Ten steps for engaging interviews

Reading, watching, or listening to interviews with other people can arouse different feelings. Some might make you feel inspired, happy, and interested, while others leave you feeling angry or irritated. For the interviewer, the most successful interviews trigger strong feelings in the person being interviewed. The least successful interviews leave the audience bored, uninterested, and unwilling to read, watch or listen to the whole session.

The following tips will teach you how to create interview questions that are interesting for everyone involved.

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Blokk og papir

1. Understand what you are producing

What is an interview? It is a journalistic category including one person (the interviewer/journalist) having a conversation with another (the interviewee). The goal of the interview is to get interesting information that can be presented to the public later. Once the interview has been completed and finalized, it can be published as a video or audio tape or as a written article. Anyone reading, listening to, or watching the interview should get insight into the voice and personality of the person being interviewed.

Ung kvinnelig journalist intervjuer en ung mann
Ung kvinnelig journalist intervjuer en ung mann

2. Who and why?

Who are you going to interview and why? What do you want your story to be about?

You can start with whichever of these two questions you want. Maybe you were told to interview a certain person, or maybe you already have a topic that you want to explore. If it’s the latter, you’ll need to find someone who knows a lot about the subject. For example, the interview format you choose could be a portrait interview. The goal here is to know the interviewee better. Alternatively, you may be putting together a story on a specific topic and need to interview a so-called ‘source’ who is an expert on the issue.

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Blokk og papir

3. Draft an interview agreement

Once you know who you want to interview and why, contact the person to see if they would like to take part. Be sure to explain why you are contacting them, what the interview will cover, and where it will be published. Also let them know if you plan to take photos or record the interview. It’s important that the interviewee gets all the necessary information beforehand to avoid any misunderstandings. This is called being transparent. When you are transparent, you give the impression of being trustworthy, and nothing is better than having an interviewee who trusts you.

Gjøre en avtale over telefon
Gjøre en avtale over telefon

4. Be prepared! 

You need to prepare before an interview. Even the most experienced and professional journalists prepare beforehand. Your preparations should include the following:

Choose your genre.

What type of interview are you going to have? Is it, for example, a portrait or a specifically themed interview? Get to know the genre or theme and think about what is expected.

Identify your target audience

This is actually more important than people think. Once you know who your target audience is, it becomes much easier to decide how to conduct your interview.

Research the interviewee’s background

You’ll need to make sure that you know key facts such as what the person’s job role is, whether they have accomplished anything special, and what exactly they are best known for. You’ll feel much more confident in the interview when you have the facts and it will make the interviewee feel more comfortable as well.

Research your theme

If you are focusing on a specific theme or subject matter, you’ll need to make sure that you have a good level of knowledge and understanding of it.

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5. Prepare your questions in advance

This is an important part of your preparations. It’s not just about creating a list of questions but making sure that you have good, exciting, and interesting questions that will set a higher standard for your interview.

For example, if you’re carrying out a portrait interview with an artist, you don’t want to waste your time asking questions about how many songs they have written or how old they are. You’ll already know the answers to these questions from your research. On the other hand, you should ask questions about information that you could not find during your research. These could include:

“Why did you choose to become an artist?” “What is the most exciting experience you have had?” “What type of relationship have you had with your friends since you became famous?”

The key is to ask questions that you are curious about but also think of what your target audience wants to know. Make sure to write down all your questions, and remember that it is much better to have too many questions than too few.

A common mistake that interviewers sometimes make is asking questions that can be answered with a simple yes or no. Those simply are notinteresting. That is why a good interviewer asks open-ended questions using WH words: who, what, where, when, why, and how.

One good way to put together your interview is to plan the order of your questions, starting with those that are easier to answer before moving on to more difficult questions. Asking the person you are interviewing, “Why did you break up with X?” would not be a good starting point. Questions like these should be saved until you have built up some trust.

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6. Be yourself

Conductiing an interview with another person can seem a bit frightening. After all, you are the person who has arranged it and you are meant to be leading the interview. It is only natural to feel a bit nervous. But remember that if you have done your research, prepared in advance, and have your questions in front of you, you can’t go wrong. If you are feeling a bit nervous or excited, it can sometimes be positive to mention how you are feeling. This is especially true if this is the first time you are conducting an interview. Saying things out loud can do a lot to help to calm your nerves. Finally, don’t forget to smile! A smile can go a long way.

Radiointervju
Radiointervju

7. Take notes and make a voice recording

When someone has agreed to take part in an interview, you need to make sure that they are quoted correctly. The things that they say and tell you need to be correct and not taken out of context. One technique that a lot of people use is to make a voice recording of the interview while taking notes at the same time. This way you can make a note of your own thoughts, gestures made by the interviewee, and their reactions. These can be useful observations to use once you are ready to write down your interview. The quality of your writing will improve by adding descriptions of the person you’ve been interviewing.

Letting your interviewee read the interview once it is over is a good thing to do.  This makes sure that you and the interviewee both agree on the correctness of the information of the interviewee. After that, confirm that you will send them the final draft of the text before publication.

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8. Ask clarification and follow-up questions

Your interview will be more interesting and exciting if you dig a little deeper into the answers that you’ve been given. Two easy questions to use for clarification and follow-up are, “Why (or how) did that happen?” and “Can you tell me a little bit more about that?”. By asking clarification and follow-up questions, you can point out the sections of your interview that are boring or lack depth. This will make your final result better.

9. Create a manuscript

If the interview needs to be written down, this is where the job really starts. As long as you’ve prepared properly, you’ll have a good start. The task also becomes easier if you set up an outline for the manuscript from the start. You will need to include the following:

  • Title: This can be a quote or something that really grabs the attention of the audience from the start.
  • Introductory paragraph: A short but interesting paragraph that includes a hook to help grab the attention of your audience right away.
  • Credits: The journalist’s and photographer’s names along with those of any other participants.
  • Introduction: Information to introduce the person being interviewed or the theme.
  • Main body: Build your story by setting out the items discussed during the interview chronologically.
  • Conclusion: It is better to wait until after you have written out your whole story to write the conclusion. The manuscript may change and grow as you fill everything in, so you will need to adjust your summary and final thoughts along the way.
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10. Write as you have never written before!

Now it’s time to get on with your writing. Follow your manuscript as much as you can, but remember that you can make changes along the way if needed. This is your interview, and you are in charge of how it will develop.

Don’t forget that including descriptions of your interviewee is really useful. Information showing where the interview took place and what the interviewee was wearing helps to set the scene. You want to paint a picture for your readers since they weren’t present during the actual interview. Improve your story even more with quotes and descriptions. Lastly, always check your work and make sure that you’ve included all your key messages and points correctly.

Tastatur laptop
Tastatur laptop

Sources:

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