Week 7 - Reviewing Clayman

Chat shows and interview based programs fill our television and radio stations. Every station has a number of chat show based programs happening numerous times every day. These types of programs have changed the structure in which interviews take place. This changes the interviewee’s role and as Clayman addresses this in his journal article Address terms in the service of other actions: The case of news interview talk.

The main point Clayman highlights in this article are address terms. Clayman has highlighted two address points, service of other actions and speaking from the heart. Clayman identifies service of actions of being something that ‘often occurred in two-party interviews, leaving no doubt as to the intended addressee… (2007, pp.2).’ This type of action is what we see during chat and talk based shows, panel interviews and interviews involving multiple guests. Clayman also defined service of action as ‘the question-answer turn taking system that organizes interview talk usually leads all IEs direct their remarks via a gaze and body orientation… (2007, pp.3).’ This is exactly what we see when we turn onto a program from chat based news such as The Project to entertainment news programs like Sunrise.

To define speaking from the heart, Clayman used an interview from Hilary Clinton shortly after the infamous Monican Lewinskis scandal. The interviewee asks Clinton to reflect on the life choice she and her family made in pursuing the presidency. The interviewee then asks, ‘given five years of personal and political attacks, whether the whole experience has been worth it. That he is asking her to speak from the heart (2007, pp.5).’ This invites Clinton to share her thoughts and give a personal feel to her answer. This sort of address term is also used on chat-based programs and more specifically on ‘feel good’ programs such as Channel 7 Sunday Night. These types of programs feed of speaking from the heart type of interviews to engage with there audience.

Clayman’s article has highlighted two key interviewing techniques, service of other actions and speaking from the heart. These two techniques are found across nearly all talk based and chat programs and will continue to be used to relate to the audience.

REFERENCE LIST: Clayman, S 2010, Discourse & Communication, Address terms in the service of other actions: The case of news interview talk, 4: 161 DOI: 10.1177/1750481310364330