A large part of the literature is devoted to the implications and impact of social- and news media in regard to Brexit. However, little is known about the establishment of interviewing styles in broadcast interviews with campaigning politicians. This qualitative study aims to fill the gap by examining what interview styles occur, how they occur and how they shape the political news interview. 

Based on a conversation analysis conducted on five political news interviews broadcasted by the BBC, the public broadcaster of the United Kingdom, an answer is formulated to the main research question “How is journalistic questioning established in EU-referendum related interviews in times of mediatized politics?” by means of two sub-questions (1) “what interview styles are utilized by the journalist when interviewing politicians about the 2016 Brexit referendum?” and (2) “in what way do these interview styles organize the Brexit related interview between journalist and politicians?” 

The results show that aggressive journalism is established within the political broadcast news interviews. Initiative is taken by the interviewer asking direct assertive questions that contain a critical attitude towards the politician’s policies. These adversarial questions are supplemented by adversarial statements that invite the politician to engage in a particular topic. Secondly, adversarial resources by means of reactive tokens facilitate that aggressiveness which establishes hybridity. That hybridity utilized by the journalist organizes turn-taking and content within an interview. Finally, results show that within mediatized politics, media logic and political logic are taken into account by the interviewer when discussing the EU-referendum related topics which benefit both journalist and politician.