Ocean Teacher Class Notes – Interview Techniques
Conducting Successful Interviews
The goal of journalism is to convey a message to a target audience or audiences. Journalism is a creative job. The finished product may be a piece of writing or an audiovisual presentation, but the material presented is a result of the interviews you conduct.Your job as a journalist – and interviewer – is to try to engage an audience with ideas and issues. You create something meaningful from all the information out there in the real world, much of whichwill be incomprehensible to your target audience(s). It is your job in the final published interview piece to convey the desired message(s) in a form that they can understand.
Interviewing Purposes
Interviews that result in written material (as opposed to broadcast face-to-face interviews) are conducted to meet specific writing targets and audiences. These include, for example:
- interviews to gather material for scientific or technical papers, typically conducted with professional staff,
- interviews to gather opinions from decision makers on different issues, often conducted with non-technical politicians or senior managers, or
- interviews to gather opinions from the public, about issues of pressing concern to them, either locally or nationally.
The format of the written material that follows the interview also varies widely, from including the statements or information gathered in scientific papers, to newspapers, newsletters, on web sites (blogs), etc.
Interviewing Techniques
But there is a catchto interviewing –the result is dependent on a total stranger’s cooperation and participation, i.e. the interviewee. While sources of information vary-some people know exactly what they want to say while others find it difficult to express themselves - how you conduct the interview has more to do with the resulting journalistic outcome than any other aspect of the interviewing process. The tips and techniques listed below may help you in conducting more successful interviews in the future.
Prepare your goals (and main questions) ahead of the interview.
You should already know what you want your final interview written piece to look like and therefore what you need from this interview to get your article closer to that goal. Know what questions you will ask and why you are asking them. Be aware of your target audience – what issues are of most interest to them? Approaching the interview knowing what you want to get from it is critical to conducting a successful interview. For example, are you after a report of an event, or an ‘on-the-record’ opinion on some issue (e.g. state of the economy, impact of climate change, etc.), or simply general background on a specific topic from a learned source? However, be prepared to improvise and adapt your questions to the interview as it progresses.
Many interviewees will request a list of questions before the interview, so that they can prepare their answers, especially if this requires access to background information (e.g. statistics, results of reports, etc.) that they would not have to hand or immediately to mind at the time of the interview itself. However, if you are looking for ‘spontaneous’ answers that depend mainly on the interviewee’s opinions, then it may be best not to send a list of questions beforehand. In any case, try to avoid being pinned down by thespecific list of prepared questions if, during the interview, it looks as though this could inhibit the value to be gained from the interview – and the information from the interviewee.
Using interview questions.
Bring prepared questions to the interview. It is good practice to approach the interview with several more questions than you expect to actually have time to ask or explore. This gives you confidence that you will not get stuck for something to say or ask. You never know exactly what question will result in the sort of information you are seeking, since so much depends upon an uncontrollable element of the interview – i.e. what the interviewee will actually tell you!
However, when working from a prepared list of question, remember that asking a question that has already been answered as part of a previous response will look as though you are not paying attention, and this can make the subject feel uneasy and less cooperative on future questions. Some interviewers simply prepare a list of points to discuss, which they use to guide the conversation. Remember that the interviewer cannot always know in advance all of the topics and points that will arise during an interview. A good interviewer needs to be able to develop questions as the interview progresses.
Focus on what is actually being said! Do not hesitate to ask the ‘hard’ questions, i.e. those that an interviewee may be reluctant to answer. These are often some of the most important questions in an interview, and getting an answer to these determines whether the interview is simply average – or incredible!
At the end of the interview, ask the interviewee if there is anything they want to discuss that you have not asked about in the main interview. Also, double-check the meanings of any terms or words they used if you are unsure about them, and perhaps repeat any important facts or statistics.
Find a good location.
If at all possible, chose a place for the interview that has some relevance to the story or your subject. Not only will this offer a further sense of context for the interview, but people are often more comfortable (and open) when they are in a familiar place or in what feels like familiar territory for them. Typically, you would ask to meet at the interviewee’s work place, house or at the location of an incident or site relevant to the story, e.g. a laboratory. Try to avoid meeting at, and conducting the interview at, locations where there will be interruptions (e.g. a busy office), distracting noise (e.g. crowded conference halls) or other distractions. You need your interviewee’s full attention!
Match the interview technique to the target medium.
Interviewing techniques vary for different target mediums. When interviewing for a written interview piece, try to pose questions for which your interviewee can give short(er) and more concise answers, which is easier for taking notes and producing quotes later (if this is one of your goals). Working within your time limits, you can provide conversational links between questions and/or to give your interviewee more time to think of a reply to a question or to expand on it.
When interviewing for audio or video clips, you should try to ask two-part questions which encourage subjects to talk for longer blocks of time. Unless the interview is ‘live’, i.e. broadcast in real time (and therefore has a typically short time frame), you will be able to do some editing later in order to improve the flow of the interview. During recorded interviews (audio or video), nodding and smiling accomplishes the same sort of ‘conversational’ links as with an interview for a written piece, while keeping the resulting interview more focused on the interviewee’s replies rather than your interventions.
Establish a rapport with the interviewee. At the beginning of the interview, engage in some general conversation – about the location, the weather, the event, whatever is appropriate. Do not abruptly launch into your questions. This usually puts the interviewee more at ease. Remember that an interview can be an uncomfortable experience, especially if the interviewee is new to this, so keep things natural and conversational. Instead of mechanically reading out your list of questions, weave your queries naturally into the flow of the conversation.Also, maintain eye contact as much as possible. Nothing is more unnerving to a source then a reporter who never looks up from their notebook.
Manage the flow of questions within the allowed time frame
Interviews are nearly always conducted under time constraints, often as little as a few minutes, especially with busy executives or at conferences, exhibitions, etc. The way in which the interview is conducted is perhaps the most challenging aspect of interviewing, but also the most important interview skill you can develop. Strike a balance between a pleasant ‘conversation’ (which takes more time) and getting the job done, i.e. getting at the facts and opinions that you are after. The former approach may put your subject more at ease and result in more open answers to your questions, but at the expense of losing focus on getting answers to all your questions in a limited time period.
As your subject is answering one question, think ahead about the follow-up question, which may need altering based on the answer being given. Unless you have agreed with the interviewee to pose only predetermined questions (from a list sent to them earlier), do not be afraid to inject a new (unplanned) question into the flow, if that seems appropriate and useful.
The flow of questions should seem natural and conversational. Do not abruptly change to a completely different topic from the question just answered, simplybecause thismay be the next question on your prepared list. Think of, or find, suitable transitions between subjects. Then your interviewee does not feel forced to simply offer “sound bites” because the topics change too often to develop any meaningful replies.
Dare to be annoyingor sneaky!
Be prepared to relentlessly return to a question or topic that you feel has not been properly addressed by the interviewee, even if this seems to annoy them. Sometimes people need time to warm up to you or to the topic or issue. Some will respond better if your question is worded differently. But do not carry this to the extreme where you antagonise the interviewee to the point that they will no longer effectively cooperate on the interview. If a topic becomes too ‘heated’ and you sense that this is happening, probably best to move on to a new, less controversial topic.
Continue taking notes even after the interview is officially over. Sometimes people say the most revealing or intimate things when they feel that they are out of the “hot seat.” If you have not asked for ‘off the record’ comments, or if the interviewee does not say that “this is off the record”, you can use their statements.An alternative approach is to put your notebook or recorder away at the end of the interview and have an informal chat. This is polite and leaves a good impression, and you might be surprised at what additional information flows when the subject thinks the interview is over and is more relaxed.
Empower the interviewee and engage them.
If you do not fully understand the perspective of your interviewee, a food question is “What is your ideal solution/resolution to this issue?” This only works in certain circumstances, of course, but when appropriate it can help clarify the interviewee’s point of view or opinion. Another good question is “Why do you care about this issue?” This can be an effective way to get a strong and emotional quote about why the topic is so important to them. If you are covering an event or result (e.g. climate change), you might ask for the turning point in the‘story’, i.e. the moment when things changed or catalyzed. Also, ask the subject if there are any particular questions they would like you to ask. This can be a very effective way to get the answers or opinions that are important to the interviewee.
Do not ‘over-direct’ the interview. Try not to give the subject too many instructions or be too specific about what you want them to say. In most cases it is better to let them speak freely. Also, do not talk about yourself or add your own opinions on the topic of the interview. Your questions can be long enough to add information or (your) interest about the topic, but the interviewee is who the audience wants to hear from.
Endure awkward silences and ask for what you need.
When a silence develops during an interview, the instinct of many interviewers is to keep chatting away and asking questions, just to keep people feeling comfortable. However, sometimes, especially if dealing with sensitive subjects, you need to ‘shut up and wait’.Ask your question, let the interviewee give you the (possibly) rehearsed and generic answer, then sit there quietly and see what follows. This technique often yields powerful results and new insights that would not have arisen from your original question alone.
When it appears that an interviewee simply does not understand what you are after, it may help to tell them about your interviewing process and what you are after – a quote or better understanding of the issue, etc. Except in cases where it is apparent that the interviewee is trying to hide something or cover up an issue, for the most part people want to be helpful and you just need to tell them how they can help with the interview.
Tools of the trade.
Interviews are conducted in order to gain information about a topic or a specific interviewee’s thoughts and opinions. Being able to record the interviewee’s responses accurately is all important. An old debate among journalists is whether to take notes the old-fashioned way or to use a cassette or digital voice recorder. Both approaches have good and bad points. A notebook and pen or pencilare the easy-to-use, time-honoured tools of the interviewing trade, yet recorders enable you to get literally everything someone says, word-for-word. Deciding which works better depends on what kind of story you intend to tell as a result of the interview. Also, many traditional ‘note takes’ also use a recording device as a ‘fail safe’ means of checking on details at a later stage, when the interview result is being written. Be aware that some people will not speak as openly if they know that the conversation is being recorded compared to simply seeing the interviewer taking notes. Also, if a recording device is being used, it is both ethical – and a legal requirement in some jurisdictions – that the interviewee be advised of this beforehand and in many cases their permission must be gained in advance.
Practice note-taking skills.
An experience interviewer can accurately transcribe a conversation as it is spoken. Practice note-taking skills by transcribing conversations for example from a pre-recorded television news programme, then rewind the tape to see how accurate your notes really are. Practice will aid a slow note-taker when it comes to improving speed and accuracy.To remain focused on the interview, only write down the main points of the conversation when taking notes. There is usually no need to transcribe every word of an entire interview. But you need to capture enough information to be able to develop a meaningful and useful written interview piece. Also, if specific quotes are to be used, from the interviewee, then these need to be transcribed word-for-word.Also consider using a tape recorder as a safety net, but continue to take notes.
Conclusion.
As you gain more experience in interviewing, you will develop your own techniques – those with which you are most comfortable – and successful. Your personality as an interviewer also plays a huge role in how you develop your approach. Some people are simply more ‘outgoing’ than others. In the meantime, use the techniques above to help you get the information you need.
Interview Questions[i]
Most interviews seek to achieve one or more of the following goals:
- Obtain the interviewee's knowledge about the topic.
- Obtain the interviewee's opinion and/or feelings about the topic.
- Feature the interviewee as the subject.
As already stated above, it is important that you know exactly why you are conducting an interview and which goal(s) you are aiming for. Stay focused on questions and techniques which will achieve them.
Do your homework.
You will be expected to have a basic knowledge of your subject, both the interviewee and the topic under discussion. This is especially true when interviewing specialists, researchers or managers in specific disciplines. If you do not know at least something about the subject of the interview, first you will not be able to develop good questions, and secondly, you lose credibility and risk being ridiculed by the interviewee.
Going into an interview, the interviewer must have some basic knowledge about the individual, organization, company, etc. that is going to be discussed or referenced in the interview. Visiting related websites and reading over related press releases can help inform the interviewer, enabling them to ask more hard-hitting, effective questions. If there is no information available in advance, begin the interview by requesting background information, as this will help foster a greater understanding on the interviewer's part.
Listen!
A common mistake is to be thinking about the next question while the subject is answering the previous one, to the point that the interviewer misses some important information. This can lead to embarrassing outcomes, including misquotes or missing important opinions or statements that then lead to confusion – or annoyance – in relation to following questions.