- Interviews from the New York Times Magazine (handout)
- Gathering Additional Information: The Interview (pgs. 522-524 in your textbooks)
Choose one of the interviews from the packet to analyze. What do you think is the interviewer's agenda? (In other words, what truth is she trying to uncover?) Does she succeed in bringing this issue to light? How, or why not?
(Please post your response in the comments section below.)
The interview I chose was After The Beer Summit I thought the interviewer's agenda was to see who Henry Louis Gates Jr. is behind the scandal and to show readers he is a normal person. I thought the interviewer did succeed in bringing this issue to light because during the course of the interview Henry Gates relayed some private information about his life and they seem to have had lots of laugh.
ReplyDeleteIn the interview made to HL Gates, seems to me that the interviewer chose that character by the fact that he is a controversial person who does things to draw attention. The aim of Deborah was to discover if the real purpose that Gates had to make his series was "to inform" or "make a sensational show." I think Gates was very convincing when he established "I use celebrities to attract an audience so we can teach people about genetics and genealogy” … I really believe that this is his aim, and I consider it very interesting and educational. So, I think Debora brought it into light, in other words, she succeeded in defining the main interest of Gates for undertaking this series. Otherwise, Deborah was also proposed to obtain Gates’s version about the mishap that occurred between him and James Crowley. She set out to get the version from the lips of the protagonist and she "intelligently" introduced the issue on the agenda. As can be seen she also achieved because he talked about it and explained to her all she wanted to hear. She again questioned whether the mishap was yet another attempt to boost his popularity and received what I consider “a sincere answer”. Finally, she concluded with a question related to the original topic. I can affirm Deborah succeeded in getting to know what Gates had in his head, which, in my opinion, was not doing things to attract publicity.
ReplyDeleteI think the Solomon's agenda for Family Man is to find out about the history of Family guy and how it became one of the popular shows. The interviewer doesn't succeed in bringing the secret to light. Instead the interviewer strays from questioning Family guy to random questions. At the end of the interview, she even asks personal questions to Seth MacFarlane. And his tone of voice seems annoyed in sarcastic way..
ReplyDeleteDeborah Solomons agenda in interview OUT OF AFRICA was to find some information about Nigeria, she does a good job but the whole interview didn't exactly follow on one topic, it moved from Nigeria to the writer than back to the present and past of Nigeria, but mainly whole interview was about Nigeria, the problems that the country is facing.I think Solomon did do a good job in finding the main problems of Nigeria.
ReplyDeleteNina:
ReplyDeleteIn the interview "Family Man" Deborah Solomon covered at least two issues:
- The quality of the show and its text in particular: the interviewer builds her questions with a color of criticism by expressing her disaproval of the quality of the jokes. She gives concrete examples that demonstrates her well preparedness for the interview and at the same time doesn't leave a chance to Seth Macfarlane to evade the direct answer.
- The interviewer also raises the question of the influence of the politics on TV and the problem of the media bias.
The conversation doesn't has a logic structure -Deborah jumpes from the harmless questions of personal character to more serious issues that brings the effect of unexpectedness and uncovered interviewee's weaknesses.
In Youth Quake, Deborah interviewed Michael Cera who is an actor in well known Movies such as: Superbad and Juno. Deborah wanted to find out about his Canadian background. She stealthily asked questions about politics, about on set his movies and then changed the subject to his Canadian descent. She basically wanted to find out who he is as a person other than acting. She uncovered it, making him tell her about his lifestyle, his personality through asking a question about a book he wrote, and telling his insight as an actor through a experience of getting a broken nose and a concussion.
ReplyDeleteIn family man, solomon interview seth macfarlene , creator of telivison sitcom Family guy.Solomons agneda for this interview was to ask seth how family guy has become so popular and how its had a impact on socitey, But throught the interview the reader cannot grasp that concept because solomon goes off track and even starts to ask seth person questions about his life.
ReplyDeleteThe interview I chose was "Out of Africa" I thought the interviewer's main point was to address issue facing Africa and the cause of it and findout the life lived by the author interviewed and to show readers with as much copies as his book sold the sucess rate living in Africa was nothing and the need to move to the Americas. Deborah Solomon did succeed in bringing this issue to light because she spoke about the success of his book, the life in Africa now and before, and the need for him to have to be in the Americas.
ReplyDeleteThe interview I choose was the one with Seth Macfarlane, about the television series Family Guy. What do you think is the interviewer's agenda? I believe the interviewer’s agenda was to shine a little light on such a controversial show such as Family Guy. The can seem at sometimes racist, and insensitive. She explains that when she questioned him on the comment about being black and the other comment on women being raped and killed. It may seem very controversial, but I think this interview was about giving its creator a chance of showing the public the shows innocence and bring out the humor of his characters on his show. I believe her attempt was valuable, but these issues are so touchy and sensitive a person would have to have an extreme open mind about it. If not, I would say a mature/ older audience would not understand and would be highly offended about such a show. She attempts to make character references from such shows as The Flinstones to compare the two shows and maybe even appeal to the older audience. She also helps out with this tense subject by putting some of her own humor in the article and giving a little background information on the creator of the show. Overall I believe she made a good attempt on tackling this issue.
ReplyDeleteAn interview is a conversation between two or more people the interviewer and the one being interview where questions are being asked. The types of questions maybe suggestive because the interviewer is trying to obtain a particular type of information in most instance. This is a great way to get a first hand opinion and insight on a particular topic. Reading some interviews from the New York Times by Deborah Solomon has proved very useful while others not so much. Interviews on a hold can be fruitful.
ReplyDeleteIn one of the interview done by Deborah in particular I see a strong political point this is the one title big man on campus. It was really funny because never once have I sat down and analyzed the tone of an interview before. I read the interview and if I get something of substance I get it and if not I don’t it was probably interesting for other reasons. Having to sit and really read for a mean was kind of hard for me actually, or maybe it was her style of interviewing. The interview asked opened ended questions meaning that the person being interviewed could respond in any fashion they found fit. This is what I got from it.
Some of her questions weren’t even question more like statement that you could add a comment to. If I’m interviewing I about life with cancer for instance I will ask you question in the field of walk me through of a normal day in your life, how many times a week do you do kemo therapy, ect. I’m sure that a person would be clear that I’m, one talking to a person with cancer and what I’m trying to find out. I got from her just a conversation in some of the articles, like if you and your co-work bump into each other at the coffee machine and you strike a convo. The interviews titled After the Beer Summit and Big Man on Campus was the easier of all the rest for me to follow. The first was just as it was title what’s been going on in your life after the very publicized event, and he spoke about his relationship with the arresting officer and his show on PBS.
The other was talking the president of a college campus and why he makes what he makes is it a fair and is it an accurate payment system. If I was to guess the other interview are trying to delve into the lives of the people she’s talking to I guess to know them a little better, such as in the interview with Michael Cera in the interview Young Quake. She has a stern yet comforting way to her interviews she is straight forward and to the point sometimes she jumps out of now where with her question but there may be a method to her madness its possible she is trying to get them comfortable with her. It also shows how much power an interviewer has if it’s done the right way. She is entertaining and funny overall I enjoyed her interview style.
The interview that i choose is family man I think in this interview Deborah Solomon did good job in covering the most important issue but also i wanted to say it's her style of taking interview that she almost always trying to asks about the personal life of interviewed person.
ReplyDeleteI think in this interview she keeps asking question that in the end of the interview the interviewed person looks like tired of question but she provide the reader with most important information that reader needs from this topic.