Definition of Hard news - This is when news deals with serious topics or events that have happened.
An example of an interview that does this is Michael Moore with his documentary film called 'Bowling for Columbine' This is a documentary where the filmmaker Michael Moore looks into why the shooting happened. It could also be classed as investigative news because he investigates into the two shooters and as to why they may have done what they did.
The introduction to Bowling for Columbine was Michael Moore making an account at a bank in America, at which point they give you a free gun, just for signing up for one of their accounts. It starts the film off with people thinking 'Do you think it's a good idea to be handing out guns in a bank?' It gives the audience into the first insight that there is something definately wrong in this town if they hand you over a gun for free. The introduction mainly shows the people of America obsessed with their guns and how they worship the guns and that this is a place where young children grow up, and are constantly seeing guns or hearing about violence in the news involving their own country and so may be influencing them.
Certain towns have certain reputations. In the documentary there was one guy who was put 2nd on a state bomb list just because of the town that he was from and because he owned a book which allowed people to make small bombs. He came from Colorado and this was seen as a state that had a bad reputation for people and their guns. In these towns, Michael Moore interviewed the residents both for and against the guns. One of them was Charles Heston, who lead Pro gun confrences all around America. There were also residents who thought Colorado was a good place to raise their children, even after the Columbine shooting and those who were still scared and affected by that shooting that took place.
Michael Moore didn't really do many interviews, it was mainly him narrating and giving out facts to the audience along with pictures or footage of what people were saying or wars that were going on. There was an example when he used a montage of pictures and captions linked with music soundbites, which were describing how the U.S backed wars and assasinations on people and countries. It was shown because he wanted people to realise that this could be what influenced those two boys to commit the Columbine shoot out. They were two boiys who grew up knowing violence, simply because of the country and town that they grew up in. In 1989, a CIA agent disobeyed orders from Washingtion. He was from Panama. And so because of what he did, they decided to overthrow him by invading Panama, and this resulted in 3,000 casualties of innocent people. The U.S also trained Osama Bin Laden, who later went on the destroy the Twin Towers, making it one of the most well known terror attacks in the world. They also gave millions of dollars to Saddam Hussain, another terroist who they later hanged for terroist attacks. In 1998, America bombs a factory in Sudan because they believe that they are making explosive weapons. They then later find out, after blowing it up, that it was infact a factory making Aspirin. On April 20th, 1999, America dropped the most amount of bombs in one day than ever before in the kosovo war. And so this leads the audience to think that Americans are obsessed with violence, and so like to make everything seem like a threat so that they can cause destruction.
Just one hour after the largest amounts of bombs dropped by the U.S, the Columbine shooting took place, with guns bought from a local store legally and using bullets from K Mart, which have no restricitons as to who buys those bullets. Just 10 days after this shooting, Charlton Heston held a Pro Gun confederation in Colorado, where the shooting had taken place. So still, even after a massive tradegy like the shooting, Americans were still promoting guns to people, therefore inforcing the fact that they are obsessed with guns and violence, and most probably the reason why the shooting took place.
The narration by Michael Moore is done in a serious tone. There is no laughter or light-heartedness in his voice because he is talking about a real life tragedy that took place. However, in some parts his voice does have some sarcasm in it, to show that even he, a fellow American, thinks that some of the people from his country are gun obsessed and he finds it ludicrous. It mainly is narration throughout the whole documentary, apart from interviews done for a specific reason. One of these interviews was to Charlton Heston himself, to ask why he holds his gun conferences to towns who have just had a serious tragedy happen to them. Aswell as the Columbine shooting, there was a young girl of 6 years old who was killed by her classmate, a 6 year old boy, because he brought a gun to school which he had found at his Uncle's house. Just 3 days after this happened, Charles Heston went to the town and held a Pro Gun Conference to the people of that community. It was Michael Moore's turn to then interview him to ask why he did this. He used very suggestive quesitons throughout the interview, such as 'Then why not do this?' He was suggesting that why doesn't Charlton Heston go to other towns to promote guns, rather than to towns who have recently been seriously affected. He also used many open questions such as 'What would you say...?' This way the interviewee can give an open answer and is made to elaborate on their answer instead of giving a simple yes or no.
Before he goes into his main questions though, Michael Moore uses quite confidence building questions so as to make the person whom he is interviewing feel relaxed and comfortable in the environment in which they are and not feel intimidated in any way. However, he also asks serious questions after making them feel comfortable because he wants to get to the point. When Charlton Heston would not answer his questions properly, he placed a picture of the dead 6 year old girl on his front drive, as to make a stand for the fact that she was shot in the face by a gun, a weapon that Charlton Heston promotes.
He summarises his film by pointing out that the Americans think that people such as Marilyn Manson and violent movies are to blame for all the shootings that happen in America. But Michael points out that other countries listen to Marilyn Manson, other countries watch violent movies, and thier killing rates due to guns are miniscule when they are compared with U.S figures. In the UK, 68 people a year are killed due to guns. In Australia it is 65 and in Japan the number is 39, Japan being the home of violent video games. But in America, the amount of people killed each year by guns is 11,127. A much higher figure than other countries. With that, he ends his documentary after stating real facts and figures to the audience, to leave a lasting impression on them.
the purpose of the interviews and the whole film was to enhance the audiences understanding on the subject of the Columbine shooting and all the other shootings that happen in America, and to explain, possibly, why they happened.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jGtAcDefHg
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