Jay Leno Obama Interview

• Voice?

  Flippant

  Relatable

  Colloquial

  Presidential
• Audience?

  The United States

  Those that have political interest in America

  Jay Leno fans

  High profile interview = reach a wide audience, allowing for many interpretations and opinion, meaning Obama would carefully construst what he says
• Purpose?

  To give air time to Obama, and by extension his party / political views

  To give platform to address wide audience, and reassure America

  Reveal a human, relatable side to Obama

  To adress the 'embassy threats' that America wants Obamas opinion on.
• 5 Key techniques?

  1. structured response - complex sentance structure = sense of preplanning and rehearsal
  2. phatic talk = personal tone that allows an in depth interview, see beyond obamas role as president
  3. anecdotal langauge = insight into personal life + personality
  4. colloquial langauge
• Context?


  Obama = 44th US president from 2009 to 2017

  Jay Leno = democratic, late-night television host

  Sense of rehearsal

  Threat of terror attacks had recently been circulating, there were beliefs that an attack was imminent at American embassies.
• Mode?

  Transcript from TV interview broadcast.

  It has a sponataneous nature but follows loose structure as JL = experienced interviewer
• Topicality

  Outlines the details of presidence birthday celebrations, giving an insight into his personal / family life through the phatic talk.

  It then moves on to more serious matters concerning threats of embassy closings, allowing Obama to address these issues and reassure America.
• 'it's good to be back... it is good to be back.'

  reptition of declarative = signals a relationship, a personal, truthful tone allowing an in-depth interview to be conducted.

  Therefore, allowing global interest to see beyond role as president as see humanity in Obama.
• 'and a happy birthday... happy birthday to you' 


  phatic talk used by leno to create a sense of rapport between speakers, humanising president.
• 'from highschool and college. And we played a little golf, and then we tried to play a little basketball. and it was a sad state of affairs.' 


  Colloquial language and repitition of 'little' creates personal tone.

  Reference to highschool and college reiterates humble traits.

  Humour = self-depricating, mocking age, converging him with the audience.
• harry potter anecdote


  shared cultural reference gives insight into personal interests / personality.

  premodifier of 'wonderfull staff person' shows his respect for the workers

  similie 'like harry potter' utilises popular icon to help audience visualise

  amusing anecdote establishes friendliness and family-orientated personality.
• 'ive got to ask you about this. everyone is concerned about these embassy closings. how significant is this threat?' 


  sudden formal tonal shift = prepared question + direction of interview

  collective pronoun 'everyone' highlights leno's sense of obligation to address growing tensions for the american citizens, he becomes audiences voice

  beginning the political exchange
• 'well its significant enough that we're taking every precaution... that we can take some specific precautions within a certain time frame, then we do so.' 


  complext sentence structure highlights collectivity in workings - collective effort.

  obama seeks to reassure USA of relentless efforts to ensure threats are dealt with immediately

  specific and well-structured sentence structure = rehearsed nature of exchange.
• 'and these diplomats... they do an incredible job and sometimes dont get enough credit. so we're grateful to them and we've got to do everything that we can to protect them (applause).' 


  serves as credit and acknowledgment - concluding statement to speech

  'everything' shows lengths obama will pursue to protect his people, aims to gain the trust and respect of audience, but also highlight awareness of need to be careful of words as could easily be manipulated.