unit 36 - interview techniques

Interview Techniques

Interview Styling

Interviews have all different styles in which they are presented depending on the topic they could be for entertainment purposes.

• Hard News
• Combative
• Light-Hearted
• Entertainment
• Investigative
• Promotional

Hard News Interview:
An example of hard news would be most news reports on at night. This is known as hard news as its the important news, this is because it is the one that consist of all the information and facts about recent events which are usually negative and including tragedies and/or death. For example the BBC, ITV and CHANNEL 4. A hard news reports purpose is a longer detailed story on television to expose any events, people or topics. This is designed to inform the reader. They all have a particle structure, short and snappy sentence structure, enthusiasm in there voice, each paragraphs develops a thought or opinion before moving on to the next, never includes certain grammar ("I", "we").

Here is a news story from president Obama. This interview is hard news as it is based around delicate subjects such as the terror attacks around London and how is he going to deal with the stations he is being challenged with recently. This interview also follows the normal structure of most interviews:



Introduction
Development
Confidence Building
Key Questions
Sound Bites
Summary

This interview was conducted by BBC news, this is because the BBC are the main ones for producing interviews related to hard news information.


Light-Hearted Interview:
A light hearted style of interview is an interview that is done in a relaxed and casual manner. However this does not necessarily mean the subject matter isn't very serious but the way the interview and interviewee go about talking about it isn't very dull and serious. The aim for this style of interviewing is to put the interviewee at ease and may also be used for an emotional or personal interview. Not to forget, this could cause trust to form between the interview and interviewee meaning more information about the subject will be exposed. As well as drawing in the attention of the audience as they may be able to watch it better without finding it dull and boring.


Entertainment Interview:
Interviews are adapted and composed in order to create entertainment for the viewers at home, This results in more people watching and as well as exposing information about the subject they are also being entertained in the process. Some times entertainment news can be known as 'Gossip' when the paper right up a story or interview. This is because, it nothing serious its usually information about celebrities or the interview is being nosy when interviewing someone, resulting in 'gossip' being exposed about this celebrity.

Here is an interview that would fall under the categories of entertainment and light hearted interviews. This is because, the subject in which they are discussing is children names. This means that, it is not hard news but the way in which this interview has taken place is very entertaining for the viewers as well as being about a light hearted subject. The interview is structured slightly differently in comparison to hard news. This is because, although the interview starts off with the interviewer asking questions and interviewee responding to them you start to see a bit of tension rising due to people wants to put across there points, this results in the interview becoming entertaining. Not to forget, the interviewers have clearly done research due to them knowing the content of the book that Katie Hopkins has wrote about children names. As well as this, the interviewers know about Katie's children names and this then becomes a defence argument from the interviewers side. This is because, Katie is talking about naming your children geographically is 'stupid' but her Childs name is named 'India'. This meant that, the interviewers had an arguments to fight back with in this case due to researching the interviewee.


Investigative Interview:
When conduct and interview or building a news report. People may be working on such stories for months or even years in some cases. This means that, people such as journalists in preparation for an up-and-coming interview will research and investigate deeply into the subject matter in order to prepare the interviewer for the interview to insure they have the correct information to successfully build a news report. Investigative journalist are hired specifically for this job. This is because, the task is very time consuming due to the amount of information that needs to be uncovered and exposed. This means that, they may focus on this one topic for a certain length of time. Not to forget, the stories that are investigated into this much depth are usually very important and have significant impact on the public due to the content they include. When moving on to the interview stages the reporter will have prepared questions to continue finding out information and investigating in the situation to then help the journalist. This means that, these interviews are very important and the interviews can sometimes end dup heated and tense due to the subject matter and its importance the interviewee as well as the news and public.


Promotional Interview:
When a company introduces a new product and want to ensure everyone sees or hears about this product they market it very well by putting it in magazines, adverts and posters. Another good method of marketing would be to have an interview with the executive of the business, this would result in the people seeing exactly who is in charge of this product, thus increasing popularity for this product. To conduct an interview about this matter the company who has produced the product usually pays to be interviewed and aired on television. The interview will consist of information about the product as well as other casual subject matters to fill out the duration of the interview. It would be very light hearted and have a simplistic approach.

Interview Structure

An interview is usually always presented in the same way:

• Introduction
• Development
• Confidence Building
• Key Questions
• Sound Bites
• Summary
• Wind Up

This is what most professional interviewers use as a guideline for what order they are going to present there questions to their interviewee.


Introduction:
When conducting and interview to an audience you are going to introduce yourself along with the interviewee to the audience so everyone at home or watching online knows who is involved in this interview. You then may briefly summarize the topic to the audience and viewers to ensure they are aware of what this interview is going to be based around and what sort of topics will be discussed throughout.


Development:
A development question is one of the very beginning questions. This question is almost like a warm up question following on from the introduction. This means that, this question is going to be pretty basic and simplistic. This is because, when starting off an interview with light hearted questions it results in the interviewee trusting you more not to twist and take advantage of the answer.


Confidence:
A confidence building question is in the middle area of the interview. This question is important as instead of asking simplistic questions you are beginning to dig deeper and get into more depth. This results in the interviewees answers being more useful as the interviewers begins to unravel more information. Confidence building questions are important because following on from this you have Key Questions. To ensure you get the correct and appropriate answers in that section you must as an interviewer continue to ease in the interviewee in to the more challenging questions to come.


Key Questions:
These are the most important questions in the interview. This is because, this is where the interwar can start to uncover the information hat will make this interview interesting and purposeful. This is because, so far the interviewer has been asking little questions in order to gain the interviewees trust in order to get them to answer these questions without hesitation. This is when many interviews become heated and entertaining for viewers.


Sound Bites:
Sound bites are clips of sounds that have been inserted in the editing stages of the interviewer before it goes on air. They include sound bites because, they may need to include an audience reaction or include an voice over from a previous interview in order to back up the interviewers argument etc. An example of this would be in the Television Interviewer that  recently watched that lasted 4minuites and 4 second. At 1 minute and 35 seconds in there was a sound bite.


Summary:
A Summery is conducted in a very simplistic way. For example, a summary is when the interviewer concludes the interview, This is done by summarizing the previous events and simply having a light hearted chat about what they had discussed before moving on to the wind-up. This is important as it puts everything that has happened throughout the interview into a summery and then the audience can recap on all the information they have listened to throughout the interview before concluding the interview.


Wind Up:
A Wind-up is the very end of the interview. This is when both parties thank each other for the points and presents in the interview and end on some light hearted jokes to conclude the interview and insure there friendship is still intact. This is because, throughout an interview can become very heated causing the interviewer and interviewee to feel a bit tensional at the end so ending on some jokes then clears the air and keeps there friendship.

Communication skills

Communication skills are important before, during and after an interview. This is because this is when you will be finding out your information as well as delivering your information, For example:

• Building Reports 
• Telephone Techniques 
• Body Language 

Building report:
Prior to the interview the company need to research and build a report to go on to ensure they have questions and information in order to conduct a professional and interesting interview for the audience. In order to build an accurate report it may take weeks or months and they may be a small or large group of building working on this report, uncovering information, conducting short of air interviews and researching using the internet or the library. If going into an interview without building a report your almost going in blind as you would have nothing to fall back on if the interviewee starts becoming argumentative or there argument is very strong.


Telephone Techniques:
Linking in to building a report in preparation for an interview you may use a telephone in order to conduct off air interviews in order to collect research and gather information. This means that, you would have to work on your telephone techniques, this is because you would need to right down all the information that source is giving you word for word to ensure its accurate. As well as, having people skills and manors as they may hang up the phone if feeling uncomfortable, thus resulting in that interviewing coming to a sharp end with only some information. Also other telephone techniques would consist of building up the sources trust in order to get them to expose information as the interviewer could say things such as 'this is confidential', 'no names will be exposed' and other things to gain there trust.


Body Language
In an interview situation the way you portray yourself is important, This is due to having an impact on the interviewee and how comfortable they will then be with you and the surroundings. For example, if an interviewer sits upright with there arms crossed and legs crossed over one another with a frown on there face, this would portray to me that they are very un-approachable, resulting in the interviewee closing off and not being as open as they could be when in a friendly atmosphere. When crossing your arms and legs its almost giving off a defence like a barrier. If you walking into an interview and the interviewer was sitting straight with his/her arms by there side with a bright smile you would feel a lot more comfortable and welcomed in the situation. This may result in the interview going a lot more smooth and pleasant. Not to forget, if you walked in to an interview and see the interior slouching with there hand on there chin just resting their head you would assume they was not interested or bothered about your presence, resulting in your answers being very blunt and simplistic. Body language could also mean how you do your hand gestures throughout the interview. Body language is important when talking about something serious your body language must match up with the subject at hand.

Interview Techniques

There are several different types of questions that can be asked throughout the course of an interview, These questions could be some of the following:

• Open
• Closed
• Multiple
• Direct
• Suggestive

Open Question:
An open question is used very commonly in simplistic interviews that are simply about finding out information, This is because they are very open to interpretation. For example, an open question would be "What do you think about he two candidates in this election" This is an open question because there is a million possible answers. The interviewer is not suggesting an answer or not giving room for detail the interviewer is asking a very open minding question resulting in their being several outcomes. Interviewers may use this technique two get an insight into the person they are interviewing as this then gives the interviewer a hint of how this person views the circumstances and what there opinions are before moving forward with the interview.


Closes Question:
A closes question is used when the interviewer wants the interviewee to answer one of two ways. For example "You support politics do you". This means that unless skilled the interviewee can then struggle to answer the question without a 'Yes' or 'No' answer. These questions are usually used to challenge positions in interviews, this means that they are mainly used when talking about a hard news subject. This kind of question usually is followed up by an open question but the interviewer may include a closed question first to find out weather or not this interviewee is even interested in a particular subject that the interviewer wants to discuss.


Multiple Questions:
Multiple Questions are quite self-explnatiary. This is because, when conducting an interview and wanting to find out a vast about of information, the interviewer may start to ask question after question for example 'Was you there at the time of the accident, if so how did you feel?'. In that sentence there is multiple questions. This means that, there is more than one question following on from another one. This is one way of uncovering information quickly as in that short sentence you would have discovered two answers in a short amount of time in comparison to asking them separately. This can sometimes be misunderstood if asking two complicated questions that require detailed answers, this is because it could result in the interviewee avoiding one and answering the other due to forgetting about the second question once going into detail about the first question. This means that, it can sometimes be less effective although it is less time consuming method when interviewing.


Direct Questions
When interviewing an include a direct question, This will mean that the company has already some research based around this question and are going to see how reliable and honest you are. This is because, a direct question is used when the interviewer wants to find out something specific. This means that, the interviewer had previously done research about the subject to uncover what has happened and is then asking questions to the interviewee to uncover what there opinion is and weather or not the information they uncovered was truthful.


Suggestive Questions:
A suggest question links in with a multiple question as well as open questions. This is because a suggestive question is almost the interviewer giving the interviewee a nudge in the right direction. For example 'The sky is blue isn't it?'. This question is suggesting the answer as well as giving the interviewee a chance to answer making it a question and not just a statement. These questions are used when the interviewer wants the interviewee to say something in particular.

Purpose of interviewing

The purpose of interviewing is to uncover information and then share it with the public. This is to inform them in more detail of what is going on around the world that the news will not willingly tell them during there news stories. Not to forget, when conducing an interview it gives people a chance to vote the opinions of the public/company or whoever they are interviewing on the behalf of. This means that, people have a chance to get involved and hear more facts and opinions than what the news would portrays during there reports on televisions. Not to forget, interviews can be used to get certain responses, for example the different types of interviews there are attract certain reactions (entertainment, investigative, hard, light, etc.) When creating an entertainment interview you are looking for a happy and interested response from the audience. When talking about something serious (hard news) you are looking at getting an emotional response from the audience. If successful in this method this would then result in the interviewer being successful in there aims.

Journalistic Context

print
television
radio
news
sport
online
feature writer


Print 

An interview held in a magazine is known as a print interview. This means that, the interview is conducted, written and published via a magazine. This could be 'Heat' or any other magazines. Lots of magazines hold interviews throughout, this may be things such as interviews from cast and crew on a television show that are talking about the up and coming seasons or what has happened in previous season. As well as in magazine such as 'VOGUE' there is content from fashion designers and how they think this line of clothing will impact specific people. The style of the interview will always link in with what going on in the magazine. For example, 'VOGUE' wouldn't publish an article about Eastenders when that magazine includes nothing about the local soups. They would only include something based around what content is in their magazines. A printed interview will have a very similar format as interviews held on the television although depending on the subject they may adjust or change the order of the interview to make it more relaxed.


Television 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvPxRyIWWX8
Here is an interview that was originally presented on the television it has now been converted and platformed on youtube. Although i have discussed interviews on television on details. They consist of all different styles and techniques depending on the subject. Hard news and investigative interviews are mainly held on Channel 4 and BBC channels this is because they are the main news channels, this means that they have to report the important news not entertaining news. Where as entertaining and light hearted news is usually held on chat shows, this is because there is then usually more than one host and one interviewee this makes it entertaining, in comparison to hard news which is a delicate subject. This example on the left of the screen is actually an entertainment interview. This is because, it is very relaxed although they are discussing topics/films they are having a laugh and entertaining the crowd. 


Radio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaQGvLu8Bm4Radio interviews are similar to all other types of interviews as they all have different formats and different styles and techniques. Depending on the radio station can depend on what topic they discuss and what techniques they use weather its entertainment, light hearted, hard news etc. This interview on the right is very light hearted/entertaining. This is because the information and things they are talking about is very gossip related about girlfriends, fans and questions such as 'if you could be invisible for one day what would you do?'. This is very light hearted. Radio stations such as Capital, Kiss and Radio 1 are very light hearted. In comparison to radio 4 which is much more intense and about hard news subjects. Radio interviews can be conducted overage phone, as well as in the studio. It can all vary depending on weather or not they are available to come in, how long the interview will last and other factors that must be considered. 


Online
Due to the varsity of the internet now most things can be accessed and found online. For example, online you can now access all printed magazines if they are from a popular well known company. This is because most magazine companies now have online wed bites meaning you can access there magazines, sometimes they are at a subscription charge instead of buying the magazines in paper copy. This is also the case for newspapers such as the guardian and the sun they all have online access meaning that instead of getting a paper you can now get it online. This has positives and negatives. This is because although people are saving money now on printing paper people are now becoming again even more dependant on the internet. Not to forget, all radio, and television news can also be found online on forums such as blogger, youtube, Facebook and many other sites. You also have things such as BBC I PLAYER, CHANNEL 4, AND ITV all now have apps as well as just being assessable via the internet.


News
Interviews that are held on the news channels such as BBC are rarely light hearted this is because, on the BBC channels they always report hard news. This means that, the interviews must go along with this feeling of uncovering information for the audience. If they exposed a story of a school massacre  and then went on to interview harry styles about his up and coming tour then the audience would be very upset. This is because, people who tune in purposely to see this information would be disheartened and angered by the follow up interview. 




To conclude, interviews can come in many different platforms, formats, styles and techniques. Meaning that, every interview is aired on a particular platform and station for a reason. This is because they want to reach a certain audience and in order to do this you must ensure that you display your interview in the correct method otherwise it would be waste of money as it would not effect your audience resulting in a waste of time and money.