A comparative study of toughness and neutrality in Italian and English political interviews

While interview styles are studied in an increasing number of countries, truly cross-national comparative research on interview styles is scarce. This paper addresses this lack of comparative research by comparing both English and Italian journalistic styles in terms of face-threatening acts and coercion because they are good representatives of the “Atlantic” and the “Mediterranean” models of media systems. We compared two sets of questions from 75 televised political interviews that were broadcast in England (N = 234) and Italy (N = 380) in 2004. Two bilingual observers coded both samples using comparable category systems. The results showed that Italian and English interviewers were equally tough. English interviewers, however, showed a systematic bias toward the opposition over government politicians. In contrast, Italian interviewers treated left- and right-wing politicians according to whichever channel the interviewers belonged, depending on the political and financial groups who supported the channel. We discuss the cross-cultural, social and psycho-social implications of this study and also discuss the merits and challenges of comparing interview styles across countries.

► Toughness and neutrality of TV political interviewers are obtained from measures of face-threaten and coercion.
► Italian and English political interviewers are both very tough toward politicians.
► English interviewers showed less variability than Italian ones.
► English interviewers showed a structural bias against governmental forces.
► Italian interviewers showed a partisan bias (ingroup–outgroup mechanism).