ABSTRACT
The interview is an intimate conversation between journalist and politician wherein the journalist seeks to take advantage of the garrulity of the politician and the politician of the credulity of the journalist. News is often too immediate to allow detailed research, and news items are frequently too brief to warrant an in-depth approach. Longer interviews are more frequently the province of national speech-based stations and current affairs departments. Many regional TV newsrooms will produce a daily half-hour programme that takes items of nearer three minutes’ duration. A common criticism of broadcast news is that it is shallow, tending to polarise issues into black and white for the sake of simplicity by removing all shades of grey. There is a trend among politicians and celebrities to refuse to give interviews unless all the questions are agreed in advance. Only cave in to that kind of blackmail if there is absolutely no other way to get them to talk.
