Post-match interviews

Post-match interviews

Genre

•       Post-match interviews very much depend on the outcome of the match in hand; if the match goes badly for a team then the reaction from people involved will be very different from if a match goes well.

•       We have watched a post-match interview and this was what we managed to find about the genre

•       The manager is relaxed and shows this through the language he uses and through his body language. He smiles throughout the interview and we see many more emotional verbs and adjectives. I believe this is because he is more willing to show how he feels than an actual player. The first interview however talks much more about the way others are acting or feeling. In my opinion this is to disguise his own feelings about how he thinks his team played. The manager is obviously very frustrated and angry with the result of the game. This sets the tone for a more emotional, short tempered interview.

Contextual factors

•       Genre                   – Post-match interview

•       Register               – Colloquial (may be formal/informal depending on  the speaker)

•       Audience            – Football fans / anyone in the room

•       Mode                    – Multi-modal (video/pictures/sounds) and spoken

•       Purpose               – Transactional / to inform / to entertain (answering  questions)

•       Subject – Football / sport

•       Where?
At home, in the workplace, live on television, online, Youtube, may have been written up in a newspaper / magazine

Modal features

WRITTEN

•       - Durable (video lasts)

•       - Some points may have been planned in advance

•       - May be Formal (manager / figure in a high position within the club)

SPOKEN

•       - Dialogue (2+ people)

•       - Spontaneous

•       - Grammatically simple

•       - May be Informal (player / manager)

Language levels

Language levels depend on the outcome of the game; this is an analysis of a regular post-match interview

•       Lexis
The words used in this interview are more directed towards the actions of others. He describes the actions of a player as ‘disgusting’. The manager in the second interview uses more personal adjectives and describes his team as very good as appose to describing the other team in cynical way.

•       Grammar
The grammar is affected by the person saying it. In football or any other sport people come to play the sport from all walks of life. This means that often in post-match interviews grammatically incorrect sentences are used such as ‘it ain’t good’

•       Punctuation
Because post-match interviews are only spoken we have to assume that the punctuation used is correct, If it was written we’d be able to analyse punctuation in more detail

Discourse features

•       Video

•       Audio

•       Interview is usually linked onto a transcript (however heavy improvising can be made due to player’s/manager’s responses.)

•       Manager’s/player’s response is very improvised and only usually mentally planned at the most.

 

speech analysis

Analysis of speech

I begin the speech by repeating the word ‘Today’ across three sentences following one another. This is both a triadic structure and use of anaphora. I purposefully use these techniques at the beginning to establish a transactional purpose and to entice an audience of college students which would most likely be rather switched off by a more boring speech.

I go on to ask a rhetorical question: ‘causing us to live in an uncomfortable tomorrow?’ I do this to stimulate the audience and make them question themselves on what they do with regards to the question. This will help the audience to understand my point, specifically the word ‘tomorrow’ is important as it brings effect after the anaphora of ‘today’. This will help the audience to understand both the persuasive purpose and formal register.

Later I use an A-syndetic list including the repetition of the inclusive pronoun ‘you’ to drum the reality of the topic into the mind of the audience. I do this at this stage specifically because it is important to the chronology of the speech; the speech is designed to take people on a journey from where they are now to where they could be if they make (what I consider to be) bad life choices. This helps to make the students emotionally engage with the speech.        

My speech

Speech to 1000 students on why to take a non-vocational degree

Today there are 1000 students who are capable of great things. Today there are 1000 students who are studying challenging subjects. Today there are 1000 students who study hard. But why do we sit and talk about today if we make a simple wrong decision causing us to live in an uncomfortable tomorrow?  It’s a question that we will forever struggle to answer but also a question we can eradicate from our sub-conscious mind.  In one year you will face the question of what university course to choose and in a world where 202 million people are unemployed we must choose wisely.

I come here to plead to you to take a non-vocational course; you ace your course, why? Because you don’t want to be part of that statistic. Because you want to provide for your family. Because you are better than that. Picture this, all your life you’ve been a physics genius, you aspire to be an engineer so do a mechanical engineering course. You ace your course and go for a job. You wow the employer with your fantastic grades. However, a big part of this dream job wasn’t covered in your course; your employer has no choice but to employ another candidate.

3 long penniless years pass and finally you get lucky with a job stacking shelves.

Wrong course. Wrong job. Wrong life. All because of that simple wrong decision you made in one years’ time.

Make the right choice.

Choose non-vocational