Genre peculiarities and discursive features of the interview in the contemporary media space

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Vinnytsia Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi State Pedagogical University

GENRE PECULIARITIES AND DISCURSIVE FEATURES OF THE INTERVIEW IN THE CONTEMPORARY MEDIA SPACE

Kiriienko Myroslava Mykolaivna,

Candidate of Philological Sciences,

Senior Lecturer at the Department

of Foreign Languages

Annotation

Purpose. The main purpose of the article is to define the concept of “interview”, and to highlight its main genre modifications and discursive characteristics.

Methods. The research was carried out using certain methods: analysis of lexicographic sources and dictionary definitions, discourse analysis method, and pragmalinguistic analysis method.

Results. In today's conditions, the focus of the philological paradigm on the study of the problems of generation and functioning of multidirectional genres that make up the mass media corpus, in particular, interviews, seems to be particularly promising among linguistic research. As one of the most common types of mass media discourse, the interview plays a significant role in fulfilling a socially oriented task, enabling the audience to receive socially significant information from the source.

The article examines the specifics of one of the most widespread genres of the modern media space - the interview, which plays a significant role in fulfilling a socially oriented task. It is thanks to interviews that the audience receives socially significant information from the primary source.

The article provides a detailed analysis of the formation of the conceptual boundaries of the terminological unit “interview”.

Along with outlining the semantic scope of the term, the author also presents modern approaches to the classification of genre modifications of the interview, which form its main body in journalism.

The author of the article pays considerable attention to the interview as a discursive practice, which is characterized by a peculiar structure, method of organization, and social functioning.

Conclusions. The genre modifications and discursive features of the television talk show mentioned in the article contribute to the formation of a kind of harmonious space, which is an informative and entertaining interaction aimed, on the one hand, at obtaining certain information from the interviewee by the interviewer, and on the other hand, at transmitting this information to the audience orally through the television broadcasting system.

Key words: interview, discourse, interview structure, genre features of the interview, discursive features of the interview.

Анотація

interview genre discursive socially

ЖАНРОВІ ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ТА ДИСКУРСИВНІ ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКИ ІНТЕРВ'Ю У СУЧАСНОМУ МЕДІАПРОСТОРІ

Кірієнко Мирослава Миколаївна, кандидат філологічних наук, старший викладач кафедри англійської філології Вінницького державного педагогічного університету імені Михайла Коцюбинського

Мета статті. Робота присвячена дослідженню поняття «інтерв'ю», його основних жанрових особливостей та дискурсивних ознак.

Методи. Дослідження виконане з використанням певних методів: аналізу лексикографічних джерел і словникових дефініцій, методу дискурсного аналізу, методу прагмалінгвістичного аналізу.

Результати. В умовах стрімкого науково-технічного прогресу провідним типом дискурсу є телевізійний дискурс. Телевізійний дискурс значно впливає на розвиток сучасного суспільства, оскільки формує світогляд його членів. Медіа впливають на сприйняття дійсності і є основним джерелом стандартів і норм поведінки завдяки використанню різноманітних стратегій і тактик мовленнєвого впливу і маніпулювання. Як один із поширених різновидів масмедійного дискурсу інтерв'ю відіграє важливу і значущу роль у виконанні соціально спрямованого завдання, уможливлюючи отримання аудиторією суспільно значущої інформації.

У статті досліджуються особливості одного з найпоширеніших жанрів сучасного медіапростору - інтерв'ю, який відіграє важливу роль у виконанні соціально орієнтованих завдань. Саме інтерв'ю дає можливість глядачам та слухачам отримати оригінальну змістовну інформацію.

У статті також представлено осмислення жанрових особливостей інтерв'ю, окреслено семантику терміна, висвітлено сучасні підходи до класифікації його модифікацій.

Значну увагу авторка приділяє висвітленню інтерв'ю як дискурсивної практики з властивою їй структурою, способом організації та соціальним функціонуванням.

Висновки. Розглянуті у статті жанрові особливості та дискурсивні ознаки телевізійного ток-шоу сприяють формуванню своєрідного гармонійного простору, що являє собою інформаційно-розважальну взаємодію, спрямовану не лише на отримання певної інформації, а й на передачу її аудиторії в усній формі через систему телевізійного мовлення.

Ключові слова: інтерв'ю, дискурс, структура інтерв'ю, жанрові особливості інтерв'ю, дискурсивні ознаки інтерв'ю.

Introduction

Nowadays the cases of using the term “interview” have been identified in various areas. In a broad sense, an interview is considered to be a job interview, a patient interview at a doctor's appointment, an interrogation to clarify the circumstances of a court case, official negotiations, sociological surveys, marketing surveys, etc. Sociology uses interviews as one of the most accurate and objective methods of collecting sociological information based on verbal social and psychological interaction between the interviewer and the respondent to obtain data of interest to the researcher (Sotsiolohiia: pidruchnyk dlia studentiv VNZ, 2003: 512). In journalism, an interview is defined as a verbal communication between a journalist and one or more people to obtain information and meet the information needs of society (Sotsiolohiia: pidruchnyk dlia studentiv VNZ, 2003, 2003). Being widespread in the communication practice of society, the interview as a method is one of the activities by which a journalist collects information.

The diversity of forms and the polydiscursive nature of the interview are reflected in C. Briggs dictum that “the interview has become a powerful force in modern society. From the moment we are born, we are approached by teachers, psychologists, employers, and we listen to interviews on the radio and television” (Briggs, 1990: 1), and is confirmed by the definition in M. McCutcheon's Roget's Superthesaurus: “INTERVIEW - questions and answers, inquiry, press conference, probe, talk, conference, exchange, meeting, dialogue, examination, hearing” (McCutcheon, 2010: 30).

It is worth noting that the genealogy of the word interview goes back to entrevoir (translated from French as “to see a glimpse”) and s'entrevoir (translated from French as “to visit each other”). The first interviews in the history of journalism are analogous to conversations between representatives of the upper social classes at a time when most diplomatic communication was carried out by correspondence.

Semantic notion of interview

The study of interviews makes it necessary to define the semantic scope of the concept denoted by the verbal unit interview. In our research we will turn to its dictionary definitions in English lexicographical sources, because comparing dictionary definitions makes it possible to identify the coinciding characteristics of a word, and the correlation of the scope of concepts makes it possible to determine secondary, but no less significant characteristics along with the actual features. The procedure of definitional analysis also takes into account such an important factor as the degree of identification, since in modern lexicographic practice, interpretations of word meanings are most often given in the order of their importance and frequency of use by the language community.

Various English dictionaries provide from 2 to 4 meanings of a word:

- 1. a formal consultation usually to evaluate qualifications (as of a prospective student or employee); 2.a. a meeting at which information is obtained (as by a reporter, television commentator, or pollster) from a person; b. a report or reproduction of information so obtained (Meriam Webster online, 2024);

- 1. a formal meeting in which one or more persons question, consult, or evaluate another person: a job interview; 2. a meeting or conversation in which a writer or reporter asks questions of one or more persons from whom material is sought for a newspaper story, television broadcast, etc.; 3. the report of such a conversation or meeting (Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary, 2024);

The widespread modern lexical and semantic variant that identifies the interview as a journalistic genre is also confirmed by the Great Explanatory Dictionary of the Modern Ukrainian Language, where it is defined as “a genre of journalism, a conversation between a journalist and a political, public or other figure on topical issues” (Slovnyk ukrainskoi movy v 11 tomakh, 2024).

Theoretical and practical developments on the effectiveness of public broadcasting show a growing interest in defining interview as a type of public dialogue, the social significance of the interviewer, his or her role in shaping public consciousness, and compliance with the requirements and needs of the audience. For example, according to French experts, an interview is “a journalistic initiative that involves questioning a famous person or an anonymous person to find out information, explanations, and positions that make sense only if they are reported by that person, and then to pass on the collected information to a clearly defined audience in the form of questions and answers” (Tekhnika interviu: zbirnyk navchalnykh materialiv, 2003: 12). It is also believed that “an interview is an information genre that is designed to convey the position, view, attitude, assessment, commentary of a key person about an event, situation, or problem” (Chekmyshev, 2004: 112). According to the German researcher Siegfried Weischenberg, “interview records the statements of certain individuals on certain topics, as well as information about the individuals themselves” (Weischenberg, 2011: 64).

Genre modifications of interviews

The genre organization of speech plays an important role in the processes of social interaction: it supports the social orientation of communicators, without which the success of their actions would hardly be possible. Orientation in the goals and forms of communication, in the distribution of social and communicative roles assumed by the genre-organized speech, makes it possible to predict the course of communication, plan it correctly, respond adequately to the communicative actions of partners, and ultimately achieve the intended goals. Thus, according to the objectives, the researchers distinguish: 1) informational interview, which aims to inform about events and facts. Its varieties are operational interviews, street interviews, and blitz interviews; 2) investigative interview aimed at in-depth research of a particular event or problem; 3) portrait or professional interviews, the subject of which can be a person who has proven himself or herself in any sphere of public life and is popular among the general public.

Experts consider a type of portrait interview to be a celebrity interview, which contains a significant amount of personal information and is less informative in terms of social and political significance. This type of interview can be as close as possible to a conversation and include many elements of this genre, but it is always more structured, has a more rigid concept, and is result-oriented, which is reflected in the manner of talking to the interviewee.

Of some scientific interest is the classification of interview according to the degree of formality, where the closest to the norm is the interview protocol, and the least formal is the interview with the stars. Such a criterion acts as a modifier of verbal and non-verbal communication parameters.

Based on the personal characteristics and qualities of communicators, researchers differentiate interview according to the status and role position of the journalist and the interviewee, their social and psychological proximity, represented by two types of interpersonal relations, namely, dominance and equality. Thus, unlike most “celebrity” interviews, in which the interviewer demonstrates “equality” with the star, using the first name and emphasizing their proximity to the audience and “accessibility”, political and protocol interviews are characterized by a communicative situation of “domination”.

Among the main factors that determine the genre specificity of an interview are: the degree of politicization, duration (volume), degree of structure, amount of personal information discussed, level of information containing conflict, degree of national orientation of the interview, degree of straightforwardness of information interpretation, tendency to dominate in communication, conditions for changing the roles of the communicants. However, among the general criteria on which the genre paradigm of the interview is based, most researchers single out the structural and compositional organization: introduction, main part, conclusion, thematic deployment (monothematic, polythematic interview), targeted focus of the interview, verbal and non-verbal (in TV interviews) components of the interaction of communicators, compliance with etiquette norms of communication, compliance with language norms, dynamics of emotionality of the dialogue, interview length, types of speech acts used.

Discursive features of interviews

The linguistic literature also interprets an interview as a special type of discourse that results from the joint linguistic and extralinguistic activity of two or more individuals on a significant topic for the publication in media, with both communicators directing and regulating their chosen communication strategies and tactics in accordance with their communicative goal and taking into account the communicative situation (Chovhaniuk, 2017: 15). As we can see, the analytical procedure for defining an interview from the standpoint of discourse involves taking into account the human factor in the broadest sense of the word.

Some scientists emphasize the communicative specificity of this discourse, namely, double communicativeness because during the interview, two communicative tasks are solved: the first is focused on obtaining certain information from the interviewee and corresponding comments, and the second is aimed at transmitting this information to the audience. As a result, the interviewer performs two communicative roles and is, on the one hand, an interlocutor who participates in a dialog, and on the other hand, a moderator who coordinates the course of communication. As a result of the communicative tasks formulated in the interviewer's questions and the definition of the thematic program with the purpose, they are solved in the interviewee's response by joining rematic cues. Thus, the structural units of an interview are pairs of interviewer's and interviewee's remarks - dialogic unities characterized by close cohesion, a single goal and clear formal boundaries (Chovhaniuk, 2017: 42-43).

The interview as a journalistic discursive practice is characterized by a peculiar structure, method of organization and social functioning and is built in accordance with certain rules. Despite the impossibility of foreseeing all the factors that could potentially affect the interview process, many linguists believe that its course is determined primarily by the socially significant topic and the choice of the participants. The interviewer's questions can be based on a pre-conceived scheme or the respondent's previous remark (the so-called “step-by-step development of the interview”). Unlike print media, which provide for some editing of the interviewees' statements, oral interviews (TV or radio interviews) do not exclude elements of spontaneity and improvisation.

Conclusions

As we can see, the study of interview is inherent in its polyvector nature, since this genre is the subject of keen scientific interest of a number of specialists in the field of philological knowledge. We believe that it is promising to highlight the cognitive model of the discursive practice of interviewing to identify the underlying cognitive mechanisms and determine the factors that influence the informationprocessing process.

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