"Do you condemn?" Negotiating power relations through (in)direct questions and answers design in ethno-political interviews

Zohar Kampf*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

This chapter discusses a specific type of interactional ritual in ethno-political interviews, one that hinders their conciliatory potential. The ritual is performed by two types of participants: Jewish-Israeli interviewers demanding the condemnation of transgressions committed by others, and the respective response by Arab-Israeli political representatives in the role of interviewees. Negotiation over condemnations is examined, as this speech act is considered crucial to setting up models for civic behavior. The chapter demonstrates how interviewers' efforts to exercise interactional and social power through pushing their interviewees to adopt a consensual stance are rejected by resorting to indirect answer designs. It concludes by discussing the extent to which "do you condemn" questions may be perceived as a legitimate professional journalistic practice.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Discourse of Indirectness. Cues, voices and functions
EditorsZohar Livnat, Pnina Shukrun-Nagar, Galia Hirsch
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company
Pages231-251
Number of pages21
ISBN (Electronic)9789027260567
DOIs
StatePublished - 2020

Publication series

NamePragmatics and Beyond New Series
Volume316
ISSN (Print)0922-842X

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 John Benjamins Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • Broadcast talk
  • Condemnations
  • Epideictic rhetoric
  • News interviews
  • Positioning

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