Answers Without Questions: A Comparative Analysis of Television News Interviews

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Abstract
An analysis of television news interviews in the United States, Britain and South Africa reveals that the newcasts differ in terms of the frequency of interviewing, the frequency of the presentation within the interviews of questions asked, and the nature of the questions used. American news programmes carry the most interviews, the fewest questions `on the screen', and the most challenging questions used; in South Africa there are the fewest interviews, the most questions `on the screen', and the fewest challenging questions; the British situation lies between that of the United States and South Africa. Several possible interpretations are offered in an attempt to explain the findings: the degree of pluralistic openness in the socio-political system, the predominance of social conflicts in the news, the degree of subordination of the broadcasting system to the State, the perceived adversarial role of the reporter, and the extent of broadcasting organization competition for the news audience.

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