20. The Art of The Interview

• What are the main steps of taking an interview?

• What types of questions can a journalist use when taking an interview?

• What difficulties can a journalist face when taking an interview? How can they be overcome?

• What makes a good interview?

1. Research the background. Try to find an information about the source – from friends, secretaries or co-workers.

Plan an interesting question to start the interview. This question should interest the source. Prepare other questions. Think over what kind of information are you hoping to get from this source. Plan questions, that you want to ask.

Check your tape recorder, pens. Dress appropriately. And arrive on time, of course.

So, you meet the source. Firstly you need to follow some etiquette. You need to start interview with introductions – who you are and why you are there. Be friendly. Than you can start with the interesting or basic question. Don’t forget to use follow-up questions.

Make pause for a few seconds between questions to let the source elaborate.

In the end of interview ask summary questions. When you have finished the interview, thank your source.

2. There are 2 types of interview questions: closed-ended and open-ended. You need both. Closed-ended are good for getting basic information. For example, these are closed-ended questions: How long have you worked there? Who was at the meeting?

Open-ended questions are designed to elicit quotes, elaboration or long responses. Usually they start with what, why and how.

3. Recorders can break, and machine can fail you. Also tape recorders can’t pick up any observations – a smile… So you should take pens or pencils.

Maybe, the source don’t want to answer your question.

You can write down some names not correctly. So ask the source to spell them.

4. You should be a good listener. Concentrate on what the source is saying now, not on what you will ask next. Your next question will be better if you hear the answer to your last one.

Base you next question on the last sentence.

If you don’t understand what the source is talking about, ask him to repeat or to define the meaning. «How?», «Why?» «Please, explain» and «I don’t understand» are good follow-up reporting questions, based on good listening.

Listen with your eyes. Is the source showing sights of nervousness or laughing at some point of interview?

Be polite. Try not to interrupt the source.

If you right down the interview, make eye contact.

21. Первый вариант 21.

21. The Place of Podcasting in the Field of Contemporary Mass Media

Can podcasting be considered the new type of mass medium?

Yes. It can. Podcasting may count a new type of mass media because it was appeared in digital age, when computers and other digital devises became more popular and available than before. And for this devises were necessary to create new content that could be interesting as much as content of traditional type of mass media.

What advantages over traditional radio does podcasting have?

Main advantage of podcasts over traditional radio is that if you missed your favorite program or you have no opportunities to listen it you may find in the internet (usually it has been posted on radio station`s official websites). It is very comfortable for people who have no time to listen to the radio.

Do you think podcasting will succeed in edging out radio? Prove your point.

No, I think it won`t edge out radio because podcasting available only in web. Traditional radio will keep on exist because it is part of traditional type of media the same as print or TV. I think it should be more interesting to listen to the radio program on air than in recording.

How can podcasting be used?

It can be used for learning foreign languages, for example. You can use podcast if you have no opportunities to listen your favorite program on air.

А вот второй вариант 21 билета:

21. The Place of Podcasting in the Field of Contemporary Mass Media.

• Can podcasting be considered the new type of mass medium?

First of all we should decide, can podcasting be considered the new type of mass medium, to understand the rank of podcasting in the Field of Contemporary Mass Media.

Here are the definitions of mass media in different dictionaries.

Macmillan dictionary characterizes “mass media” as something that communicate news and information to large numbers of people.

Collins dictionary says that it is the means of communication that reach large numbers of people in a short time.

Wikipedia summarizes that Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies that are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication and also to the organizations which control these technologies.

So, most dictionaries point out such features of mass media as accessibility, availability to a large amount of people and ability to give information.

Podcasting is a relatively new phenomenon. It is available to people, who have devices, supporting Internet-connection. Now the amount of the Internet-users is about 2,1 billions, so nearly every third person in the world has an access to the World Wide Web. We should take into consideration that the most popular medium is television, according to the survey of Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. Television is suitable for usage for people of all ages, while the Internet is used mainly by youth and middle-aged people. The term podcasting is derived from "pod" from iPod, which stresses that most people listen to podcasts on iPods or similar devices. The amount of users of Apple production in America, according to CNBC, is nearly half of the population. And the amount of Apple-users is growing day after day in the world. So, we can make a conclusion that the audience of podcasts consists of young and middle-aged people using Apple-devices or similar ones, which gives opportunity to download the necessary podcast and listen at any time. That is a wide range of people, so we can speak of large-scale participation (the ability to occupy large audiences) in connection with podcasting.

The next question is whether podcasting gives information to people. Of cause it does! Moreover, there is a wide range of different topics of podcasts, and you can choose which you are interested in most: politics, business analytics, news of cinema and theatre, arts, interviews with famous writers, etc. The information can be new of actual at present. So we can call podcasting the new medium, as it contains the main features of classic mass media.

• What advantages over traditional radio does podcasting have?

The main advantage of podcasting is that you can listen to podcasts at any time you want, while programs on the radio go on the air. You can download the podcast on your computer of device and listen to it for several times, play back the pieces that you didn’t catch, stop if you want to have a tea-break of make a call and then continue listening, not missing any point.

Another advantage is that each person, who has anything interesting to share with the world and has necessary devices, is able to make podcasts. If you want to have your own radio-station, you will have to buy expensive equipment and make a license for broadcasting, and that is far not everything.

Victor Agaev, the author and the host of the radio-programs of media company Deutsche Welle, says that podcasting is independent from the advertisers, unlike radio. For example, you can’t tell that you saw a rat in an elite restaurant because you advertise it. Podcasting, like everything provided with help of Internet, is freer from censorship. So it can observe such topics that cannot be observed on the radio owing to ethic or political reasons. Podcasting is useful in investigative journalism because you can provide all facts not being afraid of worsening the relations with advertisers or with the law.

Some programs can’t go on the air because the topic can be actual or interesting only for narrow circle of people, and most radio-stations are intended for mass audience. If such programs go out on the Internet in the form of podcasts, they will soon find their listeners, as the catalogues of podcasts and special search engines (such as iTunes, Juice, Doppler) have an easy-to-use system of navigation.

We spend a big part of our live on the road – going for work, home or somewhere else. We can listen to the radio in the car or in the surface transport with help of devices, but we can’t listen to it in the underground. Offline-podcasts can be listened to everywhere.

• Do you think podcasting will succeed in edging out (вытеснять) radio? Prove your point.

Victor Agaev, the author and the host of the radio-programs of media company Deutsche Welle, says that radio is dead, but that is not clear only for deaf and radio-journalists. Many famous radio-stations think how to survive. “When will radio die? Optimists say that nothing revolutionary is happening, it is a normal process of developing of radio. Pessimists affirm that radio will die in 4 years. The former director-general of BBC Mark Thompson supposes that in few years radio will not be able to exist without the Internet or will be entirely absorbed by the Web”. But people who make podcasts should think about the ways of getting profit. Podcasting is becoming popular mainly because it is free. According to the survey of the Research firm Ipsos Mori, only 53% of respondents in the UK said they would be interested in downloading podcasts containing advertising if they were free and only 31% responded positively to the idea of podcasts without adverts that had to be paid for. It means that people who make podcasts will have to make a new business-model if they want to get money for their work.

Podcasting as civil journalism can face the problem of low quality of presentation of content. Making of podcasts and sharing them with the audience is available now nearly to everyone who has Internet and a microphone. So a podcast can be made not only by professional journalist, but also by a student or a house-wife. So there will always be people who will prefer high-quality information to amateur version.

In conclusion, I should say that radio won’t be replaced by podcasting as TV and newspapers weren’t replaced by the Internet. The system of buying information through the Web is not full-blown. That’s why it is less profitable to work in the Web-project then in the classic mass medium and to get income with a help of Web-media. But we see the trend that all classic mass media have analogs in the Web and there is a stiff competition between them. I think that this trend will remain in the future, but the radio won’t be finally edged out by podcasting. Moreover, there is no legislation in the sphere of new media, so it is easy to infringe copyright. That’s why we can say that publishing podcasts along with writing articles or posting videos in the Internet is remaining a thankless work somehow. While there is less cases of copyright infringement in classic media.

• How can podcasting be used?

First of all, podcasting can be used for spreading information. It can be fresh news, financial or exchange reports, lessons of foreign language or interviews with famous people.

Podcasting as a mass media can be used as means of propaganda and exchange of opinions. Ideas can be simply stated or imposed on mass.

There are several types of podcasts: audio-, video-podcasts and screencasts. It gives an opportunity to use podcasts in your professional sphere and studying. An overview of new production can be made, for example, an overview of new smart-phone with detailed characteristics of its features – weight, design, diagonal of the screen, camera, resolution, built-in memory, etc. It is sales promotion. One can also promote his business, publishing weekly podcasts about the news and developments of his industry and taking interviews of famous people in his industry or potential clients. One can publish that podcasts on the Web-site of his business, making it interactive. If one finds a proper person for an interview, it is possible to find a sponsor for his podcast. One can also share the interview with other people, letting them spreading and sharing it, but with indication of the name of author.

Screencasts is a new phenomenon that made teaching people through the Internet easier. The essence of screencast is to log the actions of a person on a computer screen with help of special program. It is ideal for explanation of using computer programs.

A new UK study suggests that podcasting can be used to grow audiences of radio stations that embrace podcasting. Research firm Ipsos Mori has found that 15% of respondents said they listened to more live radio since they began downloading podcasts, and 39% said they were listening to radio programs they did not listen to previously. Some radio-stations such as Liberty, Deutsche Welle, Echo of Moscow and telecasting station NTV use podcasts along with ordinary broadcasting.

Information from Wikipedia:

Public services

• Unofficial audio tours of museums.

• Official cultural or historic audio tours of cities

• A way for news organizations to distribute audio or video as an addition to their existing text (or mostly text) news products. For example, Wikinews began to podcast its News Briefs in 2005. Companies are also using podcasts as a way to distribute their multimedia news to journalists and consumers through companies like MultiVu. In 2006, the online magazine Slate began textcasting articles to their readers, by attaching a written article to a blank audio file and delivering the content to readers through their regular podcasting mechanism.

• Advocacy. The 5,500 locked out staff (editors, journalists, technicians, hosts, etc.) of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation were podcasting news and other programming during August and September 2005.

• Youth media. Podcasting has become a way for youth media organizations, such as Youth Radio, to bring youth perspectives to a wider audience.

• Public libraries can podcast local publications free of Copyright, offering spoken word alternatives to the visually impaired. Non-profit organizations podcast readings of short-format magazine articles for visually impaired readers.

• Law enforcement. The Chicago Police Department has a free video podcast of its half-hour weekly news magazine called "CrimeWatch," which airs on local TV. It documents community policing (CAPS) success stories.

• Educational Institutions use Podcast for self guided Campus Tour.

Education and academia

Podcasts enable students and teachers to share information with anyone anytime. If a student is absent, he or she can download the podcast of the recorded lesson. Teachers may also create podcasts to be used as a preparation tool for students. This would be pedagogically equivalent to having students read a text before a lesson. It can be a tool for teachers or administrators to communicate curriculum, assignments and other information with parents and the community. Teachers can record book talks, vocabulary or foreign language lessons, international pen pal letters (podcast pals!), music performance, interviews, debates. Podcasting can be a publishing tool for student oral presentations. Video podcasts can be used in all these ways as well.

• Mobile Learning: Podcasting can be categorized as an m-learning strategy for teaching and learning. In 2004 Musselburgh Grammar School pioneered podcast lessons with foreign language audio revision and homework. In the second half of 2005, a Communication Studies course at the University of Western Australia used student-created podcasts as the main assessment item have proven beneficial in early elementary education as well. In 2005 Students in the Write was created for second grade students at Morse Elementary School in Tarrytown, NY. By providing students with an authentic audience, teachers noticed significantly increased motivation to write. Students were also found to improve fluency and listening skills. On the 21st February 2006 Lance Anderson, Dr. Chris Smith (the Naked Scientist), Nigel Paice and Debbie McGowan took part in the first podcast forum at Cambridge University. The event was hosted by the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies.

• Mobile Knowledge Transfer: Podcasting is also used as a further channel in Corporations to disseminate information and knowledge faster and easier. It can be seen as a further development of Rapid E-Learning as the content can be created fast and without much effort. Learners can learn in idle times which saves time and money for them and the organizations. If audiopodcasts are used they can be used during other activities like driving a car, or traveling by train/ bus. A target group often targeted is the salesforce, as they are highly mobile. There Podcasting can be used for sales enablement (see case study) with the goal of having the sales employee aware and knowledgeable on the companies products, processes, initiatives etc. An often used format is expert interviews with statements of experienced role models to bring across also informal/ tacit knowledge.

• Language Learning: Podcasts can be used to both inside and outside the language learning classroom. Teachers can record and publish their daily lessons for students to download to their MP3 players for endless practice. There are also predesigned websites where native speakers publish stories and language learners can response via a comment function. This combines the use of podcast with blogs.

• Journalism Education: School podcasts can be created to expose students to journalism and new-media concepts. Regularly released "news" podcasts can be released by a school group.

• Academic Journal Digests: The Society of Critical Care Medicine has a podcast used to update clinicians with summaries of important articles, as well as interviews.

• Supply Chain Management Education: In October, 2007 Dr Stephan Brady presented his paper on "Podcasting in Supply Chain Education" at the CSCMP Educators Conference. In this paper he outlined how podcasting can be used in and outside of the classroom for enhancing supply chain courses through blended, or hybrid learning.

• Professional Development: Professional development podcasts exist for educators. Some podcasts may be general in nature or may be slightly more specific and focus on the use of interactive white boards in the classroom.

• Religion: Godcasting has been used by many religious groups. Many churches produce podcasts of talks and sermons. Disciples with Microphones provides podcasts relating to the Catholic Church.

• Tutorials: A tutorial on almost any subject can be created as either an audio podcast or video vodcast. Through screencasting, many video podcasts demonstrate how to use software and operating systems.

Entertainment

• Comedy. Comedians such as Ricky Gervais, Stephen Fry and Marc Maron have created some of the most popular podgrams.

• Television commentary. Battlestar Galactica writer and executive producer Ronald D. Moore creates commentary podcasts for each new episode of Battlestar Galactica. Other television shows such as Doctor Who have since followed suit.

• Radio series. Some radio programmes such as The Now Show and The News Quiz allow entire episodes to be downloaded as podcasts.

• As a platform for fan DVD-style commentary tracks (Audio commentary). Enables fans to add their own comments and thoughts to any of their favourite films.

• Sports. In 2005, unofficial podcasts for major sports teams launched, providing fans both in and outside of the teams' direct broadcast areas with on-demand commentary. The Cubscast founders also formed the first city-specific sports podcast network, hosting one podcast for each major Chicago team.

• Pornography. Porncasting and podnography are sometimes used to refer to pornography in podcasts.

• Reintroducing Classical Children's Literature. Podcasts such as Albert Lea Public Library's Classics On-the-Go program bring classical (noncopyrighted) children's literature back to life for everyone to share.

• Fiction. Podcasts like Escape Pod are used to distribute short stories in audio book format. Other podcasts distribute stories in the format of radio drama.

News

• Newspapers. Newspapers use podcasts to broadcast audio content from print interviews and drive traffic to their websites. The San Francisco Chronicle is believed to be the first major daily newspaper to start podcasting using an external website, in Feb 2005. Hong Kong's South China Morning Post was the first to use its own website and the first in Asia, having launched on April 19, 2005.

• Communication from space. On 7 August 20 ng.

• Conference and meeting alerts. Podcasts can be packaged to alert attendees to agendas, hosted roundtables and daily feedback.

Music

• Replacement for live music audio streams. Whereas streaming a performance live over the Internet requires careful coordination of person and machine, podcasting offers the ability to do slight time-shifting of performances and greatly reduces the complexity of the effort. The quality of the program is often higher as post-production adjustments can be made prior to release. For example, programs can provide a live stream of their program, but most listeners don't hear it until weeks later on NPR. Podcasted versions of the programs split the difference, usually coming out a few days after the live program, but well before the traditional broadcast.

Politics

• Politics: In the U.S., both major political parties have various podcasts, as do numerous politicians.

Publicity and marketing

• As a promotional vehicle for an upcoming event, such as Pixar's Cars Video Podcast, which advertised the release of Disney/Pixar's Cars animated feature film with a series of behind-the-scenes clips.

Health

• Health, fitness and wellness resources, both general and specific.

Special interests

• Farm Podcasting makes information available about farming. The term was coined to identify a program that is produced exclusively as a podcast on the subject of agriculture. There are now multiple companies who specialize in farm podcasting and are producing regular programming targeted to farmers and the general public on the subject of agriculture.

Non-traditional and alternative content

• A way for people and organizations to avoid regulatory bodies, such as the British Ofcom, or American Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that would not allow a program to be broadcast in traditional media.