/no questions is an
 
index of the propensity for journalists to depart from a formally neutral posture and express a
 
point of view on the subject of inquiry. Previous quantitative research documented their growing
 
use in US presidential news conferences since the 1950s, with the Nixon Administration as an
 
historical turning point. Here we incorporate a more nuanced qualitative analysis of single cases
 
in use. Beyond their growing frequency, negative interrogatives were increasingly mobilized to
 
raise substantively adversarial matters, increasingly prefaced by adversarial assertions, and
 
increasingly likely to treat such prefaces as presuppositionally given. Together these trends
 
indicate journalists’ growing willingness to highlight administration problems and failings and to
 
hold Presidents to account, with Presidents since Nixon facing a harsher climate of journalistic
 
questioning than did their predecessors.
 
 
}}
 
}}

Latest revision as of 03:37, 17 October 2019

Heritage-Clayman2013
BibType ARTICLE
Key Heritage-Clayman2013
Author(s) John Heritage, Steven E. Clayman
Title The changing tenor of questioning over time
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, assertive questioning, journalistic norms, journalistic questioning, news conferences, negative interrogative, news interviews, press state relations, White House press corps
Publisher
Year 2013
Language English
City
Month
Journal Journalism Practice
Volume 7
Number 4
Pages 481–501
URL Link
DOI 10.1080/17512786.2013.802485
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

Download BibTex

Abstract

This paper uses a single question form—the negative interrogative—as a window into the increasing aggressiveness of American journalists and hence the increasingly adversarial relationship between press and state in the United States. The negative interrogative in English is a type of yes/no interrogative (e.g., “Isn't it …”, “Don't you …”) often understood as asserting rather than merely seeking information. Its frequency in the construction of yes/no questions is an index of the propensity for journalists to depart from a formally neutral posture and express a point of view on the subject of inquiry. Previous quantitative research documented their growing use in US presidential news conferences since the 1950s, with the Nixon Administration as an historical turning point. Here we incorporate a more nuanced qualitative analysis of single cases in use. Beyond their growing frequency, negative interrogatives were increasingly mobilized to raise substantively adversarial matters, increasingly prefaced by adversarial assertions, and increasingly likely to treat such prefaces as presuppositionally given. Together these trends indicate journalists' growing willingness to highlight administration problems and failings and to hold Presidents to account, with Presidents since Nixon facing a harsher climate of journalistic questioning than did their predecessors.

Notes