journalism - Is there a word for a question asked despite knowing the answer, but meant to elicit a response for the sake of the audience?


In journalistic writing I often see writers, correspondents, and interviewers use questions in non-literal ways. Of course there are rhetorical questions designed to make a point and not meant to literally elicit an answer.


Instead of that, I have in mind when an interviewer asks a correspondent, "why did she not go to the police?" when the interviewer already knows the story and knows the answer to the question, but wants the correspondent to articulate the answer for the audience's benefit.


Is there a commonly used term for this sort of a question? A "leading" question generally implies an attempt to manipulate the respondent into giving certain responses, which is not exactly the same as what I'm describing.



Answer



A question like that is a “prompt”. From the Online Oxford Dictionary:



An act of encouraging a hesitating speaker. ‘with barely a prompt, Barbara talked on’



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