How to Be a Journalist - Interviewing Techniques
Get the Most out of the Interview - Ask the Right Questions
Apr 19, 2008
Always ask the interviewee if she/he minds you using a tape recorder. Take a note pad with you to write down proper names etc. Be a good listener.
Interviewing Techniques - Using a tape recorder:
Often a matter of personal choice. Some journalists prefer using a tape recorder as eye to eye contact is important. It seems more like a normal conversation and the person will often say things she/he might not if you are taking notes.
The best method is to remember everything - but very few people have such good memories. Some write down everything the minute they leave the interview, while it is all still fresh in their minds.
The good thing about taping interviews is that accusations of misquotation can be avoided by playing back the section in question.
Interviewing Techniques - Strategy:
- Plan your strategy carefully. Start with the easy questions first to get them talking about themselves
- If you have been commissioned to write the article, ask the magazine or newspaper beforehand if they have any information
- Don't do all the easy ones first - save some to intersperse with the more difficult ones.
- People find it much easier to tell stories than to give a precise answer, i.e. "Could you tell me something about your village?"
- Try to keep your questions interesting, especially when with someone who is in the public eye and has been interviewed hundreds of times.
Interviewing Techniques - Writing Profiles:
There may be occasions when you will be asked to write a profile about someone, rather than actually having to do a face-to-face interview.
Profiles often contain interviews but they don't have to. Journalists can draw on newspaper clippings, previous magazine stories, books, and anything else that might provide anecdotes or suggest clues to the subject.
Your greatest source of subjects for profiles is newspapers and magazines - all of which can be checked out on the Internet. Don't think that just because somebody has already written a profile of Sally Superstar you can't write one. Read the profile and look for aspects of Sally that were not covered. That could be your angle for writing about her for some other publication.
Almost every newspaper prints profiles regularly. For example, profiles of a football coach, a woman who runs a half-way house for kids, or a local author - local newspapers are very interested in profiles if the person lives in their circulation area.
A good interviewer is a person who is interested in other people and is curious about what makes them tick.
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More articles on how to become a journalist.
