"Gotcha journalism" is a pejorative term used by media critics to describe interviewing methods that appear designed to entrap interviewees into making statements that are damaging or discreditable to their cause, character, integrity, or reputation. The term is rooted in an assertion that the interviewer may be supporting a hidden agenda, and aims to make film or sound recordings of the interviewee which may be selectively edited, compiled, and broadcast or published in order to intentionally show the subject in an unfavorable light."Be A Freelance Writer". Surayud Chulanont. Global Media. ,
The term derives from the word
gotcha
Gotcha, a colloquial contraction for "got you" (got ya), may refer to:
Film and TV
* ''Gotcha!'' (film), a 1985 film starring Anthony Edwards and Linda Fiorentino
* "Gotcha!" (''Adventure Time''), an episode of ''Adventure Time''
* "Gotcha" ...
, a contracted form of "got you", and emerged in political journalism during the 1980s and 1990s.
Techniques
Gotcha journalism can be used to get a subject with something genuinely discreditable to hide to reveal wrongdoing; there can be a fine line between robust and gotcha journalism. Some methods claimed to be gotcha journalism by those involved include moving away from the agreed upon topic of the interview and switching to an embarrassing subject that was agreed to be out-of-bounds and leading the interviewee to discuss it and commit to a certain answer, then, confronting them with prepared material designed to contradict or discredit that position.
Gotcha journalism is often designed to keep the interviewee on the defensive by, for example, being required to explain some of their own statements taken out of context thus effectively preventing the interviewee from clearly presenting their position. The intent of gotcha journalism is always premeditated and used to defame or discredit the interviewees by portraying them as self-contradictory, malevolent, unqualified or immoral.
It has also been used as an excuse to evade a question to which the interviewee does not know the answer, where their lack of knowledge would make them appear foolish or uninformed, or a subject where their intellectual position contradicts their past statements.
A 2020 poll by
YouGov
YouGov is a British international Internet-based market research and data analytics firm, headquartered in the UK, with operations in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. In 2007, it acquired US company Polimetrix, and sinc ...
in the United Kingdom found that the public were frustrated with "repetitive gotcha" political questions being asked during press briefings about the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
.
See also
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Concision (media studies)
In media studies, concision is a form of broadcast media censorship by limiting debate and discussion of important topics on the rationale of time allotment.Gonzo journalism
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Investigative journalism
Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years res ...
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Sound bite
A sound bite or soundbite is a short clip of speech or music extracted from a longer piece of audio, often used to promote or exemplify the full length piece. In the context of journalism, a sound bite is characterized by a short phrase or sentence ...