Page 100 - An Introduction to Political Communication Fifth Edition

Intro to Politics Communication (5th edn)-p.qxp 9/2/11 10:55 Page 79

THE MEDIA AS POLITICAL ACTORS
That peak-time presenters with mass audiences should pursue such a
confrontational relationship with political actors is not to be confused with
‘subjective bias’ (although many politicians who are victims of the style may
prefer to think otherwise). Rather, it is an extension and development of the
media’s ‘watchdog’ role. One might also view it as a conscious effort more
effectively to represent ‘the people’ who watch these bulletins in their
millions, against the political elite.
The less-popular broadcast news slots (Radio 4’s Today, BBC2’s
Newsnight, Channel 4 News) have also developed the art of confrontation,
partly because it makes for good viewing and listening but also in recognition
of the fact that not to confront a politician, not to play the role of ‘devil’s
advocate’, is now perceived as deferential and old-fashioned. The late Brian
Redhead on Radio 4, Jon Snow and Zeinab Bidawi on Channel 4 and most
famously of all in this respect, BBC2 Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman,
have all adopted this approach to the politicians who agree to enter their
studios. Jeremy Paxman’s style itself became satirised, alongside the political
caricatures, in Spitting Image. Paxman’s approach is one of permanent,
knowing scepticism towards all that a politician says, an attitude which is
communicated both to the audience and the interviewee in a variety of facial
and linguistic gestures. While he and the other presenters who adopt a
similar approach are unable to say out loud what they think of the responses
received to their questions, audiences are hardly likely to miss the sarcasm
and contempt which frequently emerges from the phrasing of a question or
the tone of a voice. We may view these presenters, returning to Nimmo and
Combs’s categorisation, as ‘bardic’ pundits, not only in their advocacy of the
popular against the elite, but in the dry humour which often accompanies
the interview.
In broadcast news programmes the political interview is one element in a
mix of reportage, commentary and analyses. Some journalists, however, have
elevated it to the status of a programme genre in itself. Robin Day’s election
interviews with party leaders, David Frost’s Sunday interviews, Jonathan
Dimbleby’s lengthy interviews on the BBC’s On the Record, John Humphrys’
Today interviews and those by Andrew Marr on a Sunday morning have
been important agenda-setting moments in the political cycle. The politi-
cians’ motives and interests in subjecting themselves to interview have been
discussed already. Here, we note again the combative, sometimes accusatory
style of the Humphrys or Paxman interviews, and the now commonplace
assumption that such an approach is both legitimate and necessary. These
interview-celebrities, who with rare exceptions are very much the ‘stars’ of
their shows, confront the politician with ‘what the public wants to know’.
Some, like Paxman, hang on to their victim like a pit-bull terrier, until the
politicians’ refusal or inability to answer is transparently revealed. Robin
Day too, in his prime, had sufficient status as a pundit to discard the
conventions of etiquette and deference which politicians could once expect

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