Oprah Winfrey And Lance Armstrong Interview Analysis

The purpose of this analytic approach toward the Oprah Winfrey and Lance Armstrong interview is to identify the characteristics of interviews. While observing the interview I will be applying the concepts of the fundamental characteristics of interviews, traditional and nontraditional forms of interviewing, relational dimensions to interviewing, perceptions of interviewer and interviewee, communication interaction, listening for feedback and the interview situation. To gather information I looked at the interview online and a transcript provided by Armchair Spectator.

Fundamental Characteristics of Interviews The interview is a dyadic process, which means it is a two party process that involves two people or more than two people but never

This dialogue is the first time he admitted to the use of doping over the 13 years of it being a rumor. After asking the series of yes or no questions she continued with open-ended questions and used the probing technique of questioning. One type of probing question she used was nudging probe, which nudges the interview to reply or to continue. The example of nudging was displayed when Oprah and Lance are discussing Betsy Andreu and she says “if you were to go back and look at all the tapes of things you’ve said over the years about Betsy- He responds “Oh yeah I know, I know-” Oprah then follows up with “ok….” Which leads Lance to give a more detailed answer of how their conversation with. She continues to give him the “ok.” follow up and he continues to show how he

This interview is developed to be on level 3 of interactions. Level 3 interactions deal with more personal and controversial areas. The controversial and personal area being Lance Armstrong’s use of doping throughout his career. He fully discloses his feeling, beliefs, attitudes and perceptions in his responses. This dialogue from the transcript illustrates a level 3 interaction.

Oprah Winfrey: “For thirteen years you didn’t just deny it, you brazenly and defiantly denied everything you just admitted just now. So why now admit it?”

Lance Armstrong: “That is the best question. It’s the most logical question. I don’t know that I have a great answer. I will start my answer by saying that this is too late. It’s too late for probably most people, and that’s my fault. I viewed this situation as one big lie that I repeated a lot of times, and as you said, it wasn’t as if I just said no and I moved off it.

This question like many others Oprah asked required full disclosure of Lance’s beliefs and explanation of why he is admitting to everything now after so many