Johnny-Depp-on-Larry-King-Special拉里金采访实例分析

陈晶10120班2013年7月1. What are an interview and its importance?The interview is a conversation designed to elicit (or exchange) information on behalf of an unseen audience by asking questions. The interview is associated with special techniques, special relations between the person asking questions and the person answering them, and it also becomes a symbol of journalism.The interview is of great importance because it is one of the most vital means to investigate things, collect raw material, and produce news. Therefore, interviewing is the one of the most basic tasks in journalism.2. How to conduct a successful interview?(1)Be preparedA professional interviewer must have superior preparation before he actually sets out to ask the questions. This means doing some research before the interview. Know your subject, know the issues and know what the public would want to know if they could sit down with the subject matter. The more you prepare, the more you can extend your knowns. With proper preparation, the interviewer will avoid embarrassing moments due to misinformation. Prepare questions： When you are clear about the basic outline of your interview, jot down all possible questions you can think of that related to the topic. Also ensure that your questions are well researched, intelligent, and worth answering. (2) Establish a rapportOnce the interview starts, the interviewer must try to establish a rapport with your interviewee as quickly as possible. That is the key to getting your questions answered. Rapport based on mutual trust forms the essence of the interview. In order to earn trust, you should identify yourself at the outset of the interview and state the purpose of the interview.(3) Ask the right questionsBe clear about the point of the interview: what information, story or evidence it will attempt to obtain, and then develop a set of pertinent questions. Be the ambassador for your audience. Dont forget that your role as the interviewer is to ask the questions that your mass public would want the answer to if they could be in that room. The interviewer can break the ice with general questions, use follow-up questions to better understand a complicated answer and choose to use both open-ended and close-ended questions in order to utilize the benefits of each type.(4) Listen and watch attentivelyLet the person being interviewed feel that he or she is conversing with a friend rather than responding to a list of questions from an interviewer. The more you listen and respond enthusiastically to what the source says, the more you will learn.(5) Be persistentBeing persistent is a crucial part of conducting a successful interview and getting to the truth, especially in the case of a hostile subject. The interviewer may need to phrase the same question several different ways to get the information you need and it means asking questions until the issue is clarified, the situation made understandable for the viewer.3. A Specific Analysis of an InterviewI select Larry Kings program as material for interview analysis. Larry Kingwho was born in 1933, is one of the most famousanchormen in Americanand in the world at large. He started hisLarry King Liveshow on CNN in June 1985, hosting a broad range of guests from controversial figuresto prominent politicians and leading figures in the entertainment industry, often doing their first or only interview on breaking news stories on his show.On June 29, 2010, King announced that after 25 years, he stepped down from his nightly job hostingLarry King Live. However, he stated that he would remain with CNN to host occasional specials. Larry King Special: Johnny Depp was one of them, which was aired on October 16, 2011. On February 17, 2012, CNN announced that he would no longer host specials.Larry King Special: Johnny Depp opened up something about Depps fame, his family, and his famous friends. Plus, there was a tour of his private office, full of personal memorabilia and his paintings. I am going to do the case study in accordance with the following aspects: preparations, the opening, ways of asking, types of questions and impressive parts. In addition, I will point out the features of Larry Kings interviews.(1) PreparationsUnlike the best interviewers, Larry sometimes appears to skimp on research. He is known for his general lack of pre-interview preparation, and he also proclaimed that he prepared as little as possible for each program. Larry has ever said that “If Im too knowledgeable, Im not a good interviewer. For example, Im a baseball freak, so I know a lot about baseball. But Im not a great interviewer of baseball people because the knowledge impairs me. ” It is true of this interview. Throughout the whole interview, you will find that most of his questions are follow-up questions rather than questions he planed before the interview. More than that, Larry is fond of the sentence structure “somebody told me” I pick up some sentences that used such structure.Eg1: Marlon Brando told me that one of the problems is when you get very well known is theyre observing you.Eg2: Allen Alda told me once that he doesnt like giving autographs because he feels it demeans the person asking for the autograph. Eg3: Paul Newman told me that any successful person in any field who in discussing their career, doesnt use the word “luck is a liar.”Eg4: Burt Reynolds used to say every day he goes up and says to the camera, “ Love me today.”Owing to Larrys rich experiences and knowledge, lacing some pre-interview preparation does not affect the quality of his interview. Whereas, I have to say good preparations make for successful interviews. Interviewers should know background of the interviewee before going into an interview. Interviewees are more likely to relax and open up when they feel that they are talking to interviewers who speak with knowledge and authority. In fact, I hold that Larry actually did some research before the interview, though not so much research. Otherwise, how did he know things mentioned in the following extracts.Eg5: Larry: You and your sister are very close, right?Depp: My sister, yeah, Christies my best friend in the world. Shes alwaysshes whatshes kept me alive since I was a little kid.Larry: So you were family oriented early.Depp: Hmm. Very much so.Eg6: Larry: You have Indian blood, right?Depp: Yeah, yeah.Larry: What tribe?Depp: Well, I was toldbut you know I was always told it was Cherokee, you know, growing up and the stuffmaybe Cherokee, maybe Creek, I dont know exactly, you know.In these two extracts, we can see that Larry did some research on Depps family, like his sister and his Indian blood. By doing so, Larry gives Depp an impression that he knows Depp very well, which can help him to establish rapport with Depp. As a result, Depp would be more likely to talk with Larry.(2)The OpeningBefore the interview starts to face the audience, a comprehensive description of the invited distinguished guestJohnny Depp, is given on the screen. After that Larry and Depp turn up. Larry King gives the introduction of Depp and completely deletes all the greetings and then directly to the conversation. Eg7: Larry: Hes one of the biggest stars in the world. One of the most acclaimed actors of our time. Tonight, Johnny Depp, the man who rarely grants interviews, sits down with me, and opens up about his fame, his family, and his famous friends. Plus, well goon a tour of his private office, full of personal memorabilia and his paintings. Its all ahead on this Larry King Special- Johnny Depp. Eg8: Larry: Were sitting here in Johnny Depps office. An office like none I have ever seen. And later weve got a chance to Well talk about that a little later. Larry: You dont do many things like this. So do you not like to be interviewed or?The extrat7 is a short introductive video which gives the outline of the entire interview. It is general and looks much like a summary of the interview. From the extrat8, we find that Larry omits too many detailed greetings and directly entered into the topic. From the opening, we get a general idea that the interview would cover the following context: Depps fame, his family, his famous friends and his opinion on the release of the West Memphis Three.(3)Ways of askingThere are two main ways of asking questions - directly and indirectly. Both have the same meaning but interviewers useindirect questionswhen they want to bemore polite,more formalorless confrontational. As far as I am concerned, unlike many American interviewers, Larry King has a non-confrontational approach. That is to say, friendly and harmonious atmosphere is the salient characteristic of Larry King program. After watching Larry King Special: Johnny Depp, it is easy to find that most of questions asked by Larry are indirect. As I mentioned in “preparation part”, Larry is fond of the sentence structure “somebody told me” This pattern of asking is an indirect way of asking. The following extract well shows how Larry uses this way of asking.Eg9: Depp: As Marlon said, he hadMarlon had the best definition of acting that exists, you know. He said, “Its a strange job for a grown man.” And thats it.Larry: But he (Marlon) called something else that people in the business got mad at. He said it on our show. He called it “lying for a living”.Depp: Right.Larry: And most actors say that theyre not lying.Depp: Mmm.Latty: Did you think that was an unfair expression?Depp: I think its totallyI think its totally right. Yeah, its lying. It is lying. Why wouldnt it beYou can make it lying, you can make it not lying. You know itsYou can find your own truth but its still a lie. The opinion in Marlons quotation is more or less offensive to the guest: because Depp is also an actor. The subject of the quotation is Marlon, whichindicates that it is not the host, Larry, but Marlon is responsible for the view of “lying for a living”. On the basis of this offensive opinion, Larry further raises a question through an interrogative with second personal pronoun “you”.Larry asked “Did you think that was an unfair expression?” By doing so,Larry leaves room for Depp to argue against the opinion in the quotation.Another example is given below.Eg10: Larry: Do you like being other people?Depp: Yeah, I do. I do because Im fascinated with people, I mean, Im fascinatedI like to watch people as an actor, in terms of job, the necessity is the ability to be able to watch people, to observe, to be an observer as a journalist, you know, to observeLarry: Marlon Brando told me that one of the problems is when you get very well-known, is they are observing you.Depp: That became a problem.Larry: So you cantyou are not observing them really.Depp: Yeah, exactly. Now that becomes a problem. You become the focus of others. So therefore youyour ability to observe is taintedyou know, its a little bititschanges quite radically.In the extract10, Depp explains that he likes to be an actor because actors need to observe just like journalists. Once again, Larry uses a quotation from Marlon to refute Depps viewpoint. In such an indirect way, Larry signals thathe is re-using the words of Marlon and ingeniously avoids a direct confrontati-on with Depp. For Depp, he is unlikely to be enraged and decline to answer the questions.From both extract8 and extract9, we can see that indirect way of asking is an effective way used to raise an offensive question and Larry is fond of using it.(4)Types of questionsThere are totally 93 questions in this interview. In terms of type of questions, 18 of them are open-ended questions, 30 are close-ended, and the rest are follow-up questions. In addition, among the 45 follow-up questions, 15 of them are open-ended, as a result, 30 of them belong to close-ended questions. To reframe those numbers, Larry employs more follow-up and close-ended questions than open-ended questions. While one thing need to be noticed is that Larry applies all types of questions in order to utilize the benefits of each type. I intend to analyze two extracts in terms of types of questions. Eg11: Larry: Ever turned down something you regretted? Depp: No.Larry: No? Depp: Dont regret anything, no. Everything that I turned down wasit wasweirdly it was more important what I turned down than what I accepted, in terms of films.Larry: For your own happiness?Depp: Mm-hmmLarry: So even if it became a hit.Depp: Yeah. Pirates was a complete accident, you know. I mean, Piratesprior to Pirates of the Caribbean, you know, the first one in 2003, that was aI mean I had been essentially known within the confines of Hollywood as the, you know, as box offices poison, you know. So you know, basically I built a career on 20 years of failures. In this extract, Larry uses a close-ended question as an opening question to shift the topic“Ever turned down something you regretted?” Depp answers the question very quickly with a simple no. And Larry follows up with “No?”, in this way Larry challenges Depps answer as well as a confirmation. After Depps answer, Larry guesses why Depp doesnt regret. And then Larry goes on asking “if it became a hit?” Throughout the extract, Larry employs guessing and interrogative strategies to further explore the real answer. One answer leading to another question until Larry determines that he has the information he needs.Eg12: Larry: What do you make of finally the release of the Memphis Three? You got involved in that battle?Depp: MmmLarry: We did a whole show on it.Depp: Yeah.Larry: Why did you get involved?Depp: Because I knew immediately, you know, when I first And the more research I did, the more people I spoke to, it was absolutely apparent.Larry: Did you have anybody say, “you know, Johnny, go out on a limb” on a thing like this?Depp: Oh yeah. Yeah, a lot of people.Larry: What if they did it? Gonna look bad.Depp: There was that kind of thing, yeah. But I just knew. I just knew, you know. IIt was justIt wasugly and raw deal from the get-go. Damien Echols on death row for 18 years, 10 years in isolation, you know, for a crime that he did not commit.Larry: You think Obama should pardon them?Depp: I mean it would be wonderfulI think hes probably got a few other things on his mind at the momentIn extract12, Johnny opens up on the release of the West Memphis Three.Firstly, Larry uses an open-ended question plus a close-ended question. The open-ended question is designed to prompt Depp to give a narrative responds. According to the answer, Larry can explore Depps attitude towards the West Memphis Three. And then Larry asks why he got involved. Following up with Why? can help Larry get specific information and a lengthier answer on this question. It is said that Why? is the greatest question ever asked. The next two are still follow-up questions, besides, the last question “You think Obama should pardon them?” is interesting. On the one hand, it attracts viewers attention, on the other hand, it intends to confirm Depps attitude.All in all, Larry is habituated to asking close-ended questions and follow-up questions, and he tends to ask many questions to dig out deeper information. That is to say, he asks the right questions at the right moment and makes Depp volunteer information.(5)Impressive parts There are three parts which give me deep impressions. First one is that Depp still reacts to getting famous. While hes one of the biggest stars in the world and one of the most acclaimed actors of our time, he is a man who rarely grants interviews. He is not used to being famous. Second one comes to his attitude towards success and money. He holds