Unit 36 - Interview Techniques for Creative Media Production.
Interviews are something everyone encounters in their lives, but few meet an interview in the style used through the media. Media hosts use various formats and techniques to interview others and depending on the format and technique can alter how the interview is perceived. To illustrate these differences I will analyse three different interviews, one from a news report and two from chat shows with both chat shows being aimed for very different audiences.
The first interview is one conducted by Ellen Degeneres towards Britney Spears and an incident that occurred during a performance of hers. To introduce the interview Ellen presents a clip showing the incident to allow viewers who were unaware of it to now be aware so they are informed ready for the interview. The interview then begin with a light-hearted attitude with Ellen offering open questions to begin a rapport with Britney. While gathering information through Britney’s answer Ellen begins to develop questions to go further into details on how it had effected the tour, which is secretly promoting tour. How Ellen energizes her audience is quite typical of her interview style but to really get viewers talking she tends to end her interviews with grand gestures much like the one at the end of this interview. By doing things like this she makes viewers want to take part in her show either as a guest or in the audience. Where Ellen is effectively herself when interviewing her guests she puts them at great ease when answering their questions and keeps it light-hearted throughout with her wit. Additionally being a chat show the interviews are short to allow them to have many guests in a single show, which is only more likely to increase viewing numbers as an episode will appeal to more viewers depending on the guests.
In a radical contrast to the style used by Ellen is they style used in a hard hitting news report. The interviewer will use open question but they will be highly combative against the interviewee. The interviewer will remain vigilant to what answers are being given to allow them to construct new questions that keep an issue on topic as the interviewee may try to avoid actually answer the question directly. To begin the interview it will typically start with an introductory question that is direct to the issue being discussed. This question may include previous statement made by others or the interviewee as a news related interview tends to be linked to other reports covering the same issue. With a news interview it is mainly aimed to enhance the audiences understanding of an underlining issue through information and expressing ideas and opinions. However this can backfire with news reports depending on who is being interviewed. For example a politician is a prime example of a public figure that will have three clear groups that are listening to their answers. They will have one group who believes their every word and is one of their followers, another group who instantly are against whatever the politician is saying and the final group will be the largest and will be those who are confused on the issue at hand. The UK status in the EU in the report above is a clear example of one interview that will create these three categories. The information being given to the viewers is being presented in a way designed to confuse those who are already confused on the matter as none of the answer are simple and direct answers. However if the interviewer remains persistent and in a way acts like an investigator. If they continue to return to the fundamental main goal they had set out to achieve they can eventually break through the bravado and help some viewers find clarity to the questions they have to the issue being discussed.
Arguably the queen of the interview is Oprah Winfrey and while this interview is nearly 20 years old it is a prime example of a skill few have managed to achieve on the level that Oprah has. Oprah has a unique ability to produce a hard-hitting interview with many combative questions like a standard news interview. However she is able to deliver the questions in a manner that enables her guest to open up about serious topics in a public forum without fear. In this interview we see Ellen Degeneres openly talking about her sexuality for one of the first times live on TV, which today is something accepted by many but 20 years ago it was still a sensitive subject for many. Through the interview you can see primary purpose is to encourage the viewers to see a woman discussing a part of herself in a hope to aid the viewers to gain new understanding on a subject. Unlike a hard-hitting news report Oprah allows the audience a chance to engage with Ellen offering concerns and questions they had themselves on the subject of sexuality. By allowing her audience to engage directly with the interviewee has a double effect, firstly it allows the audience member themselves to address a question and second it answer the question for all the other viewers who have the exact same question. By allowing Ellen to answer the questions directly first shows her confidence in now discussing the matter but secondly makes it clear to viewers that this was a matter society could no longer avoid addressing. Oprah also goes into detail of the struggle Ellen had been through growing up and coming to terms with her sexuality. While today this is not seen as anything unique, 20 years ago it allowed viewers going through similar questions and doubts personally to identify with the interview on a great scale. By ending the interview by including Ellen’s then girlfriend has a clear intention and that was to try and show people two women who clearly have a connection. While the pair do engage in the questions offered by Oprah and a question by the audience, the main intention was to show that these two women were not evil people, just a couple with great feelings towards each other.