Interview Style

Interview Style

For any interview there is a style to it, depending on the purpose and the context. For example if you were interviewing a musician you'd use a different style compared to if you were interviewing a politician.

There are 6 styles usually used to interview a person, they are as follows:

1. Hard News is the kind of news often seen on the front page of a newspaper. It is often used in business,political and international news and is seen as news that affects the viewers.  It deals with the important new and is usually direct and straight to the point. The interview on the right is an example of this as it is an interview with a police officer discussing why it's apparently hard for Black police officers to be hired in Norfolk, Virginia.

2. Soft News is news that deals with entertainment, art and lifestyle and is often light-hearted. It usually focuses on the individual and is seen as news of human interest. An example of this would be this video that includes Jamie Oliver talking about the tax thats been put on sugary drinks in order to help tackle child obesity.

3. Entertainment Interviews are often seen on chat shows and are for the viewers entertainment. An example of this would be this interview with Tom Hardy on Alan Carr. The interview is conversational, light -hearted and funny and entertains the audience watching.

4. Investigative Interviews and news are the result of a long period of investigation and research. Investigative news usually get the information by primary sources and will be the first time the story would have been covered by the media. An example of this would be the Stacey Dooley documentary on  the rise of Crystal Meth

5. Promotional interviews take place because the person interviewed is there to promote something. They are linked to entertainment interview because celebrities are interviewed to promote films/a book/album etc. An example of this would be the interview with Matthew McConnaughey promoting his film Dallas Buyers Club.









6.  Combative interviews often include politicians or people who are heavily media trained. It is a rather aggressive way of interviewing or querying people. An example of this would be this Jeremy Paxman with Bill Gates, where Jeremy challenges him on tax.