Magazine journalism – confessional interviews

Confessional interviews are about extraordinary things happening to ordinary people and are usually ghost written.

They come in two styles, in the victim’s voice and house style.

The byline will usually be in the spine of the magazine if it is a more upmarket publication, such as the Guardian Weekend magazine, but in magazines such as ‘Take A Break’ and ‘Closer’, the byline will be in the form of a very short introduction, for example: ‘Person A tells her emotional story to Person B’.

The actual interview should last about 45 minutes, this allows the interviewer to get as much information as possible and lets them have a choice on what to include. These are better if they are done face to face and with precise questioning.

Confessional interviews are the staple of women’s magazines. These magazines are usually weeklies and not pegged to news, but always human interest. The interviews are sometimes about a ‘battle’ against something.

Interviews of this type in newspapers are usually pegged to news, for example an interview with the survivor of a recent train crash. An interview with the survivor of a train crash would usually be included as part of a package, such as a double page spread.

Confessional interviews in trade magazines are less dramatic than in magazines and newspapers, but there still needs to be something exciting that will grab the readers.

How to find a subject for a confessional interview

Look for ‘victims’.

People who have ‘battled’ against an illness.

Go to support groups.

Internet

Phonebook

Newspapers – local and national

The best subjects are those who can speak confidently and will give you plenty of information. They need to be honest and open about what has happened. Try and get someone who will be able to give you pictures as well.

Someone who’s story has a happy ending, for example they got the all clear after having cancer.

Avoid people who have mental health issues, those who are confessing to crime, people with Munchausen’s Syndrome or a friend/relative.

Media Law Year Three - Lecture Five. Copyright

Copyright laws protect other people’s creative content. This includes any ideas in a physical form, for example photos, videos and written work.

The owner of the copyright is the person who creates the content, or the website that the content is published on, depending on the contract of the person who created the content.

Fair dealing

Copyrighted work can be used if it is attributed,  if it is in the public interest for it to be used or the use of it is ‘fair’.

There is no fair dealing law for the use of photographs though, any photos that you want to use must be bought from whoever owns the copyright.

Copyrighted work is frequently used on news programmes, especially when a famous person dies. Clips of the films or TV shows that an actor has been in are shown alongside archive footage. Fair dealing allows these clips to be shown on TV is they are being used it is a news event or for purposes of review and comment. The source of the content must be attributed and only a certain amount of footage can be used.

An example of this was a 2007 BBC News report on the sale of Aston Martin. Clips of the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale were used in the report, but were allowed to be used under fail dealing. The film was due for release on DVD soon after the report, so it also acted as an advert for the film.

Another example is ‘Newport State of Mind’ – a parody of Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ song Empire State of Mind. The parody used the same tune as the original song, but the lyrics were changed.

The video was taken off YouTube for a period of time because of a ‘copyright claim’ by EMI Music Publishing - the company that published the original song. The video was still available to view on other websites though.

The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 says, “There is currently no exception which covers the creation of parodies, caricatures or pastiches”. The use of work used in a parody must be consented, unless it falls under fair dealing exceptions:

• the part of the underlying work is not ‘substantial’
• the use of the underlying work falls within the fair dealing exception for ‘criticism, review and news reporting’
• enforcement of copyright is contrary to the public interest

The Newport State of Mind video fails these exceptions because a substantial part of the original song was used.

Sports broadcasting rights

 

This can be a particularly thorny issue for broadcasters.

Sky and BT currently have the rights to show live Premier League matches and BBC has the rights to show highlights. Any other broadcaster using footage of Premier League matches must attribute the content to the broadcaster that has shown the match live. This means that only matches shown live on TV can be shown and the footage from Sky’s or BT’s coverage can be used.

Media Law Year Three - Lecture Four. Freedom of Information

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows anyone to request (and receive) information from a public body, of which there are approximately 130,000.

The Act also applies to electronic media, including videos and tapes.

There are 100,000 FOI requests a year, costing £34 million.

A public authority must respond within 20 days and a further 40 days if they need to consider public interest.

Journalists only send around 12% of requests.

It was a New Labour policy objective in 2005. The aim was to promote accountability and transparency, helping to further understanding of and participation in the public debate, allowing companies and individuals to understand decisions made by public authorities and to bring light to information affecting public health and safety.

FOI gives everyone the legal right to any information held by public authorities, unless they have a valid reason to not give you the information. You can be denied the information if the cost is more than £600 (or £450 for smaller authorities) and if the information is exempt.

There are two types of exemptions: absolute and qualified. An absolute exemption includes information regarding the security services and courts, they have no duty to confirm or deny that this information exists. A qualified exemption includes commercial confidentiality and ministerial communications.

You could still be given information covered by a qualified exemption if it is in public interest to release it.

Information can be withheld if ‘the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest to release the information’. Some of the other reasons for exemption include if it is likely to jeopardise national security, likely to prejudice defence or international relations, if the information is for future publication, if it prejudices economic interests of the UK, if it prejudices law enforcement, if the information requested is communication with the Royal family.

In a recent development, the government wants to limit groups or individuals making too many requests where they become ‘burdensome’ and lower the limits on costs, leading to more requests being refused.

A cynical review to take would be that the government wants to limit journalists’ powers and limit the amount of information being reported. The other side to this is that with public authorities’ budgets being squeezed, something has to give and FOI requests will obviously be at the bottom of the pile because if services are cut, there will be uproar.

Magazine journalism – pitching to editors

When pitching to an editor of a publication, you must know the style of the publication inside out and the sort of articles that they publish.

The story must be an exclusive. No publication will publish a story that has appeared in another magazine or newspaper.

You must also show that you have access to who you will be interviewing or what the feature is about. The best position to be in is having the interviews already done.

You have to be specific about who the interviewees are and how the article will be structured, for example if you are proposing an idea about the lives of young racing drivers who didn’t ‘make it’ to the editor of motoring magazine, make sure you know exactly what failed drivers you want to interview, even better, have the interviews done.

You must have the article well thought out before pitching, not just the words but also the pictures that will complement the words.

 

When writing a pitch, follow this basic structure:

1: The first paragraph should get the attention of the editor straight away, it should be a summary of what the piece is about.

2: The next paragraph or two are for telling the editor why the readers of the publication will be interested in what you are proposing. If the editor doesn’t think that it will be of interest to the readers, it will be rejected as magazines won’t be sold.

3: Give details of who you are interviewing or have interviewed as well as why. The editor will want to know why the interviewee is going to be important for the article. Coming back to my previous example, there is no point interviewing someone who had a mildly successful career, or even a young driver who had a couple of races at a good level, because it is about those who were never picked in the first place.

4: You should say why the story would get the attention of the reader and how it would suit the magazine.

5: Finish with information about yourself, including work you have done previously and references from editors at publications you have done work for in the past.