マレーシア研究第４号（2015 年）【Symposium】

MH370 Press Conferences:
Interaction and Institutional Power Relation
Asniah Alias1, Sharifah Nadia Syed Nasharudin2,Marlyna Maros3

Introduction
A press conference is a systematic form of public presentation and the questioning of
all classification of public personalities which usually organized for the purpose of
distributing information to the media. A press conference or media event is commonly
held to broadly deliver important information about certain issues such as newpolitical programs and also in connection with a crucial event like a national
catastrophe.
The most recent issue in Malaysia that creates extensive polemic is the Malaysia
Airlines flight MH370 bound for Beijing which was reported missing on 8th March
2014. Starting from the day of the incident, a series of press conferences were held in
broadcasting the latest progress of the crisis. Due to the controversy it created, thematter was reported widely all around the world. Being an unusual incident inaviation history, the press conferences were extensively covered by local andinternational media. As it was an international event, the press conferences wereorganized following the standard format and procedures despite having a different
political system compared to other countries mentioned in the previous studies such as
US and Canada.
Existing studies on power relation in press conference basically came to aconclusion that either politicians or journalists have higher degree of control over theinteraction. For example, Bhatia (2006) asserted that power imbalance among theinteractants and the nature of press conferences which is institutionalized and1

Asniah Alias, PhD candidate, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti
Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), asniah@gmail.com
2 Sharifah Nadia Syed Nasharudin, Masters candidate, Faculty of Social Sciences andHumanities, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), shana_aidan@yahoo.com
3 Marlyna Maros, Associate Professor in Sociolinguistics, Faculty of Social Sciences andHumanities, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), marlyna@ukm.edu.my29

マレーシア研究第４号（2015 年）

formalized benefit the politicians to control the interaction while Clayman and
Heritage (2002a, 2002b, 2006) suggested that live event like a press conference gives
advantage to journalists pressing questions to limit politicians’ response. However,Eshbaugh- Soha (2003) noted that press conference is an uncontrolled setting thatneither politicians nor reporter can be presumed to have control over the interaction.
Research on the press conference interaction is very limited though. This study
was intended to fill in the gap of the existing studies by looking at the press
conferences in a different context especially press conferences organized by Malaysian
government. The aim is to investigate how the access to the floor is decided andregulated in MH370 press conferences and how it is related to territorial power of theparticipants involved. In achieving this objective, seven (7) video clips of MH370 press
conferences were analyzed guided by the following research questions:i. How is turn-taking decided and regulated in MH370 press conferences?
ii. How is territorial power portrayed in MH370 press conference?

I

The conceptual framework

This study was conducted based on two main concepts (i) Conversational Analysis (CA)of institutional interaction and (ii) Fairclough’s power behind discourse. The study
focused on turn-taking and how it relates to power representation of the discourse.
Figure 1 below illustrates the conceptual framework underpinning the study:

MH370 PRESS CONFERENCES: INTERACTION&INSTITUTIONAL POWER RELATION

Conversation Analysis(CA) on institutional
interaction (Turn-taking)Fairclough’s
power behind
discourse

Figure 1: The conceptual framework for interaction and institutional power relation inpress conference.

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MH370 Press Conferences: Interaction and Institutional Power Relation

1. Conversation Analysis (CA)Conversation analysis (CA) is one of the popular approaches to the study of discourse.
CA is the study of natural talk in interaction and aimed to see how people
communicate, either casual or institutional (in the school, government office or any otherestablishment). Developed by Harvey Sacks (2000) in the 1960’s, and historically

predating CDA, CA draws from ethnomethodology and tends to focus solely on
participants’ own sense making of their talk, and does not consider the broader
influence of cultural discourses. Ethnomethodology was developed by the sociologist
Harold Garfinkel (1967) to explain and study how social order is constructed andmaintained (quoted from Gale, 2010). Conversation analysis (CA) draws its focus
primarily on talk, but integrates also the nonverbal aspects of interaction in its
research design. According to Woofit (2005), “the analysis of CA is always based on
audio or visual recordings of interaction, which are carefully transcribed in detail. The
research should be "data-driven" in the sense that concepts and hypotheses should bebased on careful consideration of the data, recordings and transcript, rather thandrawn from theoretical preconceptions or ideological preferences”. Based on the above
premises, CA approach suits this study well.
2. Fairclough’s power behind discourse
The idea of ‘power behind discourse’ is that the whole social order of discourse is put
together and held together as a hidden effect of power. Fairclough (1989) has suggested
three aspects of ‘power behind discourse’, i.e. of hidden effects of power which are; (i)standard language, (ii) particular discourse types which can be considered ‘effects ofpower’ (e.g. medical, education, law, religious discourse types), and (iii) access todiscourse and the power to execute and impose constraints on access.
3. Press Conference
A press conference is an institutionalized form for meetings between politicians andjournalists. It is used usually by the Government to announce policies, programs,
decisions, etc. Clayman (2006), who focuses on US presidential press conferences,claims that in comparison with the news interviews the press conference is a situation
which favours the public figure. On the other hand, Swales (1990) and Bhatia’s (1993)31

マレーシア研究第４号（2015 年）

definition of genre found ‘press conference’ as constituting a broad category of
conventionalized communicative events covering many domains, such as sports,
religion, business, law, and medicine, among many others. In recent days, press
conference is a very important platform for politicians to bridge them with the public.
Supporting this is as stated by Eshbaugh-Soha (2003) that “press conference is one of
the most important vehicles by which presidents communicate to the media andpublic”.
Suggested by Ekstom (2006), many press conferences are governed by four
conditions which are; (i) it often happens that numerous journalists who take part in a
PC allowed to ask questions and follow them up, (ii) the talk in press conferences isorganized according to the general principles of turn-taking that participants talk one
at a time (cf Sacks, Schegloff and Jeffersson 1974 p 699), (iii) there are deadlines in timethat limit the room for questions and (iv) the political press conference is an arena
where two institutions meet (politics and journalism) with partly conflicting missions,and competing claims of representing the general public.
Previous studies on press conference indicate that there are conflicting andcomplicated relationships between the participants. Clayman and Heritage (2002a)
claimed that “politicians’ competence to answer pressing and tricky questions is tested,at the same time as hierarchies between journalists and media organizations arenegotiated and demonstrated”. In different research on American press conferences,
Clayman and Heritage (2002b) developed a unique conceptualization for the study ofquestion strategies focusing on various forms of adversarialness. Based on the studies,
the overall issues that have been analyzed are the ways presidents reacted in various
situations and possible factors influenced when and how often press conferences arearranged (Eshbaugh-Soha, 2003; Kumar, 2003; Manheim & Lammers, 1981; Lammers,1981).

Looking at power relation in press conferences, Eshbaugh-Soha (2003) in his
study came to a conclusion that press conference is “an uncontrolled setting thatpresidents will avoid” and in other contexts as “unique public events over which
presidents have substantial discretion and control”. This finding was reinforced by
Bhatia (2006) and Clayman and Heritage (2006). Bhatia (2006) in his study of
two-party press conferences draws to a close that the political press conference ismarked by power asymmetry that benefit the politicians. He also claimed that press
conferences at their core are pervaded by the politicians’ power to control theinteraction. On the contrary, Clayman and Heritage (2006) suggested that pressing
32

MH370 Press Conferences: Interaction and Institutional Power Relationquestions in the press conference limit politicians’ room for action.
In conclusion, the aforementioned studies have shown how complicated anddifferent each press conference can be for the participants to establish their roles.

II

Methodology

This study is qualitative in nature where a combination of two approaches wasapplied; Conversational Analysis (CA) of institutional interaction and Fairclough’s
power behind discourse theory.
1. Sample
Seven (7) press conferences regarding the incident of the missing Malaysia Airlines
flight MH370 dated from 8 March 2014 to 16 March 2014 were downloaded fromastroawani.com and Youtube.com. The reason of choosing online recourses is due totheir easy access. They were analyzed making it possible to observe the pattern.
2. Participant
The participants of the study are the spokespeople who are also politicians (prime
minister and minister) and journalists who involve in the interaction during MH370

press conferences.
3. Research procedure
In conducting this research, the procedures implemented were:(i) Collecting the online video-taped data.
(ii) Transcribing the videos using Jefferson’s transcription convention.
(iii) Analyzing the transcribed data for recurring pattern by applying the proposed
framework.
4. Data analysis
The transcriptions of those seven (7) press conferences followed the system developed33マレーシア研究第４号（2015 年）

by Gail Jefferson that is predominant in studies utilizing conversational analysis
approach. According to Ekstrom (2006), research in this tradition has resulted inextensive knowledge regarding the organization of talk, turn-taking, sequencing, the“one-at-a-time” rule in conversation, pre- and local allocation of turns, specificinteractional mechanisms, invitations, next-speaker selection devices, overlapping
talk and interruptions making it a strong reason for the choice of this approach. The
framework of Conversation Analysis of institutional interaction based on the work ofHarvey Sacks (Jefferson 1992) was central to the analysis. The main focus was on thevarious interactional mechanisms and techniques for the allocation of turns.

III

Findings and Discussion

This section presents the findings based on the two research questions followed by theoverall discussion of how power is portrayed in the press conferences throughturn-taking and mechanism of interaction.
RQ1: How is turn-taking decided and regulated in MH370 press conferences?
Based on the seven (7) MH370 press conferences, there was a consistent andfixed format implemented in the interaction. It followed the following common order:(i) Opening(ii) Individual voice(iii) Interactional phase(iv) Closing
These overall phases match completely with what Bhatia (2006) identified. He
categorized the press conference’s interactional format as (1) The opening phase,during which the host of the conference welcomes the attendants; (2) The individual
voice, during which the politicians make their statements; (3) The interactional phase,during which the journalists ask questions and the politicians answer; (4) The closing
phase, during which the chairperson who has served as host for the conference rounds
it off and thanks the attendants.
This following section looks at some of the existing techniques used when turns
are allocated, given and taken. It is through these techniques that pre-established34

MH370 Press Conferences: Interaction and Institutional Power Relation

roles, and an asymmetrical distribution of turns, can be reproduced (Thornborrow,
2002: 4). The way turn-taking is decided and regulated in MH370 press conferences

will be explained following the sequence of the phase mentioned above.
(i) Opening
During the opening, the chairperson welcomes the audience and explained the
purpose of that particular session of press conference. He will then pass the floor tothe minister involved. The chairperson was not interrupted by anyone during thisphase.
(ii) Individual voice
During this phase, the minister or authority involved made statement. In all seven (7)PCs examined in this study, the minister gave statement on the current progress of
the SAR mission. After he has finished, he signalled to the chairperson to continue
with the next phase.
(iii) Interactional phase
The interactional phase is the most complex phase of the four pre conferences studied.
During this phase, a question and answer (Q&A) session was held for journalists tohave opportunities posing their questions to the minister or authority involved (in thiscase the CEO of Malaysia Airlines and DCA officer). There were three types ofturn-taking techniques used by the spokespeople and journalists:
・Partly gestures and body language
A number of different next speaker selection techniques are used by the
spokespeople in MH370 press conferences. As mentioned by Schegloff (1996),
gestures in conversation are mainly a speaker’s phenomenon. Pointing with thehand, nodding combined with eye contact, and partly verbal expressions, in whichname is the most frequently used technique for addressing the next speaker (cf SSJ
1974 s 717). Body language and verbal expressions are used in combination. For

example, during this session Prime Minister turns his gaze, nods at a journalist,

pointing his finger and says ”Yes, Siva”. This technique has given a clear cut thatthe journalist named Siva has the next turn to speak.
・Self-select35

マレーシア研究第４号（2015 年）

Another technique of turn-taking used by the participants in MH370 press
conferences is self-select. Usually done by the journalist, he/she self-selected
him/herself by starting the conversation or asking question without having to wait
for instruction of the next-speaker selection. This resulted in either (i) the person
receives a turn and the opportunity to ask a question without competition; (ii)Competition (simultaneous talk) arises but the person receives a turn; or (iii)Competition arises and the person loses the turn.
・Interruption
Interruption is one of the acts that have been relatively analyzed within CA. The
study conducted by Esaiasson and Håkansson (2002) indicated that starting in
mid-1970s, journalist interruption of politicians is much more frequent than theother way around. However, in the recent study, it was not very obvious that thejournalist interrupted a lot. However, there was still evidence of interruptions done
by a few journalists in an attempt to gain the floor to ask question.
(iv) Closing
During the closing session, the chairperson concludes and closes the press conference.
Apparently, the journalists have restricted access to question during MH370
press conferences. There was limited chance for them to do a follow-up question due totime constraints. The allocation of a turn (by spokesperson or chairperson) was aimed atensuring fairness, efficiency and harmony but these were seen as incompatible
demands. However, the journalists, especially local journalists, seemed to cooperate
one another and use their turns to press a spokesperson on a certain question eventhough they were competing turn with each other and have an interest in asking theirown questions. This gives the impression of adhering to the cultural norms and rulesin Malaysia that members of all ethnic group accord primacy to the group rather than
to the individual, and work steadfastly to promoting group harmony and solidarity
more than individual success (Jamaliah Mohd. Ali, 2000).
RQ2: How is territorial power portrayed in MH370 press conference?
Answering the second research question, there were two elements that can beused to symbolize power which are; (i) allocation of turn, and (ii) the use of pronouns.
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MH370 Press Conferences: Interaction and Institutional Power Relation

These can be seen as follows:(i) The power of the ministry/authority talking without being interrupted whenanswering questions (most of the time).
(ii) The power of the chairperson in controlling the event. The chairperson has thepower to close the press conference despite the fact that journalists were still trying
to take turns for additional questions.
(iii) The power of the authorities in-charge of certain issue to respond when therespective ministers did not attempt to answer.

Dato Seri Hishamudin: “….that the DCA officer will have to answer”(iv) The power of the ministry to select next speaker. Verbal selection technique is used
in which name and formal identity is preferred to give a stronger control thanpartly gestures and body language.

Prime Minister: “Okay Siva” (while nodding and pointing his finger to the journalist)(v) The power of journalists to take to the floor or compete for the turn throughoverlapping talk and self-select turn taking.
(vi) The power of ministry to insist on taking more questions. The Prime Ministerinterrupted the flow of the press conference and approved to accept another one
question.

Prime Minister: “Ok. I’ll take one more question”
The findings in this study show that even though turn is tied to a respective
journalist and spokesperson at one time; interruptions, overlaps and latching seemed
readily tolerated.

It is because, various level of power representation overlapping therole of all participants involved in MH370 press conferences. The common handling ofMH370 press conferences is complex in nature as it includes many competing
participants. However, it can be said that the spokespeople appears to have higher
degree of control over the interaction. The interaction was dominated by the
spokespeople as they were the authorities who have an exclusive access to theinstitution. The spokespeople power over the institution has somehow restricted the37マレーシア研究第４号（2015 年）

journalists from controlling and creating controversy on the issue.
4. Discussion
The findings are in line with what have been suggested by Ekstrom (2006)
which stated interaction and territorial power relation can be seen through theseelements:①Institutional arrangement
The territorial power in institutional interaction is closely related to the formalized
arrangements that distinguish what had been recognized as a certain type ofinteraction and that participants do not argue or challenge (with few exceptions) but
instead cooperatively obey the arrangement. MH370 press conferences followed
closely the arrangement of the institution.
② Techniques of distributing/taking turns
Turn-allocating resources have been described as one of the basic resources in theorganization of turn-taking (Schegloff, 2000: 42) and through this, it can be seen thatthe power represented by both spokespeople and journalists.
③Interruptions & overlaps in interaction
In public events like press conference, interruptions can show intentional
demonstrations of power. By interrupting, one does not only stops the other personfrom continuing, but also shows one’s power to take the floor, to influence and evenoppress other people. However, in this study,

interruptions amongst spokespeople isgenerally not viewed as encroaching the verbal territory of another but rather jointpresentation of their views.

IＶ

Conclusion

This study was conducted with the main aim to investigate how the access to the floor
is decided and regulated in a press conference and how it is related to institutional
power of the participants involved. Although this study is only limited to the press
conferences which were held during the entire reporting of MH370 incident that took38

MH370 Press Conferences: Interaction and Institutional Power Relation

place in Malaysia, it provides evidence supporting the notion that turn taking has astrong relation to representation of power in an institutional interaction such as press
conferences as implied in Bhatia (2006).
With respect to how power over the public talk is regulated, the results of thisstudy show that institutional power and the turns allocation in MH370 press
conferences is closely related to each other Besides, press conference is considered as aplatform of the struggle between politicians, journalists and the media they represent.
Therefore, it can be concluded that press conferences are used by politicians as a tool
to communicate with the public. Through press conferences, politicians exercise what
they want people to believe hence this has been translated into distrust among people
in relation with MH370 issue.
Other than that, the findings derived from this study are also beneficial for the
language experts in private sectors as well as associated authorities as a guideline todetermine what type of turn-taking strategies and arrangement are suitable to be
used in organizing press conferences especially in relation to a worldwide issue suchas the incident of MH370. This effort is believed enables to restore Malaysia’s
reputation in managing press conferences during crisis. Future research should
acknowledge different type of interaction element other than turn-taking so that it canhelp researchers to observe power representation in a different context.

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