The Emergence of Assessments in Arabic Broadcast Interviews: A Conversation Analytic Study

Abstract

This study examines the emergence of assessments and the role they play in providing questions and answers in broadcast interview settings on two Arabic networks. It employs a conversation analytic approach, adopting frameworks by Edwards and Potter (2017) for the identification of assessments in question-answer sequences; Schlegoff (2007) to uncover the sequential positioning of assessments and the actions they perform; Clayman et al. (2006) to examine the incorporation of assessments in the design of questions; Clayman (2001), Raymond (2003) and Stivers and Hayashi (2010) to analyse the design of answers; and Robinson (2016) to observe the accountability of assessments. Moreover, it also employs quantitative analysis to identify the most recurrent positions for emerging assessments, the most performed actions by assessments and the most adopted practices that show participants’ orientation to the accountability of assessments. The data consists of twenty-eight hours of recorded Arab broadcast interviews from four shows: Liqāʾ Xāṣ (Special Interview) and Bilā Ḥudūd (Without Bounds) on Aljazeera and Nuqṭat Niḏ̣ām (Point of Order) and Muqābalah Xāṣah (Special Interview) on Al-Arabiya. The findings show that assessments emerge in recurrent positions in question-answer sequences and play a role in their design; and are used to achieve diverse actions that are relevant to this interactional activity. Interviewers provide a controversial style of questioning by proffering assessments to perform several actions, such as displaying criticism, introducing accusations and eliciting socio-political positioning, whereas interviewees produce them to provide defence against criticism, divert accountability and display socio-political positioning. Moreover, both adopt different strategies to avoid the accountability of their displayed assessments. Interviewers attribute their assessments either to third parties or to the upshot of interviewees’ answers. Similarly, interviewees introduce accounts before and following their proffered assessments to provide epistemic support to these assessments.