Task 3 : Successful and unsuccessful interviews

This is an example of an unsuccessful interview, which I got form the BBC podcast, the interview was aired on BBC West Midlands and consisted of Les Ross interviewing Hardeep Singh Kohli. The first aspect that makes the interview unsuccessful is the fact the interviewee, Les Ross is not prepared for the interview he is unaware of what he is going to be discussing with the interviewee as well as what he is to get out of the interview this make him look unprofessional and ill prepared, this can be offensive to the interviewee. Moreover the interviewer is taking in a conversational and laid back manner instead of direct questions and this leads to confusion from the interviewee. He also tired to include humor in the interview making fun of some of the things that the interviewee was saying and this was very different to his serious tone as a result the interviewee decided he was finished with the interview and said ‘its not working for him; and that they should ‘call it a day’ this is a very negative way to end an interview and unprofessional as he was unable to take control of his interview. 

This is an example of a successful interview which was shown on the Telegraph website to go with an article. It included President Richard Nixon and David Frost. The interview in the end lasted 17 hours and shows several aspects of successful interviewing as he is able to use techniques to get the interviewee to open up to him. He uses direct questions, getting to the point as well as open questions allowing Nixon to explain himself.  He uses the rule of three when his question isn’t answered properly he will continue asking until he achieves an answer he feels is honest. This interview especially became very popular, as Frost was able to get an apology form Pr. Nixon for the people of America for his ill thought out decisions when he was in power and as a result was even made into a film.