A Discourse Analysis on Larry King’s Interview with Iranian President Compared to His Interview with Three Other Presidents

Authors

Department of Communication, Imam Sadiq University

Abstract

This paper examines the comparative discourse analysis presented in Larry Kings interviews with Ahmadinejad and the three other interviewees, Vladimir Putin, the former president of Russia; 2- General Paviz Mosharraf , the Former president of Pakistan, and; 3-Viktor Yushchenko (president of Ukraine). Larry king used these interviews to create a new wave of media infotainment content, which we claim to represent a discourse here. Larry King, the celebrated showman of CNN, interviewed Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, On September 23, 2008. This interview stimulated various reactions both in Iran and in the U.S. but never was dealt with scientifically in Iran. Here, we will deal with the problematic of Larry King’s discursive interviews by setting the aim of this comparative discourse analysis to be an answer to the following questions: What functions do these sorts of interviews have? Who are the target groups and main audience of these interviews? Are they set to be U.S. general public? Or people of interviewees country? Or global public opinion? Or politicians and the elites?

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