Interview Techniques
Open and Closed: Open questions allow the interviewee to expand on their answer unlike a closed question which basically gives the interviewee the answer. An open question can be used to help keep the interview going and also allows the interviewer to ask questions that they may not have thought of before. an advantage of a closed question would be to make the interviewee say something which allows the interviewer to have a soundbite and also cause some controversy to help boost the interviews popularity. An example of a open question would be "how was your day?" this allows the interviewee to elaborate and develop more of an answer, whereas a closed question would be "Your day was good, wasn't it?" the difference of the two is that the question is implying that the interviewee is having a good day and may force the answer to be a yes or no answer.
Direct: Direct questions are straight to the point, it is used to direct a conversation in a direction the interviewer wants to go. They make it so the interviewee answers what the interviewer wants them to, an example would be "tell me about the issues you are facing" this question is making the interviewer answer just that questions, in contrast to a indirect question which would allow the interviewee to divert the interview somewhere else, an example of this would be "could you tell me about the issues you are facing?" this type of question allows the interviewee to answer or not to answer the question.
Multiple and Suggestive: Multiple questions are questions that allow the interviewee to expand further on an answer and progress the interview further along, an example being "what's you opinion on this matter? and do you think it will ever end?", whereas a suggestive question doesn't exactly ask a question it just implies it so that it seems like the interviewer didn't force the interviewee to answer the question and that it exposes the interviewee, an example being "you've lied about this in the past haven't you?"
Structures
Introduction: it is vital for interviews to being with an introduction as it will help introduce the interviewee to the topic being discussed, introductions are often used to introduce the interviewee to the audience or reader. Typically this is the first time the interviewee will get a feel for what sort of interview they are participating in. an example of a simple introduction would be an interview on Channel 4 news, with Labour MP Jess Phillips which started with “With me now is Labour MP Jess Phillips… and I’m here to find out the truth about what’s going on… so tell me what’s going on”
https://www.channel4.com/news/jess-phillips-interview
https://www.channel4.com/news/jess-phillips-interview
Development. These types of questions are generally light hearted to get the interview started. Developmental questions are often crucial in setting the mood for the rest of the interview, in particular making the interviewee feel more relaxed. It is a lot like an introduction to the interview but in a way it moves the interview on a nit better before asking the key questions. An example of a developmental question would be asking “how are you today?” or “we are pleased to have you in today” these types of warm welcoming questions will automatically make the interviewee feel at home and be more comfortable throughout the interview
Confidence building: confidence questions are built to make the interviewee a lot more confident with the questions being asked, before getting to that stage the interviewer will often ask random questions and say numerous things to get the interviewee more comfortable. This will be done in order for the interviewee to give more detailed and long responses answers when it comes to the key questions
Key questions: are the main and most important questions asked during an interview, it what the interview is based on. Key questions are mostly asked in the middle of an interview because that’s when the interviewee is now more familiar with the questions and comfortable with being asked more complex questions. Key questions can differ depending on the topic of the interview.
Soundbites: soundbites are small bits of an interview cut out to show a short section of the interview as a min trailer on television used to advertise the interview in order to grab the viewer’s attentions to watch the full interview. Sound bites can be used to show upcoming episodes or things such as reactions from interview faces. An example of a soundbite from an interview would be at 1.40 on the Women at Work interview on Channel 4 News in which the interviewee states “Yeah, you absolutely have a huge problem” this soundbite can be used to promote the interview if it ever wants to be advertised.
https://www.channel4.com/news/women-at-work
Summary: a summary is used to sum up the interview; all the questions the interviewer has asked, this is the part where the interviewer concludes the topic being talked about in a good warming way. This is done at the end of the interview
Wind up: a wind is the end of the interview, there are many ways interviewers end an interview, and the main way of ending one is by putting in some sort of humour maybe a homage to the interview. They can also end in light hearted questions and or if there is a celebrity maybe a performance or something entertaining to send them off. Or if the interview is non biased the interviewer may say a final word to get their point across more strongly.
Interview Styling
Hard news: Hard news in media is the hard hitting and immediately reported type of news, most hard news categories fall under, war, crime, politics, economics. This type of news is on headlines, front pages, this is to attract a larger audience as hard news is more enticing than the contrast "soft news". Soft news is the opposite of hard news, soft news is usually reffered to entertainment, lifestyle, art, where the headlines and stories are not as hard hitting and attractive as hard news. This is why hard news is usually on the front pages, an example of two headlines are the two shown. The article on left is hard news. It uses a quick and punchy title to get an audiences attention. Words and statistics such as "15 dead" quickly grabs the readers attention. Soft news on the other hand doesn't use a catchy headline or key words to grab the readers eye. A soft news title usually says what the article is about with no misleading words or anacdotes.
Combative: The definition of combative is "ready or eager to fight or argue", in media a combative interview style is used when a interviewer is trying to get something out of the interviewee. This type of interview is used in a lot of politics as the style allows the interviewer to gain a lot more information than using a more "light hearted" approach. A combative style uses very suggestive and open questions to get the most information out of the interviewee as possible. However a lot of these types of interviews use a mixture of hard hitting closed questions to get a yes or no out of the interviewee.
An example of this type of interview is the one below. The interview starts off with a light hearted open question to build confidence in the interviewee so that they become more comfortable. However, throughout the interview the questions come a lot more forward to the point where the interviewer is talking over the interviewee, this is where problems can arise, a lot of interviewers will include their personal opinions if they get agitated which can divert the interview from its original purpose. A good interviewer will not let their personal opinions get involved and use the heated part of the interview to say the hard hitting questions as this is usually around the time where the agitated interviewee will open up instead of keeping in information
Light-hearted: A light hearted interview is the opposite of a combative interview. Instead of a more fight and argue style of interview, a light hearted style is more relaxed and casual. Where, combative interviews were used for more hard news topics, a light hearted interview will be more directed to soft news topics. This is because these types of interviews are more aimed to give entertainment or to get an emotional or personal response from the interviewee. Questions in these types are open and usually allow the interviewee to expand a lot more themselves instead of the interviewer asking a lot of questions. The interviewer will have a layout of where the interview will be heading but the interviewer will have to adapt to the conversation and ask questions based around what they are talking about as a light hearted interview will need to seem more free flowing than a lot of direct questions, as a free flowing question will make the interviewee more comfortable and able to open up more.
Entertainment: Much like a light hearted interview, a entertaining interview will use the same type of layout. Using open and free flowing questions to make the interviewee comfortable and able to answer questions. An entertaining interview will use a lot more jokes to make the interview more funny and entertaining, a lot of interviews on late night television are made to be entreating this is because this is where the bigger audience is and when they want to watch more entertaining content. Shows like "The Late Late Show with James Corden" have very entertaining interviews, as their whole show is based off on interviews and if the whole show is serious and direct it will lose a lot of its audience so therefore they make the interviews entertaining with various skits and games including the interviewee to one, make the interviewee more comfortable and two, to make a larger audience to watch it, a full 10 minute interview may become boring after a while so by adding elements to make an interview more entertaining they allow the audience to stay watching, which in turn makes the creators of the show more money.
Investigative: An investigative interviews sole purpose is to gain information for an interviewee. These types of interviews have a mixture of hard and soft questions, depending on the interviewers style. In many cases an investigation will not be combative but it won't be light hearted, a good investigation will use a mixture of both to get the most out of an interviewee, too light hearted of a interview will allow the interviewee to divert the subject, while a too direct and combative interview may cause the interviewee to refuse a question entirely. A lot of interviews thats sole purpose is to investigate and get something out of a interviewee will use very suggestive questions in order to divert the interviewee into answering something with out them realising, this style is a very good way of gaining information and if used well will allow the interviewer to gain a lot of information.
Promotional: Promotional interviews are used to 'promote' an individual or team, depending on who the interview is about. You mainly see these on late night television or news channels as this is when most people will be watching television, the same goes for morning television as news channels have most of their audeicene watch in the morning in the evening, so when a promotional interview is going on it is usually placed in the early morning or the evening, this is because this is when most people are tuned in, having a promotional interview in the middle of the day when no one is watching is hardly a promotion at all and a waste of money. These types of interviews use very direct and open questions as they want to allow the interviewee to open up as much as possible as they have to promote the why they are there, so by allowing the interviewee to open up you're allowing them to promote themselves.
Communication Skills
Building Rapport: Building Rapport is basically, building trust between one another, trust is key when it comes to most interviews as trust allows the interviewee to feel comfortable and confident to open up and give you answers you wasn't expecting. However, in some interviews, the interviewee may dislike or distrust the interviewer beforehand and they know what they're getting into so therefore building rapport isn't necessary in this case, these types of situations are mainly found in hard news topics and are run by many well known hard hitting and straight to the point interviewers.
To build rapport, interviewers must start with a introduction, the introduction doesn't need to be long and tedious but a simple "how are you? Glad you're here today" will make a interviewee more comfortable and feel like they're under less pressure, this will allow the interviewee to breathe and answer the questions more willingly. Another way is to not ask very deep or personal questions straight away or at all, these types of questions that may make the interviewee upset or anxious will make them lose trust and make them not want to answer questions in the future. Many interviews do research beforehand about their interviewee in order to find out what they want to get out of them. An example of building rapport is 'The Graham Norton Show' in which he speaks to Johnny Depp about his daughters illness, the questions were very suggestive but Norton was trying to get him to talk about the hospital visits but without directly asking him to answer his questions, he uses phrases such as "we've seen those photos of you when you visit hospitals... it must be an amazing gift to be able to give those people [a smile]", here we can see he's not directly asking him about the visit but because he's already built up the trust with him before, the suggestive question allows Depp to open up.
Active Listening and Body Language: Active listening and body language are a major part of any interview as it controls the flow and the confidence of both the interviewee and the answers they give. By actively listening, which means you look like you're actually listening to your interviewee and taking part in the conversation, you allow them to engage with you and become more confident and this will mean they will want to answer your questions. If the interviewer is looking elsewhere, picking their nails or even on their phone, they might be actually listening but to the person talking to them may think they aren't and lose interest and not want to answer questions. The interviewer must always look like they're listening, either by responding to their answers with "yes" or asking question based on what the interviewee is saying. This also links to body language. The body language of an interviewer also controls how the interviewee answers the questions. By having a good posture and looking sensible and causal the interviewee will feel more comfortable to answer the questions. If the interviewer is slouched or looks too relaxed the interviewee will think that the interviewer may not be taking this seriously so therefore the interviewee will not open up as much because they might not want to open up to someone who isn't serious. Body language can also be used to provoke a response, Jeremy Paxman's body language is very relaxed so when he has a heated debate it almost looks like he's not taking it seriously. In his interview with Russell Brand, the interview gets very heated and you can see Brand become more and more agitated as he sits forward however, Paxman stays calm and relaxed sitting back in his seat, although this may not make much difference it can make a psychological difference as Brand may think that Paxman isn't taking the interview seriously which may be why he becomes more heated as the interview goes on.
Telephone Techniques [Gathering information and Obtaining Comments]: Telephone interviews are a lot more difficult for the interviewer than face to face interviews. While face to face with someone you can see their body language, you can see their face to see if they're comfortable or not, whereas on the phone you can't, you just have to listen, this means you can't see whether you're asking the right questions, as when face to face and you ask a wrong or an awkward question you can see in the interviewees body language change, they fidget, look away, but when its over the phone you have only their voice, so this means that an interviewer must come prepared with well rehearsed questions. The interviewer also has to realise that the interview is over the phone and at any point the interviewee can just end the call if they wanted to. The interviewer should always recored the conversation so that they can listen and repeat the call if they need to or if they need to publish it, they should also take notes, as taking notes allows the interviewer to refer back to what the interviewee has said. Also many interviewers use suggestive and open questions to just let the interviewee talk, which allows them to gain soundbites which can help them further if they were to take the interview to the news.
Journalistic contexts
Print: Print can come under many different names such as newspaper or magazine, in other words print is a text that you can physically hold in your hand, other than phones and tablets. Examples of print can be Tabloids such as The Sun and The Daily Star, Broadsheets such as The Daily Telegraph and The Independent, Magazines such as Ok! and NME. Different Prints are aimed at different audiences. Tabloids are usually aimed at a younger audience that are also looking for a quick read, so articles are usually quick and to the point with titles that are eye grabbing. On the other hand you have Broadsheets that are more for an older audience that like a long read so articles are much longer and go into more depth.
Television: Television is now one of the biggest ways that journalists get their message across, with such a large audience now, many journalists have resulted in using television as their main type of text. Journalists get their articles and points across on mostly News channels such as Channel 4 and ITV, where they get a larger audience. However, they can't just use articles and show them on TV, so what they do is make reports that can be televised or interviews that can happen face to face in front of cameras.
Radio: Radio on the other hand mainly uses on the phone interviews as they have a lot of contacts and its easy to broadcast phone interviews, they also can be pre recorded and played whenever the radio broadcasters want to. Depending on the radio station depends on how the interviews go, BBC Radio 1 will more than likely have more entreating interviews whereas BBC Radio 4 will have more serious and slow interviews.
Online: Online interviews can come in many forms. They can come as an article like in print where the journalist puts the interview into one long article instead of a question and answer look. They can come in video form where we actually see the interview take place or they can come simple as a question and answer form. Many blogs use a question and answer format, video sites such as YouTube will use videos and News websites will use articles on their site.
Editorial: Editorial Texts are usually found at the front of a print and they contain a very biased opinion as it is written by the editor themselves. So instead of a balanced interview you will find a very one way article with questions that are a lot more biased and opinionated to the editor than to anyone else.
Sport: Sport interviews are very, niche as its a niche audience. The interview will use terminology from the sport, and quotes from the game. These interviews are usually more casual as it is more soft news than it is hard news. Post game interviews will be conducted for the sport news channels for people to watch, the questions will be very direct and open so that the player can open up about the time playing if need be so that the producers can get soundbites that they can use to send to the sport news channels or other news channels in general, also to other print texts.
