Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Conducting news interviews with the leaders of enemy nations is a relatively new phenomenon, originating from the transformation of media environment and the changes in journalistic norms and practices. In this study we analyze two such interviews -- one with Yassir Arafat on Israel's Public Channel, the second with Saddam Hussein on CBS -- in an effort to understand how they are seen from the perspective of interviewers, interviewees, government, and audiences. The analysis demonstrates how the interviewers, talking to their own constituency, undertake a negotiator's mode visa v is the interviewees, how the interviewees talks over the heads of the leaders to the people on the enemy side, and how the governments at the receiving end are both threatened by the legitimacy endowed to the enemy, and pleased at his exposure as dangerous or ridiculous.