Unwarranted Questions in Hungarian Political News Interviews

Abstract

The aim of this study is to explore and investigate the use of unwarranted questions (i.e. questions that are deemed to be too sensitive or personal to be asked in public) in Hungarian political news interviews by observing 3 interviewers: two female and a male host. Data was collected from two TV companies: M1, a state-supported TV channel, and ATV, a privately-owned TV company, between September and October 2014; that is, around the time of the municipal elections in Hungary. On the one hand, I examine the differences in the interviewers’ choice of unwarranted question use by studying their interviewing styles, the question topics where unwarranted questions emerged, and the ways those questions were formulated depending on the topic of the interview and the interview subjects. On the other hand, I analyze the ways politicians, as interviewees, tackle such demands in order to shed light on the factors that influence their choice of responding or nonresponding