LAUSR

Abstract There is by now a sizeable body of literature on the resources journalists have developed for doing adversarialness while maintaining a neutralistic stance. At the same time, as research shows, interviewees have also developed their own practices in order to ‘respond’ to journalists’ adversarial style of questioning. However, no attention has been paid to the fact that interviewees, too, tread the realm of journalists and ask questions. This paper examines politicians’ use of questions in TV interviews, within the framework of Conversation Analysis. Focusing on stand-alone questions and examining the sequential environment, participants’ epistemic rights, question design, and interviewers’ response, our analysis shows that such questions are primarily deployed as vehicles for challenging interviewer talk. Such questions occur in sequential environments that share the following features: a) interviewers make assertions/assumptions which convey their own personal view, and b) the assertions/assumptions target interviewees themselves rather than third parties. Interviewers’ turns, thus, establish a disaffiliative environment, with potentially damaging implications for politicians’ public image. By formulating their responses as questions, politicians get to challenge interviewer assertions/assumptions and, at the same time, hold them accountable by making relevant a response to that challenge.