Below is an interview between Sky News' Eamonn Holmes and Ryanair's CEO Michael O'Leary. I have chosen this interview as an example of formulation, bias and how to cleverly answer difficult questions.
In this interview there is formulation, more so from the interviewee, Michael O'Leary.
The interviewer, Eamonn Holmes projects a bias during the interview insinuating that the reason for Ryanair's increased profit is down to the fact they provide an extremely poor service. Holmes sets the tone from the very onset of the interview by, almost sarcastically, suggesting "I'm going to speak to a very polite man now in the London Stock Exchange." Before we even see the interviewee, the interviewer has subtly hinted to what lies in store through his irony.
Michael O'Leary throughout the interview takes aspects of what Holmes has said and uses them to suggest that passengers fundamentally want cheap flights and to arrive on time, which is what, O'Leary claims, Ryanair offers. When Holmes, suggests that he could spend Ryanair's profits on "a special lounge for the passengers", O'Leary swiftly dismisses it by suggesting "Our passengers don't want to be delayed in lounges, they just want to get on the plane and go." By competently dealing with the negative aspect of the question first, O'Leary sets up his answer to finish with the slogan, "People don't want to spend all their money on other airlines being delayed they want to come to the low fare airline thats always on time."
Holmes uses conversationalisation on numerous occasions, most notably when using the term 'My bits' to describe what he brings with him on a plane. "Let me tell you about my bits, I have my newspapers, my magazines, my I-pad." and when referring to the nets on the back of the seats for placing such objects he raises his voice to say 'You haven't got them on your plane anymore.' Holmes is nearly breaking from the public tone of voice associated with a news reporter, this could, perhaps, show he is a man of the people, he cares, and this is possibly how they would react if faced with with the Ryanair Boss.
O'Leary addresses the question by suggesting that Holmes, has this problem because he has become accustom to private jets and a 'rockstar' lifestyle. O'Leary continues by suggesting "The good news is people tend to take their papers with them so we have to spend less time cleaning on turnarounds. . . so we can welcome more rockstars on Ryanair." O'Leary sidesteps the issue by dis-associating Eamonn Holmes from the people and referring to him as a 'Rockstar'.
Interestingly Holmes, later starts using animated body language and words such as 'We' to suggest he is still a man of the people. Through his actions he re-enacts how "of course, we've got to put all these things into coats and waist coats."
O'Leary, interestingly, responds in turn by using an animated tone and clenched fist himself as if he's representing the viewer's voice "Oh this is a very clever way, we're breaking the Ryanair rules". The interviewee's sarcastic response undermines the interviewers animated body language which, as a viewer, could be seen as a patronising dumbing down in the first place. O'Leary again has disassembled Holmes question to set his reply up with the punch line "if you show up in a yashmak covered in books, you'll still be welcome, you'll always be welcome on Ryanair Eamonn."
By his clever replies and his un-ashameable plugs, the Ryanair boss has ensured that the interview has become an exchange of banter as opposed to a serious interview. Whether this was the intention of the interviewer is hard to say but when Holmes says " I admire you because the more you treat people like rubbish the more people love you, the more money they spend, it is incredible." He categorically confirms his bias against the Ryanair boss.
The effort of both, interviewer, and interviewee to come across as men of the people, through the use of words such as "we" and animated tone of voice and body language suggests that both are conscious of the perceived social context of the 'targeted audience'. In this example, the target audience being the combined demographic of people getting ready for work and stay at home parents, potential customers of the "low fare airline thats always on time."
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