Press Conferences

A press conference is a formal question-and-answer session between reporters and public officials. The press conference is a media event, designed to give reporters access to a newsworthy public official and official access to the public through media. Although lawyers, celebrities, sports figures, and company CEOs also hold them, political press conferences—especially those given by the president—comprise the bulk of these interactions. Much of what we know about presidential press conference varies by the history of the office and each president's individual preference for holding them.

The presidential press conference is a unique event that combines a prewritten introductory presidential statement with direct questions asked by reporters. Individual presidents set the tone and direction of press conferences with a formal policy or position statement. This allows presidents to communicate directly with the American people. Because the president can use other means to do this, the press conference is more for reporters than the president. Press conferences give the media direct access to the president and give reporters an opportunity to ask specific questions and receive immediate responses from the president. Although reporters ask questions, presidents have enormous influence over the direction and tenor of the press conference. The president calls on members of the media during the question-andanswer portion of the conference and might strategically avoid certain reporters whom he or she knows will ask a difficult or controversial question. George W. Bush famously revealed the predetermined nature of reporter selection in an April 13, 2004, press conference: “Hold on for a minute….I've got some ‘must calls,’ I'm sorry.” Reporters often hint what questions they will ask in daily “gaggle,” so the press secretary and other staffers in the Office of the Press Secretary can alert presidents as to which topics are likely to be covered and by whom. Presidents can also announce press conferences just hours before they take place—or schedule them on Saturdays, as Lyndon Johnson did—leaving reporters ill prepared to ask tough and detailed questions.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) hold a news conference on the docks of Terminal Island in the Port of Los Angeles to talk about the governor's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on fossil fuels on February 21, 2007, in Los Angeles, California

Source: Getty Images.

The press conference is an important conduit for presidential–press relations. Presidents need media to communicate their policy positions to the public. Media need presidents as a reliable source for political news, and presidents' press conferences are often considered newsworthy. The press conference also satisfies a basic requirement that politicians are available to the news media. At the same time, presidents have used the press conference to dictate their policy agendas to the media. It was Franklin Roosevelt who first used the press conference in this way, to encourage reporters to frame their stories in a manner mostly favorable to the president and his policies. The advent of television allowed presidents to use the press conference not only to communicate with and appease media's desire for access to the president but also to speak directly to the American people, whose support is vital to the president in the democracy of the United States. President John F. Kennedy was the first to use the press conference as this vehicle for communicating directly to the American people on live television. Because he set a high standard of presidential performance during press conferences, other presidents, such as Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan, avoided press conferences and chose other means to publicize their policy positions.

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