Interview Styles

Interview style is important to understand before conducting an interview as it depends on the purpose and context. In order to get the best out of an interview, the interviewer has to know what style of interview they conduct the interview. There are six different interview styles; they are:

-Entertainment
-Hard News

-Soft News

-Investigative

-Promotional

-Combative

Entertainment:

Entertainment interviews are centred around a celebrity's personal life rather than their current work. Like soft news, it doesn't have any immediate affect on the audience. Entertainment news is purely for the entertainment of the audience and is often found on chat shows like The Graham Norton Show and Alan Carr: Chatty Man. In the example, Liam Gallagher is interviewed on The Graham Norton Show, which is known for it's very laid back interviews that revolve around the guest's entertaining anecdotes and promotion of their latest piece of work. In this interview, Graham asks Liam about the feud with his brother and Twitter as they are two prominent things associated with Liam Gallagher, therefore the people watching will be interested in what he has to say on the subject. It's an entertainment interview because it focuses only on his personal life. Graham Norton asks him open questions, such as "why do you stay on Twitter?", to get as much detail as he can from Gallagher's response, therefore giving his viewers the most gossip and information on the subject.

Hard news:

Hard news is fast-paced news that requires immediate reporting as it affects the audience. Hard news covers topics such as politics, the economy, war and crime. In the example, the current Prime Minister, David Cameron, talks about the riots that had happened the previous day in Manchester and the increasing crime rates. This is hard news because crime is one of the main topics covered by hard news as it affects everyone in one way or another. It is also evident that it is hard news as it has been reported on the morning after the riots, showing that it was a matter that should be dealt with and explained to the public immediately. He asks Cameron closed questions like "'the government have got to listen to the public' and he's not the only one saying that. Are you listening?" The interviewer asks closed questions because he wants simple and direct answers from Cameron as it has to be understood by everyone due to the nature of hard news, affecting the public collectively.

Soft News:

Soft news are typically centred around easy going stories or events, that have no important effect on the audience. Soft news is human interest as people take interest depending on the topic or person interviewed. However, soft news doesn't have to be light-hearted as it can deal with difficult topics, such as the death of someone in the public eye as it will only be news to people who have an interest on the topic. The example chosen is an interview with Rachel Elias, the sister of Richey Edwards. The interview takes place years after his supposed death, in 1995, as the family had now chosen to declare him 'presumed dead'. As it's not immediately after the declaration and doesn't affect everyone, it would be considered soft news. Although it doesn't affect everyone, people who are fans of Manic Street Preachers would want to know as much as possible due to there being so much speculation around the disappearance of Richey Edwards. The interviewer has edited out the questions but we can tell from the interviewee's responses that they were open questions as she explains her answers in detail, thus giving the audience a wider understanding.

Investigative:

Investigative interviews are to inform the audience about a subject after a long period of research and investigation. Investigative news tend to solely be primary research as it will be the first time it is reported on. The example is a clip from a documentary on Irish political party, The DUP, by Stacey Dooley. Throughout the documentary, she conducts a series of interviews to get a balanced argument. these interviews are investigative as it's a subject that has only been briefly touched upon by mainstream media in England so a lot of her research is primary research. The aim of her interviews are to inform the audience on the subject and to allow them to gain enough knowledge on The DUP to form their own opinions about it. She uses open questions, such as "Tell me why you support The DUP", to allow her interviewee to explain her opinions and reasons in detail so the audience have more information. As it's a topic that has rarely been discussed, Stacey Dooley wants her interviewees to respond in a lot of detail.

Promotional:

Promotional interviews go hand in hand with entertainment interviews as its about people in the public eye and often found on chat shows like Graham Norton. The purpose of promotional interviews is to increase the public knowledge on the celebrity's latest album, film, tour etc. In the example, Paul Smith, the frontman of Maxїmo Park, is being interviewed on The Wright Stuff about his band's new album and single, 'Risk To Exist'. This is a promotional interview because the purpose of the interview is to get more media attention on Maxїmo Park's latest album by learning about the inspiration behind the music and it's production. The interviewer sticks to the purpose throughout by asking Smith questions about the inspiration, for example, "Is it the same kind of thread the way through or more diverse?" Although it is worded as a closed question, the interviewer gives him time to respond in detail, making sure he gets as much information as possible so the audience know more about the album and it's release.

Combative:

Combative interviews take place with people who have been media-trained, this means they have been trained to deflect questions they don't want to answer. These interviews are conducted in an aggressive manor in order to get information from the interviewee. The most well known example of a combative interview is with Jeremy Paxman on The BBC. He continuously asks Michael Howard the question "Did you threaten to over-rule him?" as he wants a simple answer despite not getting one due to Howard avoiding the question. This is seen as a combative interview as he is asking a closed question repeatedly to emphasise the importance of the question, that it is continuously unanswered. They are often closed questions as people who are media-trained, often politicians and CEOs of businesses, will not want to answer simple questions and will ramble on to avoid doing so. A combative interviewer is someone who will pester the interviewee till they get an honest response, much like in the example.