An Investigation Of Appraisal Resources In Journalits’ Questions At Political Press Conferences

At political press conferences, journalists are invited to ask questions about relevant political issues, while spokespersons are responsible for responding to questions. Most previous studies on press conference discourse focus on spokespersons’replies. A few researches carried out discourse analysis of journalists’ questions based on Conversation Analysis (CA) and pragmatics, concentrating on the aggressiveness of journalists’ questions, request strategies used by journalists when proposing questions and pragmatic functions of question prefaces. The present study aims to explore how journalists use attitude and engagement resources to realize interpersonal meaning at political press conferences within the theoretical framework of Appraisal System, hoping to help journalists achieve a better understanding of how to realize intended interpersonal meaning when proposing questions at Western political press conferences.The present study focuses on the journalists’ questions proposed at20political press conferences held by American President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron, aiming to answer the following three questions:1) What kinds of attitude resources are employed in journalists’questions at political press conferences to realize interpersonal meaning? How are different types of attitude resources distributed?2) What kinds of engagement resources are employed in journalists’questions at political press conferences to realize interpersonal meaning? How are different types of engagement resources distributed?3) What are the reasons behind such use of attitude and engagement resources in the journalists’questions at the political press conferences?The present study yields the following results:1) Appreciation resources take up the largest proportions among the three sub-types of attitude resources. Appreciation resources are used to demonstrate the journalists’ objective and rational assessment of things including the political proposals of spokespersons, the questions being proposed, the press conferences being held, etc., which is in line with the questioning technique of neutral question and the journalistic norm of objectivity. Non-authorial affect resources show the journalists’empathy for the spokespersons and the audience, which is closely related to the interviewer principle of emphatic adaptation. The prudent use of judgment resources indicates that journalists try to follow the journalistic norm of objectivity by avoiding their own ethical or moral intervention, thus maintaining a solidary relationship with the other participants of the political press conferences.2) In terms of engagement resources, there is a stark contrast between the proportion of monogloss and that of heterogloss, showing the journalists’tolerance of various alternative voices. Within heterogloss, dialogic expansion is more frequently adopted than dialogic contraction. The journalists use dialogic expansion resources to increase the objectivity of their questions and show willingness to negotiate with alternative positions, which also corresponds to the interviewer principle of emphatic adaptation and the journalistic norm of objectivity. In the meantime, the journalists can shift responsibility for their propositions and skillfully exploit the questioning technique of defensible questioning. On the other hand, dialogic contraction resources are mostly used by the journalists to express their views opposite to the spokespersons’ or steer the spokespersons’ replies in a certain direction. The use of dialogic contraction resources accords with the questioning technique of provocative questions and question preferences and increases the adversarialness of the journalists’ questions.