SUBJECT:
SETTING UP THE INTERVIEW
DESCRIPTION:
News is often too immediate to allow detailed research, and news are frequently too brief to warrant an in-depth approach. The average length of a bulletin clip on British independent radio is around 20 seconds – just enough for one or two succinct points. Even a three minute report (and many music-based stations keep interviews to half that length) can support only four or five questions. How to make it possible?
GOAL :
By reading this modul 14, the student will be able to:
1. set up the interview better
2. prepare the question before doing that interview
3. be the good and punctual broadcaster
REFERENCES:
- Broadcast Journalism, written by Andrew Boyd (Focal Press)
- Tata Bahasa Bahasa Inggris, written by Erhans Anggawirya and friends (Indah)
- An Indonesian-English Dictionary, written by John M. Echols and Hasan Shadily (Gramedia)
- An English-Indonesian Dictionary, written by John M. Echols and Hasan Shadily (Gramedia)
News is often too immediate to allow detailed research, and news are frequently too brief to warrant an in-depth approach. The average length of a bulletin clip on British independent radio is around 20 seconds – just enough for one or two succinct points. Even a three minute report (and many music-based stations keep interviews to half that length) can support only four or five questions.
Longer interviews are more frequently the province of speech-based stations and current affairs departments, though many regional TV newsrooms will produce a daily half-hour programme that takes longer items.
A common criticism of broadcast news is that it is shallow, tending to polarize issues into black and white for the sake of simplicity by removing all shades of grey. While broadcasters deal with the what of the story, they seldom trouble to explain the why or the how.
Background
But brevity by time constraints is no excuse for ignorance on the part of an intrerviewer. Reporters may not have much time to gather background to a story, but they are expected to carry much of that information in their heads.
Reporters should keep up to date with the stories their station is covering. Before beginning their shift, they should hear a number of bulletins, including those on rival stations, so they know what is happening that day and have a shrewd idea of the follow-ups they can expect to be given. They should also have read the local papers, which have more space to give to background.
Reporters are often expected to be their own researcher, constantly topping up their reservoir of knowledge about local news, so when they walk through the door and the editor says: ‘Don’t take your coat off … ‘ they know what to expect, and what to do next.
Being prepared
You want to prepare for your interview by learning as much as possible about the subject so that you’ll be familiar with it. Ask other people in your newsroom and station what’s important to ask about the subject. Brainstorm with them, to the extent that time constraints allow. The person you’ll spend the most time with on any given TV story is your photographer. He or she can help you prepare by suggesting questions and offering perspective. Talk with your photographer as you plan each story, and work together as a team.
You want to have some idea what you’re going to ask and in what order before you go out on a story. Prepare at least a few questions, and write them down to use as a memory jog if you get nervous or draw a blank.
Knowing the Mechanics of interviewing
Remember to look straight in the eyes of the person you’re interviewing and maintain eye contact with him or her. Strong eye contact seems to help divert the person’s attention away from the equipment, which makes for a less nervous interviewee. Don’t fidget with your notes or with your hair or wave the microphone around. When possible, use a clip-on microphone. When interviewing for TV, ask the person you’re interviewing to look at you, not at the camera. Your back will be to the photographer, who will get a shot over your shoulder of interviewee’s face.
· The microphone should point toward the interviewee and be about 6 inches below his or her mouth in normal situation.
· As often as possible, conduct the interview at the scene of the event or in the setting of a story, whether in the factory or the classroom or the orange grove.
· In the interview itself, you want to be direct, clear, straightforward, emphathetic and respectful. You want to be frank, sincere, and courteous.
· Your questions should be direct, simple and open-ended.
· You must also understand what the interviewees mean by what they say, and you may need to ask for clarification to make sure.
· Ask questions that cause the person to think, to reflect, to search, and if necessary, to clear up any discrepancies in earlier statements he or she may have made on the same subject.
· You may also need to ask the people you interview to summarize what they’ve just said in one or two sentences, especially if they tend to ramble on or talk in long run-or sentences.
Dressing appropriately
If you’re going to interview a US senator in her Washington, D.C office, wear a suit . If you’re going to interview a West Texas rancher, jeans and boots would be appropriate.
A plan of campaign – the questions
Familiarizing yourself with the story is step one. Step two is getting a clear idea of what to ask, which depends on the type of interview involved and its duration.
One tip – if you are going out for a 20-second clip, there is no point coming back with 12 minutes of material. You would simply be laying up trouble for yourself; there will be 12 minutes to review and ten different answers to choose from. That takes time, and with hourly deadlines, time is one commodity the reporter never has to spare.
Five minutes beforehand spent thinking out the questions is worth an hour’s editing back at the station.
Get your facts right
Before leaving the newsroom, make sure you have your facts right. There is nothing more embarassing or more likely to undermine the reporter’s reputation and that of the station than an ignorant and ill-informed line of questioning:
Reporter: ‘Mr. Smith, as hospital administrator, just how seriously do you view this typhoid epidemic?’
Mr. Smith: ‘Hmmm. I’m actually the deputy administrator, and two isolated cases hardly constitute an epidemic. Oh yes … and the name is Smythe. Now what was the questions?’
What chance of a successful interview?
Sometimes the mind becomes clearer when its contents are spilled on the paper. So, working to your brief, set up a chain of thought – a plan of campaign – by jotting down a few questions and arranging them in logical order. Even if you never refer to your notes this can be a worthwhile exercise.
Fit the Brief
Be mindful that whatever you ask has to fit the angle and length required by the brief and the result has to be relevant to your audience. Beware of leaping off at tangents that might interest you or a like-minded minority, but would be irrelevant to the majority. Keep to the point – and the point should be whatever has the greatest impact on your audience.
Let’s take a bread and butter story and assume that the fire service has been called to a fire in an apartment block. It is serious and the flats have been evacuated. You go to the scene to talk to the chief fire officer. If you brief is to produce a 20-second clip then you have space for one line of questioning only. Human life is always more important than property, so your first question has to be Who? Followed by What happened to them? and that should be enough.
Whatever you do, don’t follow the lead of one local radio reporter who began every interview regardless of the story with the same question: ‘Tell me about it … ‘ Leave that opener to doctors, psychiatrists and others who are paid by the hour.
Check arrangements
If time is of the essence, then no reporter can afford to waste it by heading the wrong way down a motorway or arriving at the wrong address. Arriving late for an interview only raises everybody’s blood pressure. Check the arrangement before leaving and allow plenty of time to get there. Directions can be sorted out by telephone when the interview is being set up. At the same time you can get enough information to leave a brief story to tide the newsroom over until you return with your pictures or audio.
If you are working for radio, check your portable recorder before you leave. This is basic, yet often forgotten in the rush. One of my reporters interviewed a government minister then tried to play it back only to find there was no tape in the machine. Astonishingly, he agreed to wait while she returned to the station to get a tape and redo the interview. Another reporter grabbed a machine to cover a fire but found he could get no level on the meters. It wasn’t that his batteries were flat – just that there were no batteries in the machine. Check it out before you take it out. A comprehensive test takes less than a minute and can save hours.
Don’t forget to take a spare tape, disc or whatever recording medium you use, and batteries.
Approach
Many young reporters, anxious to make a name for themselves, have to be reminded every now and again of the need not to promote their own careers at the expense of the station and its valuable contacts. Where the reporter comes face to face with the influential, want of a little wisdom can cause a great deal of damage.
- Body language is so important. The way we sit, how we cross our legs and arms, reveals a lot about how we feel. If your interviewee is sitting legs crossed and arms folded, then you know he or she is on the defensive and needs to be relaxed. If the reporter is cowering in the corner, while the interviewee is leaning back exuding confidence, then something has gone badly wrong indeed!
- Discussing the question. Once you have established rapport, done your spadework and checked the important facts, you are ready to draw up your plan of action before beginning the recording.
The Questions
Our thoughts so far have been confined to the preparations for the match, we warp-up and the strategy. Now on to the tactics for the match itself – the questions.
There is more to the art of interviewing than developing the ability to engange complete strangers in intelligent conversation. Good questions produce good answers. The secret is to think ahead to the answers you are likely to get before asking your questions.
- Using notes
Most interviewees would agree that preparing questions is constructive in planning the interview, but sticking closely to a list of written questions can be unhelpful during the course of the interview itself. The problems are:
1. Eye contact is lost
2. When the interviewer is concentrating on the questions, he or she is unable to listen to the interviewee.
3. Fixed questions make for an inflexible interview.
- Ask the questions that will get answers
The who, what, when, where, why and how framework for writing copy applies equally to the news interview and the type of questions the interviewer should ask.
No reporter wants to be left with a series of monosyllabic grunts on the recording, so questions should be carefully structured to produce good useful quotes rather than single word comments.
- Yes/no question
Inexperienced reporters often fall into the trap of asking questions that produce yes/no answers. They may come away with some idea of the story, but will seldom have recorded anything worth using.
- Avoid questions that call for monologues
The opposite of the yes/no question, but which can have the same effect, is the question that is so wide its scope is almost unlimited.
Question scope is important. Make it too narrow and your interview will keep on stalling. Open it up too wide and it can run away from you.
- Short, single idea questions
If a question is to be understood by both the audience and the interviewee it has to be kept clear, simple and straightforward.
Keep the threads of the argument untangled and stick to one point a time.
- Progress from point to point
To maintain the logic of the interview each question should naturally succeed the previous one. If the interviewer needs to refer back to a point, this should be done neatly and followed through by another question that progresses the argument.
- Building bridges
Each question should arise naturally from the previous answer. If the points are only distantly related the interviewer should use a bridge.
- Avoid double question
The interviewer should ask one question at a time, otherwise a wily subject would be able to choose which to answer, and which to ignore. Even the most willing of subjects may forget one half of the question.
- Keep the question relevant
Keep them to the point. And the only point that matters is the point of relevance to your audience.
- Avoid leading questions
A leading question is one designed to lead interviewees into a corner and trap them there. More often it has the effect of boxing-in the reporter with allegations of malice, bias and unfair play.
- Mixing statements with questions
Sometimes it is necessary to give some background information before coming to the question. The question and the information should be kept separate for the sake of clarity, and the question at the end should be brief.
- Beware of questions that would be out of date
If the interview is being pre-recorded, remember to say nothing that would render the item out of date.
- Avoid sounding ignorant
Always check your facts before you launch into an interview. Clear up details like following during the pre-chat.
Winding up the interview
The words ‘and finally’ are best avoided during an interview, as a point arise which may beg a further question or clarification, and saying ‘and finally’ twice always sounds a little foolish.
A phrase such as ’Briefly …’ may also serve as a wind-up signal if necessary. Save your gestures and hand signals for experienced studio staff.
Finish strongly
An interview should go out with a bang and never a whimper. It should end in a way that gives the whole performance a bold and emphatic full stop.
Recorded interviews should not end with ‘Thank you very much Miss Smith’. Save your thank-yours for rounding off live interviews and handling back to presenter.
If during a live interview a guest insists on going on over her time, then don’t be afraid tol butt in with a polite, ‘well, I’m afraid we must stop there’, or ‘That’s all we’ve got time for, Miss Smith, thank you very musch.’ And if she refuses to take the hint, it is the job of the producer to switch off the microphone and usher her out.
NOTES
Do’s and Don’t When Interviewing
| Do | Don’t |
|
|
Exercise
- Please write a script of interviewing. Just imagine that you’ll be the interviewer of important person. Your theme is politics!
- Please make the list what are things that your must prepared before do an interview to someone. Everything that you’ve done yet, must be pointed by giving the checklist! This table below as the sample:
| No. | Things are must be prepared | Yes | No |
| 1. | Text | √ | |
| 2. | Etc… | | |
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