MODUL 14 ENGLISH FOR BROADCAST (Juwarti Hafsah, SS, M.Si)

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:

1. Broadcast Journalism, written by Andrew Boyd (Focal Press)
2. Tata Bahasa Bahasa Inggris, written by Erhans Anggawirya and friends (Indah)
3. An Indonesian-English Dictionary, written by John M. Echols and Hasan Shadily (Gramedia)
4. 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
Think ahead Be organized and prepared Research the topic and the people Dress appropriately Be courteous Maintain eye contact Interview in a conversational tone Leave editing space after answers Attribute charges to the peson making them Read between the lines (especially when interviewing politicians) Listen	Ask yes or no questions, especially of children Be “married” to your questions. Give up control Show agreement or disagreement Tell the interviewee what your specific questions will be Forget to ask for clarification Ask really tough questions right away.

Exercise

1. Please write a script of interviewing. Just imagine that you’ll be the interviewer of important person. Your theme is politics!
2. 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…

MODUL 13 ENGLISH FOR BROADCAST (Juwarti Hafsah, SS, M.Si)

SUBJECT:

INTERVIEWING TECHNIQUES: GETTING THE FACTS AND THE FEELING

DESCRIPTION:

Broadcasting’s great appeal is that the audience can hear the facts straight from the horse’s mouth. The speaker’s own words lend greater authority to a report than any number of quotes in next day’s newspaper. Listeners can follow events as they happen – live. 

 

GOAL : By learning and understanding modul 13, wish the students can:

1.    Have the good spelling and writing techniques

2.    Being the good interviewers

3.    Giving the good information to be reported

REFERENCES:

1. Broadcast Journalism, written by Andrew Boyd (Focal Press)
2. Tata Bahasa Bahasa Inggris, written by Erhans Anggawirya and friends (Indah)
3. An Indonesian-English Dictionary, written by John M. Echols and Hasan Shadily (Gramedia)
4. An English-Indonesian Dictionary, written by John M. Echols and Hasan Shadily (Gramedia)

Every scrap of information that reaches the airwaves stems from an interview of some sort – a chat  in a bar to get some background, an informal phone call to clear up some details, or a recording for transmission. 

The interviewer’s skill

Interviewers are brokers of information. Their skill lies in matching the goods an offer with the needs of their customers. Their art is to tease out the story in the teller’s own words, while making sure every word will be clearly understood by the audience.

            Listeners can then make up their own minds about whether to believe what is being said. The function of exposing the viewpoints of the powerful and influential to public debate and criticism is one of the major planks in the argument that a free news media is essential to democracy.

            To the best of their ability, reporters must lay aside their own interests, points of view and prejudices. The reporter’s job is not to produce propaganda, however noble the cause; that is the task of the politician and public relations officer. Reporters are watchdogs for their audience, and it is with-them that their loyalties must lie.

            Reporters’ skills, their knowledge of the subject, and their access to the interviewee give them the means and the responsibility to ask the sort of ‘Yes, but …’ questions their audience would love to ask in their place. The reporter is the bridge between the layperson and the expert, the person in the street and the official, and a good interview will often test the validity of an argument by exploring its points of tension or controversy.

Different types of interview

The BBC tells its trainees that there are three basic types of interview:

1. The hard exposure interview which investigates a subject.

2. The informational interview which puts the audience in the picture.

3. The emotional interview which aims to reveal an interviewee’s state of mind.

These three paint a broad picture of the art of the interview, which we can develop further into twelve different types, all with special functions:

·         Hard news

·         Informational

·         Investigative

·         Adversarial

·         Interpretative

·         Personal

·         Emotional

·         Entertainment

·         Actuality

·         Telephone or remote

·         Vox pop and multiple

·         Grabbed

A disaster story?

There are some kinds of disaster story. The disaster story could be meant as the strangely though story; however disastrous it may have sounded, it did make compelling radio …

Hard news

The hard news interview is usually short, to the point, and to illustrate a bulletin or news item. It deals only with important facts, or comment and reaction to those facts.

            Important facts and background will be given in the cue, while more detail and explanation will go into the proggramme-length interview of between two and three minutes.

            There is no reason to settle for interviewing the coastguard if there is a chance of raising the crew of the ship by radio telephone. A first-hand account from the people at the centre of a story is always preferable, though here the crew would almost certainly be too busy fighting the fire to talk.

Informational

The informational interview is similar to the hard news interview, but need not be restricted to major stories. An informational interview can be about an event – something that is happening or about to happen.

            It can also provide background. Returning to the cruise liner story, an interview could be set up with the station’s shipping correspondent, who would probably be a freelance with specialist knowledge.

            Informational interviews go beyond the main point  to seek an explanation of the hows and whys of the story. As such they tend to produce better extended features than short bulletin items.

Investigative

The investigative interview aims to get behind the facts to discover what really caused events and sometimes what could be done to prevent a recurrence.

            This kind of interview can run and run and often forms the basis of a documentary.

            Assuming with the above story you discover there has been a recent spate of accidents involving cruise liners, and this is the second vessel belonging to that shipping line to have caught fire within three months; then your next step would be to raise this with the owners.

            With investigative interviews it is only sensible not to put your prey to flight by scaring them off with your first question, so the interview would be conducted something like this:

o  How did the fire break out?

o  How quickly was it discovered?

o  Why wasn’t the crew able to control it?

o  Etc

At this stage it is likely the interview will rapidly move from being investigative into the category below.

Adversarial

No one likes to be cross examined or have their motivrs questioned, so frequently the adversarial interview turns into a war of words between the two parties as the interviewer tries to get the other to admit to things that he or she really does not want to say.

            Adversarial interviews run the greatest risk of a libel suit. This is where a person whi has had something damaging said about them seeks compensation in the courts. As a journalist, opening your mouth before thinking could prove to be your costliest mistake.

            By nature, the adversarial interview attempts to undermine or disprove an argument by direct and public confrontation. The atmosphere may get heated, but the professional should always resist getting hot under the collar. In the heat of the moment it is too easy to say something disparanging or harmful to an interviewee.

            The adversarial approach comes and goes with fashion, but should only be used where appropriate. There is really no excuse for cross-examining a welfare organization about plans for a new orphanage, unless the proposal really does smack of corruption.

Interpretative

There are two prongs to the interpretative interview: the first is the reaction story – a response either for or against what has happened; the second is an explanation of events.

            Both approaches offer a perspective on what has taken place, and put the event into context. By bringing an issue into the light it is possible to examine it more closely.

            Reaction is frequently stronger and more effective when it comes from someone who is personally involved.

            Analysis, explanation or interpretation comes best from an expert eye far ebough away from the story to remain objective.

Personal

The personal interview might be a short interview with a celebrity about their favourite subject – themselves, or a longer, more inquisitive and intentionally revealing personality profile.

            The interview is intimate and penetrating. To lower a person’s guard to the point where they become vurnarable and yet still secure enough with the interviewer to answer questions such as, ‘Do you believe in God?’ and ‘Have you ever wanted to take your own life?’ requires the interviewer to combine the insight of a psychiatrist with the emphaty of a priest at the confessional. It can make fascinating listening.

Emotional

The emotional interview is an attempt to lay bare someone’s feelings, to enable an audience to share in a personal tragedy or moving event. The emotional interview springs from the personal interview, above, and is perhaps the most sensitive area of reporting. It is dealing with a subject’s inner self, an area into which the media too frequently trespasses uninvited.

            Mercifully, the reporter has remembered that the hackneyed and crass ‘gHow do you feel?’ shouls only be asked to let us share in someone’s relief or happiness, never their tragedy or misfortune.

            For emotional interviews the rule is to tread carefully when your foot is on somebody’s heart, and then only walk where you have been given the right of way.

Entertainment

The entertainment factor often palys a part in attracting and keeping an audience. The entertainment interview looks at the lighter side of life, the things that make us smile. If, on board the liner, a troupe of dancing girls had kept people’s spirits up when the flames were spreading amidships by doing tha can-can, then that is entertainment and the reporter who sneers at that angle is likely to get a roasting when he or she returns.

Actuallity only

The actuality interview is where the reporter’s voice is removed from the recording, leaving only that of the interviewee. The technique is occasionally used to good effect in documentary or feature making, but is harder to master than it sounds.

            The skill lies in building up a clear storyline, which needs no narration to prop it up and in asking questions that prompt the interviewee to give all the information that would normally arise as background in the question.

o  Wrong approach

Interviewer: ‘Where were you when the fire broke out?’

Passenger: ‘At the bar.’

Interviewer: ‘Who told you?’

Passenger: ‘The steward.’

Interviewer: ‘What was your reaction?’

Passenger: ‘I didn’t take it seriously. I thought they’d manage to put it out.’

o  Better

 Interviewer: ‘Could you tell us where you were when the fire broke out, how you got to hear about it, and what your reaction was?’

Passenger: ‘I was at the bar with half a dozen others, when the steward came in and told us fire broken out in the engine room. We didn’t think much of it. We were sure they’d put it out. But we didn’t know how wrong we were.’

With thic technique multiple questions are often required to get a good flow of answers. The interview will usually have to be worked out in advance with the interviewee, and several retakes might be necessary to get the important background while still sounding conversational and natural.

Telephone or remote

Interviews may be carried out on the phone or with a subject speaking from a remote studio. Remote studios are linked to the mother station by cables, microwave or satellite, offering studio quality sound for radio, and combining sound with vision for TV.

            The scratchy quality of phone lines meanss phone interviews should be avoided where possible. Alternatives are conducting the interview along a studio-quality digital line, going out to record the interview in person, or, even better, getting the interviewee to do the hard work and come into the studio. Use a phone only if you have to, and then keep the recording as short as possible.

            With our earlier telephone interview with the coastguard, a clip of that would be used for the bulletin, and, to produce a longer piece, this could be combined with narrative by the reporter to cut out as much phone quality material as possible. Few listeners will trouble to strain to hear what is being said.

Vox pop and multiple

Vox pop is an abbrevation of the Latin vox poppuli, or ‘voice of the people’. The vox is used in broadcasting to provide a cross-section of public opinion on a given subject. In the USA it is known as the ‘person in the street’ interview.

            The technique is to get a broad mix of opinion and different voices. Alternate between male and female, young and old. Begin and end with strong comments and make good use of humorous remarks.

            Shopping precincts make a happy hunting ground, and one radio presenter was known for his regular vox abour tropical items recorded each week with the same crowd at a bus stop.

            Vox pops work best where the reporter’s voice is kept out as much as possible. A single question should be asked, which is introduced in the cue, and the reporter puts that question to people in turn with the recorder kept on pause during questions.

            Variations in background noise can make editing difficult, but recording and overlaying some of that background sound, known as wildtrack, can cover the edits.

            Returning to our running seafaring story, if the holiday booking season is at its height, our reporter could catch people outside travel agents, and after making introductions ask them:

‘There’s been another fire on a cruise liner, and passengers have had to abandon ship, so how does that make you feel about travelling by sea?’

The multiple interview differs from the vox by taking a smaller number of selected extracts, often drawn from longer interviews and having the reporter link them together. This is known as a package.

            Our ship saga is ideal for such treatment. Excerpts from the coastguard and the ship’s owners could be mixed with comment by the shipping correspondent and glued together with narrative by the reporter.

Grabbed

Our final category concerns interviews that people don’t want to give but which reporters are determined to take.

            These are usually short and may comprise a few brief comments or a terse ‘No comment!’, which is often comment enough.

            Grabbed interviews, also known as doorsteps, are obtained by pushing a camera or microphone under the nose of a subject and firing off questions.

            The grabbed interview usually works best on camera, where, even if the subject says nothing, he or she can be watched by the audience and his or her reactions noted.

            Frequently there are so many reporters that there is no chance to pursue a line of questioning. If you ask even one questions at a free-for-all, you are doing well. Not that it matters a great deal; the melee and persistent refusals to answer add to the sense that here is Someone with Something to Hide.

            Grabbed interviews are often instrusions of privacy. It would be unwarranted to grab an interview with a widow after the funeral or with anyone who is grieving of suffering. Ethically, personal privacy should only be intruded upon where someone’s understandable desire to be left alone runs counter to proper public interest. That could be argued to be true of our captain.

            Sometimes grabbing interviews can do more harm than good. Royalty will understandably take umbrage – they will usually speak to the media by appointment only. Similar rules apply to heads of state or anyone to whom the station would rather not risk giving offence. And as with the adversarial interview, there is always the risk of saying something libellous. Bear in mind that your unwilling subject may be only too happy to find occasion to sue you.