Confessional Journalism

Lecture #5

A confessional interview is something emotional, medical, and accidental. Needs to give the reader a reaction, get the reader involved.

The main difficulty is finding a committed interviewee because the interviewee needs to be prepared to reveal a true life experience (something extraordinary).

Confessionals are usually ghost written rather than first person.
There are two styles of this: 

• You write it in subject/victims voice (use slang, colloquial terms, pauses, etc) this is seen in more down market publications.
• House style (publications such as The Guardian) no by-line. Note- keep all emails with commissioning editors for proof that you have written a particular article if there is no by-line.
• Should NEVER be in your opinion.
  

Roughly a confessional interview should last an hour, you would need to use all of this in your final piece but it is just about the right about of time to get a few decent quotes. Recommend asking questions such as: ‘What did you feel?’ ‘What did you say?’ Precise questioning. What we as journalists ask is very important, need to keep things fast and pacey.

The rules are that for news it is written in third person and for interviews is first person. All I,I,I subjects.

Showing copy

• If you are doing a first person interview, it’s only right someone should look at it, not for style but in terms of libel, it’s important for someone to check for any errors. People may want to check it for accuracy. 
• It’s not copy approval it’s using correct facts. 
• Your responsibility is to your readers, not the person you’re interviewing. However you need to keep a good relationship to that person you interviewed incase you need to ask them a few more questions/ request photos further down the line.

Womens magazines

• Confessional articles are very common in women’s magazines
• Not pegged to news
• Human Interest
• When pitching to magazines you need to be sure about what magazine you are pitching to and the style they use. 
• Often in weekly magazines such as Take a break but also in monthlies such as Cosmo
• My battle with ... cancer/drink/drugs/breakups 

Intellectual Confessional

• ‘Guardian Weekend’ – modest, measured style. In their weekend magazine they do an intellectual experience confessional interview. Same style each week.

Journalist Confessionals (new genre, started about 10 years ago)

• Tim Dowling (Columnist in the Guardian. Talks about how he is a rubbish husband )
• William Leith 
• Tanya Gold (Used to be on the guardian, now on the mail. Confessionals on weight and size.)
• Liz Jones she is a Daily Mail fashion editor - her claim to fame was she was the Marie Clare fashion editor. She then started writing a column for the Mail on Sunday about her critiques about her boyfriend. Made a fortune out of being a confessional journalist.
• Liz Jones’ husband

Critics within own papers

·         Jill Parkin

·         Hadley Freeman

Newspapers

·         Classic confessional journalism - headline, stand-first, then a dramatic start and into chronologically (telling the story) then a good dramatic end.

• Pegged to news 
• You get confessionals as a part of a big package of a big news event
• Train crash: survival stories etc

Trade Titles

• They are normally far less dramatic, they are still needed to balance dull stuff within the title
• First person but not confessional

Freelance Opportunities

• Celebrities are controlled by agents
• News agencies/PR agencies (useful to do up and coming people)

How to find a subject for a confessional

Look for ‘victims’

• Medical
• Social
• Support Groups
• Charity
• Internet
• Phone Book (use yellow pages to look up support groups etc)

Case Studies

• Good turn of phrase
• Great pictures/collects
• Attractive/ugly
• Happy ending
• Open, honest, realistic 
•  The subject is so important. If that person is engaging or a good talker, it will benefit. If it’s a good story but they’re not good at speaking it won’t work. 

Who to avoid

• Too vulnerable
• Hoaxers, mental health problems i.e. anorexia (unless they are recovered), people with Munchausen Syndrome by proxy (claims things have happened but they haven’t), confessing crimes. 
• Always check out the facts
• People you know - malice/vested interest
• Your interviewee can’t be anonymous, needs to be named and photographed.

Powerful quotes should be the headline to your interview. A descriptive opening in first person.