Interviews; The Do's And Don'ts

Preparation

Before doing an interview of any kind it is most important that you have prepared your questions in advance and know who the person is you are interviewing and what the topic that you are going to be talking about will be. It is most important that you know this as the theme of the interview needs to be clear to your listeners.

It is important that you know the name of the person you are going to interview so that listeners know who is talking. It is also good to find out if the person prefers to be called by a nickname as this may make the interviewee feel more relaxed and comfortable.

Types Of Interviews

Informative - The aim is to let the 'expert' explain an issue or event.

Your job is to present the known facts

Challenging - The aim is to get the guest to explain, defend, or comment on an issue.

Your job is to challenge the guest to defend thier stance opinion


Emotional - This is a tricky one to attempt and if done badly can be a disaster. However, if its done well it can be the best kind of interview. Your job is to sensitively and tactfully draw your guest into talking about thier anger, fear, disappointment, grief, disbelief etc...

Entertaining - All forms of interviews should be 'entertaining' in that they keep people interested and listening, but there are some interviews that are primarily to entertain. The topic will generally not be very serious.

Techniques

There are a series of questions that all interviews revert to and use as the basis for any interview...
What/Who/Why/Where and How
The other thing you need to remember is to ask OPEN questions can't be answered with Yes/No.

Typical OPEN questions are;
What is your opinion of...?
Why do you...?

CLOSED questions are;
Do you think that...?
Is it true that...?
Are you happy that...?

Finally make sure your guest feels comfortable and happy to come on air and make sure they are fully aware of what time they need to be at the studio.