Steven Clayman
Biography
My primary research concerns news interviews, presidential news conferences, and other forms of broadcast talk involving direct encounters between journalists and public figures. I am interested in what the study of such talk can reveal about journalistic norms, press-state relations, and the sociopolitical landscape. This is part of a broader interest in the interface between interaction and social institutions, and I have also worked on a variety of institutional domains including political speeches, law courts, and emergency service encounters. Still more broadly, I am interested in the study of interaction as an institution its own right, what Goffman termed the interaction order, focusing on problems in turn taking and action formation.
Education
Ph.D., Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara
M.A., Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara
B.A., Sociology, Arizona State University
Research
Conversation analysis; interaction in journalism and politics; interaction and social institutions
Selected Publications
Steven Clayman and John Heritage 2002 The News Interview: Journalists and Public Figures on the Air. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
John Heritage and Steven Clayman 2010 Talk in Action: Interactions, Identities, and Institutions. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Clayman, Steven E. 1993 “Booing: The Anatomy of a Disaffiliative Response.” American Sociological Review 58: 110-130.
Clayman, Steven E. and Ann Reisner 1998 “Gatekeeping in Action: Editorial Conferences and Assessments of Newsworthiness,” American Sociological Review 63: 178-199.
Clayman, Steven E. 2001 “Answers and Evasions.” Language in Society 30(3): 403-442.
Clayman, Steven E., Marc N. Elliott, John Heritage, and Laurie McDonald 2006 “Historical Trends in Questioning Presidents 1953-2000.” Presidential Studies Quarterly 36: 561-583.
Clayman, Steven E., John Heritage, Marc N. Elliott, and Laurie McDonald 2007 “When Does the Watchdog Bark?: Conditions of Aggressive Questioning in Presidential News Conferences.” American Sociological Review 72: 23-41.
Clayman, Steven E. 2012 “Turn Constructional Units and the Transition Relevance Place in Conversation.” In Tanya Stivers and Jack Sidnell (eds.) Handbook of Conversation Analysis, pp. 150-166. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
