Lesson 10 Summary Press Conference

James Delli Gatti

Power and affiliation in presidential press conferences: A study on interruptions, jokes and laughter

Reference: Ekström, M. (2009). Power and affiliation in presidential press conferences: A study on interruptions, jokes and laughter. Journal Of Language & Politics, 8(3), 386-415. doi:10.1075/jlp.8.3.03eks

Theme: Press Conference

Summary: This Journal article is about politicians and their relationship with the media during press conferences. This article goes on to state that press conferences are the venue where politicians are interrogated by the press and where they are held accountable to the public;

"the press conference is one of the central arenas for meetings between journalists and leading politicians. It's an enduring and legitimate form for public interrogations and political accountability, broadcasted live and extensively reported in the news media."(Ekstrom,2009)

This is an important aspect of American culture that is necessary in keeping our government accountable to the people that they serve and represent.

This article discusses the use of interruptions and humor by political figures in order to control the press conference. The use of interruptions is used to pause the news media reporter and it also suggested that this tactic was used to assert dominance over the news reporter; when the reports actions appear to be in opposition to or in disagreement with the politician.

Humor on the other hand is used during press conferences in order to mitigate an error to a statement, to handle nervousness during the press conference, and to face a perceived threat. In an attempt to control the stressful environment that is very prevalent during press conferences interruptions and humor are used by politicians as a means to handle the many difficult questions that reporters can present for them to answer in their difficult task of keeping politicians honest and accountable for their actions to the American people.

Application to the lesson topic: Press conferences are used for many different reasons, by many different people and organizations, and to disseminate a myriad of information. It is important that press conferences are organized and that the information that you want disseminated is disseminated. It is also important that you exhibit control of the press conference with any means possible.

Application to emergency services: During an emergency press conference it is important that you control the press conference by any means available. Interruptions and humor are two strategies that you can utilize in order to achieve this goal.

Ekström, M. (2009). Power and affiliation in presidential press conferences: A study on interruptions, jokes and laughter. Journal Of Language & Politics, 8(3), 386-415. doi:10.1075/jlp.8.3.03eks