Interviewing for television: A forgery of practice and influence

Abstract

An examination of television interviewing in Kenya provides an emerging sketch of its practice and theory. This Chapter considers television interviewing at three levels that it considers as prioritized by the times - interviewing at the change frontier site, interviewing on behalf of bio-change beings that Kenyans have become, and interviewing with pollen grains of theory in journalism and consequent echoes of its outcome. The Chapter considers three case studies of interviewing in Kenya - the presidential debate, live field reporting and TV opinion polls.The Chapter concludes with a sketch that also suggests certain claims - that television as a medium has not risen to its natural place because it's cameras are not focused on the space of great needs of the people particularly at the change frontier; that moving to a high value question interviewing and a treatment of interviewing as a full-fledged production is a fresh and a rich depth offer for viewers; and that the television interview is a critical forgery of rhetoric in a change thirsty society.