Understanding Interview Purposes and Techniques
Interview Techniques
Question Types
Open - Open ended questions are questions that allow the interviewee to answer with a more in depth response than a "yes" or "no" response. This encourages and allows the interviewee to expand on their response and provide a longer answer. Usually these types of questions are used to gather more information about a specific topic or obtain an emotional response from the interviewee, determining their opinion on a matter. Often open questions will begin with the word who, what, when, where, why or how because all of these question starters encourage a much more detailed response than a closed (yes/no) question. Open questions may not always be suitable for the situation however, as you could ask a question that the interviewee ends up taking a very long time to answer within their response, and they might not necessarily give the answer you were hoping for, or going into too much detail and if the interview is time sensitive, this could prevent you from being able to ask more important questions later on.
An example of an open question is found at 1:15 in the Channel 4 interview with Quentin Tarantino where the interviewer Krishnan Guru-Murthy asks, “Are you very disappointed with some of the responses to the film?” in which Tarantino replies saying that he couldn’t be happier with the reviews and openly expresses his opinion on the matter.
Quentin Tarantino interview: ‘I’m shutting your butt down!’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrsJDy8VjZk
Closed - A closed question is one that only allows the response to a "yes" or a "no" and leaves very little room for further explanation, usually due to the fact that the person asking the question will need a quick response. These questions aren’t designed to obtain a lot of information from the interviewee. Closed questions can be useful to quickly speed along an interview and obtain quick responses, however you won’t get much of an opinion or any detail from the answer.
An example of a closed question is used in the Complex magazine interview with Vince Staples talking about his new album in which the interviewer asks Vince at 6:20 “So before you get to the studio, you’ve already written out the song?”. This is closed because Vince would respond to this with either a yes or no answer.
An example of a closed question is used in the Complex magazine interview with Vince Staples talking about his new album in which the interviewer asks Vince at 6:20 “So before you get to the studio, you’ve already written out the song?”. This is closed because Vince would respond to this with either a yes or no answer.
Vince Staples Talks His New Album, Why Rap Beef Is Corny, and More | The Complex Cover - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bcz9kHpHGfM
Multiple – Multiple questions are ones that are built off of the previous question in an attempt to gain multiple responses on the same topic, usually to help preserve time and built off of what the interviewee has responded with.
An example of the use of a multiple question would be built off of my previous example for the closed question in the Vince Staples interview, where after he asks the question I stated above, he then says at 6:26 “How long does it take to write out [the song], what is the process of writing?”. Here the interviewer has asked two questions to gain a detailed response from Vince, whilst also building off of his previous question.
An example of the use of a multiple question would be built off of my previous example for the closed question in the Vince Staples interview, where after he asks the question I stated above, he then says at 6:26 “How long does it take to write out [the song], what is the process of writing?”. Here the interviewer has asked two questions to gain a detailed response from Vince, whilst also building off of his previous question.
Direct – A direct question is often straight to the point and accusative and force a specific response based on a carefully worded question. For example, an interviewer might ask the person they’re interviewing “Why did embezzle whilst working at Google?” which is insinuating that they actually did embezzle based on accusations made by the media.
Suggestive – A suggestive question is one that implies a particular response, but never directly says it. An example of a suggestive question might be “You embezzled at Google, is this true?” which may subtly prompt the interviewee to respond with yes. It isn’t necessarily an open question where they can provide their opinion and it’s more of a closed question where they might be considered to be trying to avoid the question if they respond with anything other than yes or no.
Interview Styling
Hard News – Hard news is the most common, important and fast-paced topics that are often headlines on the TV, radio and in the newspaper and are strictly factual and there to inform the public. The hard news usually deal with topics like politics, war, economics and international breaking news. It doesn’t always last long but it will cover a lot of information.
Combative – Combative interview style is when an interviewer and interviewee are fighting to argue each of their sides of an argument. You’ll often find that these interviews cover a lot of political topics or economical topics and usually occur when two or more experts are brought in to provide their side of the argument, which can often lead to discussions getting a little heated. An example might be this interview between Milo Yiannopoulos and a Channel 4 reporter where Milo argues the existence of this “post-fact era” that we live in, in which feelings are more important than facts and the reporter argues against this.
Milo Yiannopoulos’ fiery interview with Channel 4 News - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_vDke_nQvU
Light-Hearted/Entertainment – Light-hearted interview is just as it sounds, a more casual and relaxed interview, often with celebrities and activities/games they can take part in and designed to entertain the audience, rather than necessarily inform them. An entertainment interview is usually one to do with news involving celebrities or celebrity culture and various other famous people. This will usually require the celebrity themselves to come on and talk about their lives or something happening to them. So the light-hearted and entertainment styles often mix and coincide. An example of a light-hearted interview might be any interview from the Graham Norton Show as that is designed as a laid-back talk show interview. In this interview, Chris Pratt demonstrates a card trick that he knows in an attempt to entertain the audience during the joint interview that Graham is conducting on his show.
Chris Pratt Knows The Best Card Trick Ever – The Graham Norton Show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy3Mi8rOB3U
Investigative – Investigative interviews are ones that try and obtain more information about a topic or person and dig deeper into the story. Often they will bring in an expert in the field who can explain a little bit more about what has happened, or provide an deeper, more intelligent insight into the topic.
Promotional – A promotional interview is exactly how it sounds, one that has to do with promoting a film, TV show, musical artist or book. A representative of the media in question will be interviewed about what it’s about, who’s in it and when it’s being released. Often these interviews are similar to the light-hearted ones or are part of the light-hearted style interviews so they often coincide in format. An example I found for an entertainment interview is on Jimmy Fallon when actor Aziz Ansari is promoting the second season of his show Master of None and is telling a story about an event that actually happened and inspired a scene in the show, which they showed as a small clip during the interview.
Aziz Ansari Got Stuck a Car Stuck Between Two Buildings in Italy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVm17f9KzGs
Structuring
Introduction – The interviews will usually start off with the interviewer stating their name and naming the interviewee, especially if they are an expert in a certain field. The introduction is never longer than a few seconds, as the main goal is to get on with the interview.
Developmental Questions – A developmental question is one that builds off of the previous question/response to help gain a more detailed answer. These questions help to push forward the interview and are usually designed to make the interviewee a bit more comfortable.
Confidence Building – This is when the interviewer attempts to make the interviewee feel more comfortable and attentive so that when they ask more personal questions, the interviewee feels like they’re in control and are more relaxed to answer the questions to a friendlier interviewer.
Key Questions – Key questions are the main questions of the interview, the ones that are designed to get the responses that the interviewer is looking for to help aid their investigation/news report.
Sound-Bites – Soundbites are short recordings that can be used as part of later news reports. For example, the news story now might be talking about how an actor has just died, then they might use a soundbite from an interview that took place in their studio with that actor a few months ago to discuss their life and use that as part of the news report.
Summary – The summary is right before the wind-up and it is part of concluding the conversation between the interviewer and interviewee. This usually comes in the form of one final question asking the interviewee to summarise their responses, or give an overarching, broad opinion on the topic to conclude.
Wind-Up – The wind-up section of the interview is the when the interviewer attempts to wrap up and finish the interview, usually due to time pressure, or because all of the questions have been answered to their interviewer’s satisfaction. The wind-up usually comes in the form of thanking the interviewee for their input, (regardless of how the interview went) stating their name one last time and passing back to the main news reporters or back to the major headline.
Communication Skills
Building rapport – Building rapport is the direction the interviewer will usually want to take things whilst confidence building, as they attempt to establish a friendly and calm relationship with the guest. On shows like Jimmy Fallon, Conan, Graham Norton etc. this often leads to the guests appearing on the show multiple times throughout their career as they have established such a good working relationship/friendship together
Active Listening – If the host/interviewer is actively listening to the person they are interviewing then that person will feel a lot more comfortable and eager to talk about what they’ve been asked. They will usually show that they’re actively listening by responding directly to the interviewee’s response, and building upon what they’ve said to form another question. This shows clearly to the interviewee that they are listening and taking in everything that they’re saying.
Body Language – Good body language is important for the interviewer to maintain. If they are both seated during the interview, it helps for the interviewer to be sitting upright, and usually leaning forward towards their guest as it helps to show that they’re engaging with what the guest is saying. If you see a host/interviewer slouching in their chair and looking around the room, it is evident that they aren’t paying attention or that they’re bored by the situation. The way you present yourself is incredibly telling of your mood and also your feelings toward someone, so it is imperative for the interviewer to be engaged and sitting upright. This is especially important on TV as you are able to see the interviewers, whereas on radio or newspaper (unless in pictures) you can’t.
Telephone Techniques
Gathering Information – Gathering information over the phone may be important for news reporters who wish to know more about a particular person that they might want to interview. Usually this technique is used to obtain background information on the topic or person that the news are reporting on in place of actually interviewing the person, they can simply phone them to get the information they might need for that news story.
Obtaining Comments – Obtaining comments usually involves gaining short sound-bites/quotes from a particular person of interest to use as a part of a news report. This is more common with newspaper reports as they often will conduct the interview over the phone for a quick comment, then they can create a transcript of the interview and print it in the paper.
Purposes of Interviews
Research – Researching a topic/person is one of the main reasons for an interview to take place. If a reporter is trying to research the background of someone or a subject matter, they might interview a professional/expert in that field over the phone to gather more information from them. For example, in the Netflix show The Keepers, whilst investigating a 50+ year old unsolved murder case, the two main investigators involved phoned up the police asking questions about any information they might have on the murder and whether or not they were allowed to see the case files.
Enhancement of audience understanding (informational) – When an interview is presented to enhance the audience’s understanding it usually comes in two forms: informational and interpretive. The informational purpose is when a news report uses an interview that helps to relay information to the audience. These interviews aren’t designed to draw an emotional response or seek an argument/viewpoint on a subject, but rather just gather information from the interviewee (usually an expert/professional in the subject field), present the information as it is, and relay it to the audience to improve their understanding of a topic. These sorts of interviews will usually take place on a news report on TV, though could also be part of a radio broadcast too.
Enhancement of audience understanding (interpretive) – Similarly to the information enhancement of the audience’s understanding, the interpretive purpose is there to help the audience further understand a topic however in this case the information presented from the interview isn’t necessarily factual, but rather opinionated. The interviewee is usually there to provide insight into an event that occurred, and provide their justification of it or opinion on what happened. There are usually multiple sides of the argument presented so that the audience are able to draw their own conclusions from it. This is again often found on TV in news reports rather than newspapers or any other media platforms, though it can be part of a radio broadcast.
Expressing or explaining opinion/Justification - The channel 4 interview between well-known interviewer Jeremy Paxman and leader of the labour party Jeremy Corbyn that took place on May 29th this year was intended to express/explain an opinion and give Corbyn a platform to justify his manifesto. This interview aired on channel 4’s news channel as part of the ongoing news story regarding the UK 2017 general election. Paxman was interviewing Corbyn about the topics and policies that had gone into the labour manifesto and why some of Corbyn’s core believes hadn’t made it into his party’s manifesto. This interview was a chance for Corbyn to explain his opinion on certain policies, and justify why some had made it into the manifesto and why some hadn’t.
Jeremy Paxman interviews Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KllymYee9AI
Emotional (audience insight) – The emotional insight interview is used to give the audience insight into the feelings of the person being interviewed. Most likely you will find these interviews on TV shows because they help to show emotion in the person’s body language and facial expressions aswell. Emotional interviews don’t necessarily have to depressing or upsetting, as it can also range from prideful, uplifting or angry. The structuring and question types will vary based on the kind of emotion portrayed in the interview. For example, Jimmy Fallon interviews Patton Oswalt about the recent passing of his wife and how grief has affected him in weird and surprising ways. This interview gave the audience insight into how Patton was dealing with life without his wife with him, making it a rather emotional and upsetting interview, despite Patton’s attempts at seeing some lighter sights of it.
Patton Oswalt Speaks on Dealing with His Grief: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raTFmtun0Mc
