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.
Solution 1:
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’
Solution 2:
The kind of question that is designed to elicit a known answer for the audience's benefit is neither rhetorical, leading, nor loaded.
It's a guiding question designed to elicit answers that tell a story. This is a partly scripted interview (the interviewer knows the expected answer and has the next question ready).
See, for example, this article on doing a television interview.
Another type of question is the open-ended question, often designed to elicit emotional response.
Solution 3:
The word I think you are looking for is . . . 'question'.
If one wishes no answer at all, one asks a rhetorical question.
If one wishes to put the answer in someone's mouth, one asks a leading question.
If one wishes to accuse someone of something, one asks a loaded question.
If one wishes to receive an answer - one just asks a question.
If the two people involved are not really asking questions and giving answers then that is a script and not a genuine conversation.
The degree of skill required for this task is expressed by an expert on such techniques :
The Watson (TV tropes) :
'Playing The Watson' is also referred to as cabbaging, since this role could be played by a head of cabbage.
Solution 4:
The questions may be Socratic (I think he asked leading questions, for pedagogical reasons); or, a direct examination (which is what you should do in a court, rather than asking "leading questions").
Solution 5:
A Rhetoric(al) question is, in fact, the correct term you are looking for. Rhetoric or a "rhetorical" question doesn't necessarily mean the questioner "does not expect an answer;" (a common misunderstanding of the term) it simply means a question posed, or any discourse intended to persuade--usually a "third party" listener, as often is the case in legal proceedings, etc. So the asker usually does "know" the answer. Rhetoric or a rhetorical questions are devices used to move an interrogation or "line of questioning" toward a certain direction or end. (BA philosophy MA psychology.)