TASK 1

Hard News,

Hard news is defined as news which features in a newspaper of television report which deals with formal or serious topics and events.  This style of reporting is typically found in News programs such as BBC News, or News Night.

Interviewer approach – The style of the interviewers approach to the interviewee tends to contain serious features. The interviewer doesn’t share any lighthearted jokes or humorous anecdotes.  They get straight to the point at hand and deliver the news as quickly and as clearly as possible.  This is often because the news stories are serious and not a subject suitable for a light-hearted approach.

Some hard news programs contain a huge amount of adversarial styles as there is often disagreement between both the interviewer and the interviewee or in some cases such as election programs the several interviewees with have disagreements, which will lead to arguments. 

Question Types – The questions asked in a hard news program are there to get as much information out of the interviewee as possible. ‘Open’ questions are used so the interviewee has to give proper sentences and go into more detail than a ‘closed’ question where you just answer ‘Yes’ and ‘No’.  Suggestive questions are also asked. These are questions which people already sort of know the answer. They lead the interviewee into talking about the subject and giving the answer.

Structuring – Hard News programs often start by saying the main stories and headlines.  They make sure to keep reminding the audience of the headlines especially if there is a big story breaking.  They then move onto smaller stories which aren’t as important but still worthy of featuring in the report. Finally they finish with a ‘feel good’ story. They leave this until last as they don’t want to leave the viewer felling like the world is full of bad things.  An example of a  ‘feel good’ story would be an animal doing something funny/remarkable, a child being found or even a new discovery.

Hard news might also feature sound-bites, which are interviews and questions recorded beforehand but are included in the news program.  This is often used in the news on radio.

Here shows a clip from FOX News and a sound-bite interview clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJAz8D14wDQ

The Purpose of Interviews -  The purpose of hard news interviews is to enhance the audience’s understanding of the story.  The audience watches the news to learn and understand more and the interviews help this.  The interviews allow a great deal of audience insight to the situation.

Combative,

This technique means that the interviewer, interviewee and the general questions are very antagonistic and hostile. There are often arguments and disagreements in the interview; it is this which gives the interview technique of combative.

Interviewer approach – The interview is nearly always adversarial and challenging in their style of questioning. Sometimes they are even trying to get the interviewee to become angry as this makes excellent television. However most of the time they don’t need to try and make the interview confrontational as it often happens naturally.  Jeremy Paxman in a notorious combative interviewer who hosts a lot of programs, most of which are political such as Newsnight. He is often very rude to the guests and grills them on topics which they don’t necessarily want to talk about. In the past he has been criticized for his intimidating approach but also praised by others for being tough and incisive. Paxman is often bought in to interview big names normally in politics.

Below show some examples of a Combative interview. The first example is Paxman interviewing Michel Howard. This famous interview took place on Newnight and shows Paxman’s technique of interviewing very well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uwlsd8RAoqI

The second link is a extract from FOX News. Here, both the interviewee and the interviewer loose their temper as they argue live on camera. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGc6AvM-4Sg

Question Types – the questions asked in these combative interviews are often direct. They get straight to the point. This is very good for the audience as if the interviewee has done something wrong, the audience wants to know why it happened. Normally the questions are open, however, in some cases the person in question will waffle on about something not to do with the question. In cases like this a closed or ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question will be asked. Such as from the Newsnight link above ‘Did you threaten to overrule him?’.  These questions can often be suggestive as the audience probably knows that it happened but they want the interviewee to say it.

Structuring – in these interviews there is quite a lot of structuring. The questions asked are written down before and it is the interviewer’s job to make sure the questions get asked and the interview moves on. They all start with an introduction where the interviewer introduces the person in question to the audience, at this point there isn’t a huge amount of debate or arguments. However, as the interview continues it develops and progresses to a stage where there is confrontation, and sometimes in the case of FOX News both the people on camera loose their temper and loose the structure of the interview and just fight.

Purposes of Interviews – The main purpose of these interviews are to allow audience understanding of the topic. This can be because the audience is angry and wants to know why it has happened. This might led onto the fact that the purpose is linked to emotion. If people are angry then they will watch a program where the person responsible is questioned and grilled on TV.

Light-hearted,

This style of interviewing does not tend to feature in news programs, but in entertainment programs. A light-hearted approach to the interview would be found on sports programs such as BBC Sport. Here an interviewer would question the guests as to what they thought of the game or race and what is next for the players. A great example of this is Jake Humphries talking about F1 in this link –  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE8xxapX5ys&feature=related.

Interviewer approach – Normally in a light-hearted interview the approach is up beat and positive. The approach of the interviewer tends to be slightly humorous as well as making sure that all the right questions get asked. They often show active listening with their body language which shows both the interviewee and the viewers at home that they are listening. ‘Noddy’ shots are very common, this is where the camera cuts quickly back to the interviewer who is shown nodding their head. This again helps with the image that they are listening, even though these shots are normally filmed later and then edited in to the interview.

Question Types – A variety of questions are asked in these interviews as this makes the program a lot more interesting for the viewer to watch. Open questions are clearly used more than Closed ones as they will want the interviewee to open up and to talk as much as possible. There isn’t much point booking someone to question and then only asking them ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ questions. They don’t often tend to ask suggestive questions as this doesn’t fit into the style of interview. Unless the question is based on a topic which everyone thinks the same about.

Structuring – An introduction is often used in a light-hearted interview. It often brief as the interviewer will quickly introduce who is in the studio and who will be interviewed and then move onto another subject. For example a sports interview in the studio will develop and follow the structure of the game itself. They will start with what happened at the beginning of the game and slowly move through the match or race. Interviews will normally say ‘thank you’ to the interviewees and sometimes even summarize the interview to help wind-up and finish the interview.  

Purposes of Interviews – these light-hearted interviews are often to enhance the audience’s understanding of a subject, e.g. BBC Sports interviews. They also offer a platform for interviewees’ opinion. These interviews can sometimes act like discussion groups, talking and discussing a subject. Even though most light-hearted interviews are up beat, they can also be about an upsetting subject as a ‘light- hearted’ interview is about the style of the interview not the subject. Nevertheless light-hearted interviews can also be simply for entertainment purposes.

Entertainment,

These interviews are often taken place on chat shows. Programs such as Top Gear and Loose Women are great examples of an entertaining interview. There is normally comedy in the interview which make both the interviewee laugh and the audience at home.

Here is an example of a entertainment interview from the ‘gossip’ chat show Loose Women - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Aq_HGizqto

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8UDh_qWGyw – This is a interview from driving show Top Gear with Michael Macintyre.

Interviewer Approach – Interviewers often host the interview in a very comedic way. They ask questions which will make people laugh and the interviewee as well. They talk to the person in question very informally, like they are friends. This is a completely different technique to Hard News and Combative interviews as the interviewer is trying to get the interview to go well. They often build rapport with the interviewee and sometimes get them to admit something there maybe not allowed to give a statement for yet. These interviews can be very cheeky and close to the line. You also get positive body language, the interviewee will be greeted with a hand shake or a kiss and throughout an interview the interviewer shows active listening by nodding their head or smiling. 

 Question Types – Open questions are nearly always asked in every form of interview. However they are used here as much as possible to get the guests to speak and for example share comedic anecdotes like in the Top Gear interview. However, here interviewers don’t have to work as hard to get the guests to open up as they do in Combative interviews. This is because they aren’t trying to hide anything and will talk about whatever subject, within reason. These interviews often contain questions which might have a funny answer to, as well as asking big stars about little problems the people at home might relate to. This creates a positive bond between the star and their audience.   

Structuring – Typically there is a short introduction to these interviews where the host stats some of the recent activity of the interviewee before they come in to talk. Then throughout the interview, sound-bites are cut to. This again shows the audience what the person is famous for and gives the interview a subject to start off on. Such as ‘we saw you there doing…’ and ‘what was it like?’  The interviewer and interviewee relationship progresses as the interview develops. Some interviews have even made friendships.

Purpose of Interviews – These interviews can be simply to let the audience know and understand the interviewee better. A lot of the time these interviews are used for promotional material. For example a star guest will come into the studio to promote their new film or album whatever it may be. So these two techniques can be linked closely together.

Promotional,

A promotional interview is one where a guest comes in and ‘plugs’ and advertises a new item they are bringing out. This could be anything from a new cloths line, to a new film, or even the latest album. These interviews can sometimes be found in the form of what is called a ‘Junket’. Junkets are mainly for new films. This tends to be for the bigger stars and is where the interviewers go to question them rather than they go to the studio. They are normally held in hotels with big posters of the film in the back.

An example of a junket is show here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTHs9dsImLs This shows the Junket interview with Emma Watson for a Harry Potter film.

This is also another example of a promotional interview from a program called Freshly Squeezed. –   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mg-u1m4t11w Here Girls Aloud are promoting their new song ‘The Promise’.

Interviewer Approach – In these interviews the Interviewer tends to be light-hearted. However some are a lot more serious than others. For example if you compare the Harry Potter Junket to the Freshly Squeezed interview you will see a lot of difference between the interviewers and their style of asking questions. The Freshly Squeezed interview is a lot jokier and doesn’t take itself too seriously. This I would say is more entertaining approach to promotional interview than the Harry Potter interview, which asks questions people would think would be in a promotional interview. So in some cases the interviewer is very humorous and funny and in other cases a more serious approach is taken.

Question Types – In a standard promotional junket the star can get very bored with the interviewers who come in one after the other. This is because they all seem to ask the same questions. Questions about the filming and the other actors they worked with. These questions tend to be open and even if they are closed they will then tell them to explain their answer. Nevertheless, taking the more jokey approach to the interview the questions can be not at all about the film! They can be asked about anything.  This link shows the somewhat random questions asked by T4. Which is a program notorious for not taking itself too seriously. You can easily compare this junket to the first Emma Watson interview shown above. This one is a lot funnier and even contains a short quiz at the end. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZWisRkbfcY&feature=related

Structuring – Again, like all interviews there is a short introduction which tells the viewer who the interviewee is and why they are famous. This is normally followed by a short clip of the film or music video to show them in action. Throughout the interview they will keep cutting back to the clips of the film or video to break up and help separate the questions. An example of use of sound-bites in a promotional interview is linked here. This is an interview again by Freshly Squeezed with the rapper Tyler and the Creator, and his new album.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEzHcy_FHEE. In this interview you don’t see or hear the interviewer but you get an understanding of the questions asked by the way he answers them.

Purposes of Interviews – Clearly the purpose of the interviews from the guests’ point of view is for them to publicize their new product. However these interviews also allow a chance for the audience to see the real person. So they allow an enhancement of audience understanding as well as gaining insight into the film, song or whatever is being promoted.

 Investigative,

 These interviews are set up to investigate. So in a case where not a lot is known about the subject an investigative interview is set up to try and find out more. Interviewees tend to be experts and witnesses.

Interviewer Approach – In this case the interviewer will show lots of body language telling the reader that they are listening to what is being uncovered. This is important as if the interviewer looks like they are listening closely to the interviewee and understanding what is being said, it will help the viewer to follow the questions and answers being asked. Again ‘Noddy’ shots are used to help get this message across to the people at home. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-62kEWdO84s This link shows an interview which contains a great example of the interviewer showing active listening.

Question Types – The most common question types asked in these types of interviews are open, direct and multiple questions. All three of these question types open up the answer allowing the interviewee to open up and talk about the subject at hand. You would defiantly not find closed questions here as the aim of these interviews are to gain as much information as possible and a closed question stops this from happening.

Structuring – There doesn’t tend to have that much of an introduction to the interview apart from the interviewer stating who they are talking to. However, there tends to be a lot of development and progression as the interview goes on as the interviewer and the audience at home finds out more about the subject. The interviews don’t really contain sound-bites, although in some cases there might be.

Purposes of Interviews – These interviews allow audience insight into a situation as before the interview not much would have been known about the subject. It can also be used for research and enhancement of audience understanding. These interviews are used to uncover and investigate the headline situation.