2. • Preparing for interview
• Steps and etiquette required for an interview
• The types of questions
• Identify potential pitfalls in interview
3. How difficult is it to conduct an
interview?
• Interviewing is a skill that comes naturally, but
it can slowly be nurtured
• Personalities make it easier to gather info and
persuade people to offer info/open up
• Others may find it daunting
• There are different styles of interviewing;
confrontational, persuasive…
4. Why conduct an interview?
• To get a quotable info on a subject
• To clarify into already gathered
• To learn more about a person’s habits,
mannerisms and appearance
• To gather colourful anecdotal info on a subject
• To gather background info on a person or subject
• To develop a rapport with a contact
THINK ABOUT YOUR STRENGTHS AND
WEAKNESSES DURING AN INTERVIEW
5. Misconceptions
• Many think that interviewing is the only form of
research for a news story
• Too often stories appear as ‘ONE SOURCE’ stories
– based solely upon ONE INTERVIEW
• How else do you conduct your research?
* Among journalists, particularly in broadcsast
media, TALENT refers to interviewee.
6. 10 stages in an interview
1) Defining the purposes
- you’ve already formulated general reasons why
you might want to conduct an interview, but
what specific reasons can you formulate for
conducting a specific interview with a specific
talent?
- what’s the purpose?
- clearly define your reason for interviewing
someone, or the result may be directionless
with loads of mumbling and stumbling
7. Press release
Govt must extend Cyclone Larry relief deadline
- Read it
- You are about to interview talent arising from
this news release. First you must formulate some
reasons why they should be interviewed. Give 5
reasons…
8. Govt must extend Cyclone Larry relief
deadlineQueensland’s farm lobby has called on the State and Federal Governments to extend the deadline for
farmers to apply for assistance in the wake of Cyclone Larry.
Queensland Farmers Federation (QFF) President Gary Sansom said the 30 June deadline should be
extended by a further three months to ensure all farmers had applied for assistance.
“There are farmers who have been so busy cleaning up their farms that they have not been able to go
through the process of seeking assistance,” he said.
“It takes time to put lives back together again after the disaster like Larry, and to do the planning to make
large financial commitments which could include loans of up to half a million dollars.
“Some officials have been critical of the slowness of farmers to apply for this assistance, but this simply
doesn’t take into account the psychological toll that the Cyclone has had on producers who have had to
cope with so much, including continuous rain, since the cyclone.
“The extension of this deadline is essential for the long term recovery of this region.
“Last month, QFF wrote to the Cyclone Larry Recovery Taskforce and State and Federal Ministers urging
an extension for applications, and calling for changes to the disaster relief arrangements to improve the
process of industry recovery.
9. “We’re very concerned that industry’s concerns have not been addressed and
that scheduled meetings with State and Federal Ministers have been deferred.
“While the immediate response of Government was very positive to the
cyclone, there needs to be recognition that the commitment to recovery has to
be long term.
“Industry has called for more flexibility in the wages subsidy criteria and an
extension from 13 to 36 weeks to help producers to employ workers during the
recovery period when they will be without income due to crop damage.
“It also calls for fodder freight subsidy improvements for intensive animal
industries on the Tablelands due to the failure of the maize and fodder crops. It
also calls for a targeted exit payment to be added to the package for producers,
particularly older farmers who choose to exit rather than rebuild.
QFF will continue to urge Governments to remain focused on the long term
economic rebuilding of the rural industry in north Queensland.
10. Reasons…
• To verify the info outlined in the press release
• To speak to State and Federal Ministers or their
representatives to find out the reasons behind the
alleged deferral of the scheduled meetings
• After gaining the government’s explanation to seek
a follow-up response from Mr Sansom
• To speak to a farmer about the need for assistance
• To speak to a representative from the community
about the effect, if any, the slowness of aid for
farmers is having on the local economy
Before organising any interview, formulate a list of reasons to
give yourself a rationale for conducting the interview and to give
itself some structure and context
11. 2) Conducting a background research
- Before an interview, first research the
background to the talent/subjects involved.
- Don’t ask questions that may waste your time or
the talent’s Eg Where are you from? Instead, ask
which part of London is he from? (if he says West
London, you can ask leading questions like is this
how he started gigging especially with the vast
amount of opportunities?)
12. 3) Requesting an interview appointment
- Telephone the talent, arrange your interview appointment
- Identify yourself, your role as a trainee journalist from HCTV
News, state the purpose of the interview, the subject and
issues you’re covering
- Stress why talent should take part in interview. A reporter
does not have a god-given right to an interview
- Remind talent that everything spoken is on the record
unless specified otherwise
Interview etiquette
*Be on time for the interview. Arrive early
*Dress to suit the interview. What would you wear to interview a
world famous parachutist while skydiving? Or if you’re seeing Obama?
*Remind talent why it’s great for them to take part in the interview
13. 4) Preliminary planning
• Plan the structure or skeleton of your interview
• Write out detailed questions but need not necessarily
question talent. WHY?
• An interview on personality profile will have a different
approach to that on a running political issue
• Be careful not to allow your prep for an interview to
force you to from concrete views on the subject
• BE PREPRARED for off-the-cuff comments which may
change the whole course of the interview
14. 5) Meeting the respondent and conversational icebreakers
- First few moments, you must establish a rapport with the talent
- Before starting, confirm talent’s correct name spelling and the
preferred honorific
- The success of an interview lies on an effective WARM UP period!
- Small talk, the weather, news for the day etc
- Even better – research will reveal talent’s interests and you could use
that if you share the same interests too
- Body language – avoid sitting in high-backed chair behind a desk,
putting your hands behind your head, crossing your arms or legs,
pointing gestures (shows aggression), looking at watch
- Use positive body language – sit at the same level as talent, nod head,
smile (he’s probably even more nervous than you!), open palm gestures
15. 6) Getting down to
business
- Questioning technique ;
open, close, probe
a) Open questions
- Do not require a specific
answer
- They’re normally the main
sources of quotes in the
journalistic interview
- Give talents freedom to move
- Eg How do you see this
situation? What do you feel
are the underlying causes?
Could you tell me what
happened? How do you think
the accident happened?
Attributes of open questions
- Give talents more control over
the interview, making them feel
more comfortable
- Allow talents to express personal
views, more scope for colourful
quotes
- Allow unanticipated info to be
given
- Leave room for the interview to
branch out from the set agenda
16. b) Closed questions
- Closed questions require a
specific answer
- They narrow the range of
possible answers and
focus on a particular point
- Types: yes/no questions,
selection questions,
identification questions
- Eg Did you actually see
the accident? About what
time did it happen? What
was the driver wearing?
How old are you?
Intended to:
- Gather specific info
- Guide the discussion towards a
specific area
- Help eliminate any
misunderstandings of what
answer is required
- Negatives – can be seen as
threatening, cuts short the
interview because the talent
feels that he’s being cross-
examined rather than making a
meaningful contribution
17. • As mentioned earlier, interviews should
start with a preliminary ritual of checking
the correct spellings of names, honorifics
and titles
• This would normally be a series of…….
questions?
• Eg How do you spell your name?
18. c) Probe questions
- Either open or closed questions which
ask for more info or a more complete
explanation of what has just been
- Also known as clarification/probe ques
- Used to help journos gain a full picture
- Clarification: What exactly do you
mean?
- Justification: Why do you say that?
(assertions should not be allowed to
stand alone without justification. Best
quotes is when talent is giving reasons
for a statement)
- Relevance : Why are you telling me this
now? (To be aware of what direction
the interview is taking)
- Exemplification: Could you give me an
example
- Extension: And then what happened?
- Accuracy: Can you be more precise
about the time of the accident?
Purposes
- Promote the gathering
of full info
- Help prevent
misunderstandings
- Clarify points that have
been made
- Show the reporter’s
interest in what has
been said
19. 7) Establishing easy rapport
- Control the interview and still let the talent do the talking
- Conduct face to face interview for better rapport. Although
interviews can be conducted through phone these days due
to tight deadlines
- A good interviewer is a good listener
- Don’t argue with the talent
- Silence can be golden… to keep the talent talking
- Start off with ego-massaging questions and cover subjects
you know about the talent. These are soft questions
20. 8) Now drop the BOMB
- News: Something that upsets someone,
somewhere
- At least ask one sensitive or embarrassing
question
- Be a devil’s advocate
- Use this technique to cover a difficult area
but retain a sense of impartiality as a journo
Eg Some people say you are really not suited
to this position. They claim that you are too
aggressive. How do you respond to such
criticism?
- Make sure it’s painless and don’t alienate
your talent
21. 9)Recovering
- Every difficult question needs a
debriefing or a wind-down period.
- After asking the sensitive
question, DO NOT END THE
INTERVIEW on a negative note
- Re-establish the rapport before
concluding
10) Concluding
- Always ask at the end: Is there
anything you would like to add/
expand upon/ mention that we
haven’t discussed?
End on
a
HIGH!!!!
22. Kick-off the interview with a BANG!
• Shake hands
• Greet, intro yourself, where
from, what are you doing
• General comments/
compliments
• What sort of questions will
you ask?
• The first question should be
an open question, preferably
allowing the talent to speak
on a subject that they’re
intimately familiar with
• Vital to listen to answers and
prepare to depart from your
predetermined course of
questioning
What’s wrong with this?
Q: What are your views on the future
of mankind?
A: Why should I care? I have just
swallowed rat poison. I’ll be dead in
20 seconds.
Q: Uh huh. Okay. I’d like to ask about
your hobbies – do you do any sports?
23. Time management and termination
skills
• Journos work to deadlines. Your talents
however, might not have such constraints.
• How do you stop an interview?
- Set explicit time limits and stick to them
- Withdraw non-verbal reinforcement – stop
nodding your head
- Use closed questions without
probe/clarification
- Praise – will follow up – thanks! Eg That’s all
great info. Thanks so much for your time
and fitting me into your busy schedule. It’ll
be published next week and I’ll let you know
when it’s out.
- Use non-verbal winding up signs, look at
your watch, rise to leave
24. Note-taking / recording
• Do both
• Record and take notes at the same time
• You might not have time to transcribe
everything that’s recorded
• Also writing things down would allow you to
note things based on your senses –
mannerisms, appearances, smell of room etc
25. Think of someone you’d like to
interview!
• Create a scandal or talk about existing
ones -JJ’s NBA hottie coz of scandal /
vampire series producer/writer coz new
movie’s coming out
• Draft INTERESTING questions (3 types)
you would ask your talent!
• We don’t want info that has already been
published!
