Equivocation in media communication

Abstract

Abstract This paper examines equivocation in Arabic and global interviews using interviews with Saudi politician Adel Al-Jubeir as a case study. The study has three main objectives: to assess the applicability of existing frameworks for coding responses in Arabic interviews, to explore the potential discrepancy in question design between Arabic and global interviews and its potential impact on equivocation, and to identify the most frequently recurring responses in these interviews. Rasiah’s (2010) framework is employed to analyse equivocation and coding responses. The dataset includes 2 hours and 45 minutes of Arabic interviews and an equal duration of global interviews. The findings indicate the effectiveness of the proposed frameworks in coding responses in Arabic interviews. Likewise, they show that Arabic interviewers adopt a less adversarial questioning style compared to their global counterparts, and that aggressive questioning contributes to higher equivocation rates. Furthermore, the coded responses vary between the two interview settings.