Steven E. Clayman

Steven E. Clayman is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), specializing in the organization of human interaction within social institutions through conversation analysis.

His educational background includes:

• Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara

Clayman's research centers on media-politics interactions (particularly presidential press conferences and broadcast interviews), extending to institutional settings like law, medicine, and public safety. His methodology integrates audio/video recordings of natural behavior with statistical analysis, examining how interaction shapes journalistic norms, political accountability, and sociopolitical legitimacy. Key contributions include co-authoring foundational texts The News Interview (2002) and Talk in Action (2010) with John Heritage.

Publication analysis reveals an evolution from historical studies of presidential questioning (2002-2007) toward contemporary applications in legal contexts (jury selection) and emergency response systems (police dispatch), consistently employing conversation analytic techniques to dissect institutional power dynamics.

Clayman has not received major scientific awards documented in the source material.

He secured a National Science Foundation grant (2001-2003) for The Evolution of Questioning in Presidential News Conferences, investigating historical trends in press-presidential relations. Current collaborative projects include gender dynamics in presidential questioning (with Heritage/Hill), marriage equality discourse (with Loeb), and police radio dispatch systems (with Kevoe-Feldman), though no formal advisees are listed.