Common Ground as Battleground: Interviewers and Interviewees in Televised Political Interviews in Japan

Televised political interviews aim to test public officials and subject-matter experts on policy issues and questions of concern to the general public. These interviews enable the interviewers--journalists, social critics, or scholars and researchers from different fields--to ask questions and challenge answers. Often however, such interviews resemble a battleground, the center of power and struggle, as one player--the interviewer or the interviewee--trying to exercise influence over the course of the discourse and topics of discussion. On one hand, interviewers try to get information to their questioning; they may disagree with, argue, criticize, or otherwise confront interviewees. The latter, on their part, endeavor to affect the content of information conveyed to the public and to influence the way television viewers perceive their policies and the events that take place in the public domain. The more challenging the interviewers, the more likely it is that the political interview will turn into a battleground, where interviewers and interviewees pursue diverging objectives and where the ultimate goal is to win the battle. Focusing on televised political interviews in Japan this paper details the extent to which interviewers and interviewees succeed in controlling the content of the information transmitted to the general viewers through these type of media genre. Based on data collected during 14 months (from 2012 through 2013) from 194 interviews (133 with national politicians, 12 with local politicians, and 49 with nonpoliticians) in three interview programs transmitted nation-wide, the paper examines the effects of the power relationship between interviewers and interviewees on the nature and the outcome of televised political interviews within the broad context of political communication in this country.