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The organic relationship between interviewer and participant allowed the quality of the interview to excel, the interview was informative and flowed well. Pat spoke about his inside view on media as well as his background and personal experiences as a dj and many other job roles in the industry from the age of 15. All frames were and added photos were time well to help the view visualise Patrick’s viewpoint, the interview had a clear structure, and all questions were relevant and open. However, improvements i would suggest in terms of the overall quality of the interview in more engagement from the interviewer, to boost the participants answers such as by asking further to add on questions. Audio framing of cameras The audio was clear and consistent throughout the interview and gave a professional feel with bright lighting and clean background. The framing and angles changed periodically through the interview. The camera was placed to the side of pat to allow him to comfortable and not distracted by the placement of the camera bringing more of an open conversation feel to the interview while still being able to hear and see pat clearly throughout. Content- questions asked Before any questions were asked pat was able to introduce himself and a short insight into his background. The first question asked was “as a former radio presenter, what changes have you noticed in the radio industry” again solidifying pats experience and understanding of the industry, this was a great start as pat was given an opportunity to talk about his views on an open subject henry gave. As well as asking a question henry was able to strategically and subtly adds his opinion as the question establishes there has been changes in radio, creating a positive atmosphere as pat agrees and goes into detail. All henrys question we detailed and open as pat was not given simple or short questions, henry clearly used his own knowledge in the field to ask specific and detailed questions. The final closing question moved the focus to present day and allowed the interview to come to a smooth end. As said previously, what could have enhanced the interview may be more input from henry as he asks to follow up/relevant questions to pats answers.
Evaluation
At first, I wanted to do a story about Bradford City Football Club as they just got a new manager. The idea was to get a few people from the club to give an interview about and then try and find fans around Bradford to give little interviews. I tried to contact the club and unfortunately couldn’t get anyone to interview, so I shelved this idea and started again from square one.
I then decided on the decline of radio after listening to the radio in the car with my friend, and we had a long discussion about how radio isn’t as relevant in todays online media world. This idea meant a lot to me as my whole life I have been surrounded by radio, with my dad being a former radio presenter and being friends with a lot of people in that industry. Radio was also something I really wanted to get into when I was younger and even had a mock radio station in my bedroom that I would release as podcast episodes (http://www.virtualdj.com/podcast/pmulligan/list.xml). It’s safe to say, I am heavily influenced by radio so I thought this would be a really interesting topic and as I had easy access to people to interview it was somewhat of a perfect story for me.
When talking with the person I was interviewing, I found sitting down and interviewing someone fairly easy, mainly because the topic resonated deeply with my personal life and interests. I found myself genuinely intrigued by the subject matter and also keen to delve deeper into the little parts surrounding the decline of radio, and the individual I was interviewing was uniquely qualified to shed light on its decline.
As I was writing down my questions, I realized they were flowing quite naturally. I had spent a good chunk of time researching the topic of radio’s decline and more of its societal impacts. It’s fascinating how it affects not only listeners but also those immersed in the industry and how it has affected their careers in the industry. With all that background research under my belt, the questions just seemed to pour out. I decided to ask questions that I feel would give out the best answers overall and also try to ask the questions in a way where it would seamlessly transition from question to another.
Overall, I think a lot of things went well. I’m really pleased with how the interview turned out visually. The filming was done in a really aesthetically pleasing manner, and the editing work was top-notch. It definitely made the overall look and feel of the video, making it much more polished and professional. When it comes to my article, I feel like I struck a great balance between being informative and keeping the reader engaged. Also, hosting it on a website I created myself added an extra layer of professionalism to the whole news site. I’m also quite proud of how the graphics such as the thumbnails and branding turned out.
As well as things going well, I did struggle with a few things. First of all, the audio during the interview was not at a standard I was happy with. Because of no lapel microphones being available I had to resort to using a boom microphone which was really bad for the environment I was in, as it was a large room and created a lot of echo in the recording. I did try to fix this in post using Premiere Pros audio fixing presets, however there was not much that could be salvaged. I also wished I could’ve got more interviews, however getting interviews with radio presenters such short notice was very difficult to fit into their schedules.
I tried very hard to make sure that my piece was not biased at all. To try and stay unbiased, I tried simply to stay neutral, and instead of involving lots of opinions just stating facts that radio listening is down. However, there is a part of my article where I say “Despite the challenges, some argue that radio is not dead and it’s actually evolving.” This is me showing an opinion, so in a way this is a biased opinion. I set out to be completely unbiased and learned that sometimes within media you have to be biased. For example, during the conclusion of my article I say, “While the decline of traditional radio is real, its complete demise remains uncertain.” which while entirely based on facts, it is still my opinion and I believe without this ending the article would feel a lot more basic and would grab readers attention less. To be less biased in the future, I could add more points from the other side in this case perhaps interviewing someone who heavily believed that radio is completely dead.
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