Interviews are crucial for news reporting and can take various forms, including informative, opinion, and feature interviews. Key guidelines for conducting interviews emphasize preparation, courtesy, and clarity in communication, while also focusing on essential elements of news such as conflict, immediacy, and significance. News must remain accurate, unbiased, and relevant to the public, incorporating emotional elements and maintaining a concise and clear presentation.

1. WRITING THE INTERVIEW Chapter 3

2. Two thirds of all news stories in print are produced through
interviews.
The reporter is not always present in the scene of an event – a
fire, a plane crash, a scientific experiment going on or in a policy
making assembly so that he has to get most of his facts by asking
questions from eyewitnesses or from participants.

3. What is Interview?

4. An interview is an art of asking questions to obtain
information. But technically speaking, it is asking
questions to obtain opinion, ideas or special information
on topics of interest to the general public from a prominent
person or from a recognized authority.

5. KINDS OF INTERVIEW
1. Informative Interview
An informative interview is conducted to obtain some
information from a person responsible for a new idea. He
may have made news or have participated in a news event
like witnessing an airplane crash or discovering a new cure
for cholera.

6. 2. Opinion Interview
An opinion interview is conducted to obtain opinion. What does
the source think, for example, of the proposed autonomous form of
government, or of the parliamentary form of government that some
congressmen are proposing?
3. Feature Interview
It is also known as “profile interview”. It is a newspaper article
that explores the background and character of a particular person (or
group).

7. TWO TYPES OF FEATURE INTERVIEW
1. Inquiring-Reporter Type
The reporter asks the same question from interviewees he
selects at random.
2. Symposium Type
The reporter asks specialists in a given field one question
or related questions.

8. DO’S AND DON’TS IN CONDUCTING AN
INTERVIEW
DO’S
1. Know your subject thoroughly and jot down exactly what
questions you want to be clarified.
2. Know your interviewee – his habits, strengths, opinions on
the topic, achievements and even weaknesses.
3. Make an appointment and be there ahead of time. Be
prepared to listen, and take brief notes when advisable.

9. 4. Introduce yourself again even if you have an
appointment. Always be courteous in requesting
clarification, and be friendly and be grateful for
concessions like the repetition of an explanation you are
getting down verbatim, and for being allowed to tape his
explanation and etc.
5. Offer to show him your write-up before its publication.
6. Respect “off the record” comments.

10. DON’TS
1. Never demand. Request and say “Thank you”.
2. Don’t react unfavorably to whatever he is saying. Even when asked, be
a neutral if you cannot honestly agree with him. Remember, you will write
down his answers, not your ideas.
3. Don’t hesitate to request repetition or clarification of anything not fully
understood.
4. Don’t take everything down, abbreviate long words and use only key
words for main ideas.
5. Don’t over stay.
6. Don’t postpone writing your notes. Do as soon as you get out of the
interview room.

11. GUIDELINES TO OBSERVE DURING THE
INTERVIEW
1. Be interested in what your subject has to say. Show it.
Give him importance. Don’t interrupt while he/she is
talking.
2. Don’t talk too much yourself. Your views are not
relevant except to pump out information and to stimulate a
lively conversation. However, be sharp. Your subject may
only be using you as a vehicle for propaganda. In this case
question him.

12. 3. Positive questions are preferred than negative or rambling
questions.
4. Take notes unobtrusively. Some interviewees get
frightened or bored with reporters who take down everything
they say.
5. Get your subject’s name correctly spelled, his/her middle
initial, address, age (but do not insist if refused), occupation
and etc. – anything that is relevant to your story. It would be
very embarrassing to return for these after you have left
his/her office.

13. GUIDELINES TO OBSERVE IN WRITING
THE INTERVIEW
1. Correct all grammatical errors and awkward sentences made by the
interviewee unless they are necessary to reveal his/her personality. In
doing this, don’t change the interviewee’s meaning.
2. Make the quotes clear and compact.
3. Avoid any reference to yourself unless needed.
4. To avoid monotony, don’t use “he/she said” many times. Use synonyms
of said like remarked, stated, concluded, stressed and etc.
5. Use noun substitutes like, “the speaker”, “the principal” and etc. to
avoid overworking the interviewee’s name.

14. ELEMENTS THAT MAKE A NEWS
News is an oral or written report of an event that
happened, is happening, will happen in the North, East,
West or South that is of interest to the reader and should
be reported.
News is a timely report of events, ideas, or situation
interesting or significant to the public.

15. ELEMENTS OF NEWS
1. Conflict
This may involve physical or mental conflict such as man versus
man, man versus animals, man versus nature, man versus himself.
Stories of war, athletic meet and journalism contests are examples of
conflicts.
2. Immediacy or Timeliness
This element emphasizes the newest angle of the story. The more
recent the event the more interesting it is to the reader.

16. 3. Proximity or Nearness
This may refer to the geographic nearness as well as to nearness of
kinship or of interest.
To a Filipino reader, news about cholera epidemic in Asia concerns
him more than the same kind of epidemic in Europe, unless he has
relatives in Europe. Again if two news stories – one about the results of
the NCEE examination and another about the result of the bar
examinations both appearing on the same page, a graduating fourth
year student will read first the former because the nearness of interest.

17. 4. Prominence
Some people are prominent than others by reasons of wealth, social
position or achievement. The assassination of former senator Benigno
Aquino hugged national and international headlines for many months.
Prominence may also refer to places or things.
5. Significance
Whatever is significant to the life of an individual is interesting to
him. This is the reason why newspaper sell like the proverbial hot cakes
when news of the increase in the price of oil, or of the imminence of
war is published.

18. 6. Names
Important names make important news. Also, the more names there
are in the story, the better.
7. Drama
This adds color to the story. The more picturesque the background
and the more dramatic the actions are, the more appealing the story is
to the reader. The public certainly loves a good show. Anything that
moves the reader to tears or to laughter is good news.

19. 8. Oddity or Unusualness
This refers to strange or unnatural events, objects, and places. An
odd story is interesting not because its news value but because of the
human-interest side of it. Consider this: A dead man comes to life,
finds himself in a coffin, sits up and dies of heart attack.
9. Romance and Adventure
The romance of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton had hugged
headlines for many years. Romance may be experienced also with
nature. There was the romance of Hemingway with the sea and the
astronaut and space.

20. 10. Progress
The onward and forward march of civilization or the progress of a
country is chronicled step by step in the newspaper. The trend today is
towards development communication. Reports on the significant
changes in the established order and on scientific achievements are in
order.
11. Animals
Stories of animals especially those with talents are good reading
matter because of their human-interest value.

21. 12. Number
Sweepstakes numbers, vital statistics, electronic results, scores in games,
casualties, fatalities, prices of goods and ages of women make good news.
13. Emotion
All the other elements of news mentioned above appeal to the emotion.
But the term emotion here includes the various human responses such as the
innate desire for food, clothing, shelter, animals and nature, and the natural
feeling of love, sympathy and generosity, of fear, hatred and jealousy.

22. CHARACTERISTICS OF NEWS
1. News consists only of actual persons and events with nothing invented.
2. News is designed to inform or explain.
3. News doesn’t take sides; often it presents action without explaining the
motivation.
4.News may be uplifting, enlightening, instructive or merely entertaining.
5. News must be of interest to a number of people.
6. News must be accurate.
7. News must be timely.
8. News is concise and clear.