Broadcast news, the live ‘two-way’ and the case of Andrew Gilligan

Abstract

This article examines the role of the live two-way exchange in broadcast news. It sets out to demonstrate that there are marked differences between the discourse of the unscripted live two-way interchange between correspondent and studio presenter and other scripted sections of the news. In particular, it is maintained that linguistic selections in the live two-way (particularly choices in linguistic modality) project a different approach to the truth conditions of its discourse, with less emphasis on precise veracity than is found generally in the news. The implications of this variation within the discourses of the news are then examined by considering the unscripted contribution by Andrew Gilligan to the BBC’s Today programme that became the focus of much attention before, during and after the Hutton enquiry.