TYPES OF INTERVIEW:Hard News Interview, Informational Interview

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LESSON 23

TYPES OF INTERVIEW

Broadly speaking there are twelve different types of interview:

Hard news interview

Informational interview

Investigative interview

Adversarial interview

Interpretative interview

Personal interview

Emotional interview

Entertainment interview

Actuality

Telephone or remote interview

Vox pop

Grabbed interview

Hard News Interview

The hard news interview is normally short, to the point, and to illustrate a bulletin or news item. It deals

only with important facts, or comments and reactions to those facts. The hard news interview, as a matter

of fact, aims at getting answers to five Ws and one H.

In case a building is set on fire, the reporter will conduct interviews of those figures who can give him exact

or almost exact information about the incident.

Following questions may be asked:

When did it happen?

What about the direct affectees?

What is the amount of damage?

Where are the injured ones taken to?

Informational Interview

The informational interview is similar to hard news interview, but not necessarily be restricted to main

stories. An informational interview can be about an event, something that is happening or about to happen.

It can also provide background.

Informational interview goes beyond the main point to seek an explanation of the HOWs and WHYs of the

story. They intend to get bit more detailed than short bulletin items.

Investigative Interview

The investigative interview aims at getting behind the facts to discover what really caused the happening of

the events and sometimes what could be done to prevent a repeat of that incident, to get behind the facts

to dig out the actual reasons of the accident/ train collision/ air crash/ the reasons of the reconciliation

between two arch rivals.

Investigative interview might be developed about stories and issues:

Why the team showed poor performance in the match despite having been provided

the

best

facilities and trained by the best coach?

Why the minister resigned from his office?

Why is our film industry not getting up to its feet?

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Why the fire brigade wasn't reaches the spot in time?

Why the tank of the fire brigade ran short of water while putting out the fire?

Adversarial Interview

A kind of interview in which the interviewer gets into a war of words with the interviewee to get his

question answered.

This approach should never be seen to be a head on clash between the interviewer and the interviewee.

Though the interviewer is representing the audience or speaking up on the behalf of the public opinion,

even then he needs not to be impolite or rude while asking questions.

Precautions

A verbal assault on an interviewee might result in allegations of victimization and bias, and if it happens the

public opinion about the reporter may get changed and the interviewee may get sympathies of the listeners.

Adversarial interview may expose the interviewer to the libel suit and the interviewee may drag him to the

corridors of the court. So it is pertinent that the reporter think well before he speaks while he is conducting

an interview.

Get direct but avoid a head-on clash with the interviewee.

The impression of victimization of the interviewee must be avoided.

The impression of biasness must be avoided.

Interpretative Interview

There are two types of interpretative interviews:

A reaction story  It is a response either for or against what has happened.

Explanatory story  This story provides details of a news story. So the interview that is conducted

to get the details of an event, accident or incident is called interpretative interview.

For instance, if a train is derailed causing severe injuries and damage to the passengers the following

questions may be asked from any representative of the railways:

· How will this accident affect public confidence in train traveling?

· What measures will the ministry take to restore the public trust?

Personal Interviews

The personal interview might be a short interview with an important figure of a society about his/her likes

and dislikes, hobbies, pastimes, habits, or a detailed interview exposing personality profile.

In personality interview following areas are normally focused while putting questions:

· Family background.

· Education (Place & degree)

· Why not further study?

· Likes and dislikes

· Favorite dish. Book. Personality. Cologne. Game. Movie. Singer.

· Hobbies ----leisure-spending.

· Any interesting incident, event.

Entertainment Interview

It is a kind of interview in which light things are asked from the interviewee. The only purpose is to

entertain listeners. The person to be interviewed may be an actor making parody of any famous personality

or any real one whose profession is to entertain people.

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Emotional Interview

In this kind of interview an attempt is made to lay bare someone's feelings. Emotional interview lets the

person who was the victim or one of the victims of an accident or event share the personal tragedy with the

listeners.

A heart-stricken women having been saved from earth quake will be asked the question like the following

ones.

What were you doing at the time of earth quake?

What about your kids?

Were they school going, infants or toddlers?

When did you first realize that the quake was going to be horrible?

Were you able to save anyone?

How did you manage to save yourself?

Actuality Interview

It is a kind of interview in which the reporter's voice is not included in the final production and only

interviewee's voice is made to be heard by the listeners. This kind of interview is made a part of

documentary or feature.

While conducting actuality interviews following instructions must be followed by the reporter:

The questions must be:

· Clear not vague.

· Subjective not objective.

Subjective questions: Questions that start with Question words i.e., what, when, which, where, who, how.

Objective questions: Questions that start with helping verbs like is, are, am, will, would, shall, should, etc.

For instance, observe the following questions:

Which areas in Pakistan is child labor more than the others and why?

How many types of child labor are found in Pakistan? What are the government's efforts to curb

child labor?

Remote Interviews (Interviews on telephone)

The personality to be interviewed is not in the city or country and is interviewed on telephone.

While recording remote interview the telephone lines must be checked whether they are clear or not. If

there is a noise problem in the line, try to change the line or wait until it is clear.

Vox Pop Interviews

Vox pop is an abbreviation of the Latin expression vox populi that means `voice of the people'. It is

conducted to obtain diversified public opinion on certain issue. The questions are asked from different

people representing different age groups, races, classes etc.

Grabbed Interviews

It means to interview a person who does not intend to give an interview but the reporter is determined to

take. Normally it is a very short interview and sometimes the potential interviewee comes up with "no

comments". In this case though the interviewee refuses to say anything about the issue but his saying "no

comments" suggests the listeners to get the meaning.

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