The Evolution of Questioning in Presidential Press Conferences

University Of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

Historians have argued that journalists have become increasingly aggressive and adversarial in their treatment of government officials and political candidates. If so, this trend runs counter to established norms of politeness in interaction and to rituals of deference to political leaders. This project investigates whether and how a rise in adversarialness has emerged in presidential press conferences - the major venue for relationships between the press and the nations' top political leader. The press conference remains a central institution of political communication where the president explains and justifies policies, and where journalists discharge their questioning task under public scrutiny. Thus recognizing the crucial importance of presidential press conferences, the project examines the evolution of the practices journalists use to question presidents, the level of deference or adversarialness embodied in the questions, and the mix of journalistic, political, and historical factors that explain patterns of questioning over the latter half of the twentieth century. Using a sample of presidential press conferences from Dwight Eisenhower (1953) to Bill Clinton (2000), the project codes each question asked on the basis of four primary dimensions of adversarialness: 1) initiative, 2) bluntness, 3) assertiveness, and 4) hostility. Analysis of the data reveals if there has been a general decline in deference and a rise of adversarialness, if changes relate to specific historical events or individual presidents, if the introduction of broadcast journalism and television cameras affects the type of questions, if political partisanship explains some of the variation in questions, and if the president's standing in the polls influences the style of questioning. The answers the project provides to these questions enhance our understanding of the institutions of the presidency and journalism, and their co-evolution over time.