One of the key skills that a journalist needs is the ability to interview. An interview is a conversation with a specific subject in order to get their perspective on a variety of topics. There are lot's of different types of interviews, like press conferences (where several reporters take turns asking an official questions) or requests for statements (where a reporter reaches out to a person or company for an official answer to one or two specific questions). This article will focus on the traditional profile interview, which is where a reporter talks with a single subject about who they are and what makes them interesting. The article then becomes an edited and polished broadcast or transcription of the interview.
There are six steps in the interview process: Research, Reach Out, Create Questions, Come Prepared, Talk to the Subject, and Thank the Subject. Let's explore each of these in more detail.
There are six steps in the interview process: Research, Reach Out, Create Questions, Come Prepared, Talk to the Subject, and Thank the Subject. Let's explore each of these in more detail.
STEP ONE: Research
Before reaching out to a subject, you should make sure that they are the right source to help you with your project. This may be easy for a personal project like interviewing a relative, but this is crucial for interviewing people you don't know very well. You should know their basic biographical information--when interviewing a student, for example, you should know their full name, their year in school, if they have any siblings, and the activities in which they take part. For adults, know their name, their occupation, and their education (if an expert). When writing for a periodical like a newspaper, you also want to make sure that you have not featured this subject in a while unless they are a leader or expert you would cite often, such as the principal or the mayor. An important part of having a good list of sources is not to bother them for every article.
STEP TWO: Reach Out
Once you know you have the perfect subject for your story or project, reach out to them and arrange a time for an interview. When you reach out, you need to be clear about two things: what topics you will be asking about, and what you will use the interview for. This includes if the interview will be made public and who the potential audience of the interview will be. This is an ethical concern--if you do not tell the subject what you are doing with their words, the subject can then later have a case to have your work censored if they don't like what you said after the fact.
The best way to reach out is to send a professional email or call. Make sure to ask them for a specific amount of their time; typically, a full profile on a person takes 30 minutes: 5 minutes for introductions and tech set up, 20 minutes of interview and discussion, and 5 minutes for tech tear down. Tell your subject when you need the interview done and when you are available. Give your subject at least ten days notice before you need the interview done, and let them select the time and place of the interview.
The best way to reach out is to send a professional email or call. Make sure to ask them for a specific amount of their time; typically, a full profile on a person takes 30 minutes: 5 minutes for introductions and tech set up, 20 minutes of interview and discussion, and 5 minutes for tech tear down. Tell your subject when you need the interview done and when you are available. Give your subject at least ten days notice before you need the interview done, and let them select the time and place of the interview.
STEP THREE: Create Questions
After you finish arranging your interview, you need to write a list of questions. For a full profile on a subject, you will want to generate fifteen questions: that way you will not run out of things to talk about (it's okay to not use every question that you've prepped).
When you write your questions, you want to be sure of the kinds of questions you are asking. The best questions for an interview are open-ended questions, or questions that requires a detailed response from the subject. Open ended questions are great for interviews because they can lead to follow up questions and more opportunities for storytelling. This also helps you avoid leading questions, or questions stated in a way that you already know the answer ("So would you say that winning state was the highlight of your athletic career?").
Avoid close-ended questions, which can be answered with a simple one or two word answer. Yes and no questions are closed ended and should be changed to open ended questions. For example, if you are interviewing the new town mayor, you wouldn't want to ask "Was it tough running for mayor?" as they can just say yes or no and shut down the conversation; instead, a better question should be "Can you tell me some of the challenges you encountered running for mayor?"
Other important questions to consider are junk questions, direct questions, and tough questions. Junk questions are questions that veer slightly off-topic meant to put the subject at ease--think of these as warm-up questions. The most common warm up question we don't even think of as a question anymore: "How are you today?" While junk questions typically do not make it into the final interview, it's always good to have a couple of junk questions in case the subject isn't very talkative. My favorite two junk questions are "What do you wish you could smell right now?" and "What is the last thing you looked up on your phone?"--these are noninvasive, easy to answer, and can occasionally lead to interesting insights.
Direct questions are questions that have no nuance and cannot be misinterpreted out of context. A question like "What do you think about the Flat Earth Society?" could be answered in a way that dismisses the question ("I think they have the right to their opinion, as we all do in this wonderful free country of ours") while a direct questions--"Why do you support the claims of the Flat Earth Society?"--can only be answered with an explanation or a denial. While direct questions are great for interviews, be careful to not use all direct questions so you don't sound confrontational.
Finally, you should try to avoid tough questions, which are questions that touch on a topic sensitive to the subject that may be emotionally distressing to answer. Sometimes these questions are unavoidable: if you are interviewing the survivor of a mass shooting about the tragedy, you will have to dive into some uncomfortable topics. However, if you are interviewing the school's valedictorian whose twin brother committed suicide, you should not ask something as personal as "How did your brother's suicide affect you?" Instead, ask "Tell me about the challenges you faced outside the classroom and how they affected your academic journey"--if the subject feels comfortable talking about the death of his brother, she will bring it up on her own. If you do plan on asking any tough questions, you must ask your subject ahead of time for permission to ask about those topics.
When you write your questions, you want to be sure of the kinds of questions you are asking. The best questions for an interview are open-ended questions, or questions that requires a detailed response from the subject. Open ended questions are great for interviews because they can lead to follow up questions and more opportunities for storytelling. This also helps you avoid leading questions, or questions stated in a way that you already know the answer ("So would you say that winning state was the highlight of your athletic career?").
Avoid close-ended questions, which can be answered with a simple one or two word answer. Yes and no questions are closed ended and should be changed to open ended questions. For example, if you are interviewing the new town mayor, you wouldn't want to ask "Was it tough running for mayor?" as they can just say yes or no and shut down the conversation; instead, a better question should be "Can you tell me some of the challenges you encountered running for mayor?"
Other important questions to consider are junk questions, direct questions, and tough questions. Junk questions are questions that veer slightly off-topic meant to put the subject at ease--think of these as warm-up questions. The most common warm up question we don't even think of as a question anymore: "How are you today?" While junk questions typically do not make it into the final interview, it's always good to have a couple of junk questions in case the subject isn't very talkative. My favorite two junk questions are "What do you wish you could smell right now?" and "What is the last thing you looked up on your phone?"--these are noninvasive, easy to answer, and can occasionally lead to interesting insights.
Direct questions are questions that have no nuance and cannot be misinterpreted out of context. A question like "What do you think about the Flat Earth Society?" could be answered in a way that dismisses the question ("I think they have the right to their opinion, as we all do in this wonderful free country of ours") while a direct questions--"Why do you support the claims of the Flat Earth Society?"--can only be answered with an explanation or a denial. While direct questions are great for interviews, be careful to not use all direct questions so you don't sound confrontational.
Finally, you should try to avoid tough questions, which are questions that touch on a topic sensitive to the subject that may be emotionally distressing to answer. Sometimes these questions are unavoidable: if you are interviewing the survivor of a mass shooting about the tragedy, you will have to dive into some uncomfortable topics. However, if you are interviewing the school's valedictorian whose twin brother committed suicide, you should not ask something as personal as "How did your brother's suicide affect you?" Instead, ask "Tell me about the challenges you faced outside the classroom and how they affected your academic journey"--if the subject feels comfortable talking about the death of his brother, she will bring it up on her own. If you do plan on asking any tough questions, you must ask your subject ahead of time for permission to ask about those topics.
STEP FOUR: Come Prepared
You have to come to an interview with more than just your questions. First, make sure you are dressed professionally to impress your subject that you are taking this project seriously (even if interviewing a friend, make sure you aren't wearing clothes with stains or holes). You also shouldn't wear sunglasses, as you should be making a lot of eye contact with your subject. You will also need the following tools:
- A recording device: The best way to interview is to record the conversation and then go back and transcribe later. This way, everything is documented and you won't forget any details or responses. The most common recording device is a cell phone--many reporters use apps like Rev, RecForge, or Evernote for professional interviews. Small mics can even be hooked into a phone for crisper audio. For phone interviews, there are also apps like Google Voice, RecordiaPro, and the previously mentioned Rev that will record phone calls (though you should ethically get permission from your subject to record calls). If you don't want to use a phone, there are lots of manual recorders you could use, but don't forget extra batteries!
- A printed list of your questions: You'll want a physical list since you'll be using your phone to record. Some subjects also insist on previewing questions before answering them, and being able to give them the list of questions separate from all your other notes is crucial.
- A notebook: The worst may happen--your battery dies or the app won't work. You should have a backup notebook with some pens to take written notes just in case
- A water bottle: Talking can be surprisingly exhausting, so make sure you have a bottle of water to keep you hydrated. It may also be a good idea to have a bottle for your subject too.
- A camera: You will typically need a photo of your subject for publishing your interview. You can use anything from your phone's camera to a professional-grade DSLR. Just make sure to capture the moment with a photo, or ask your subject to provide a relevant image.
STEP FIVE: Talk with the subject
When you meet your subject, retest the audio and once again explain how you are recording the interview, the topics you will discuss, and what you are going to do with the final interview--even if you clarified all of these when reaching out, it's best to double-check with the subject. Double check your recording equipment and give your subject a couple of minutes to get settled. While you do this, chat with the subject in order to build rapport, or a mutual understanding of respect and open communication. If a subject doesn't feel like they can trust you, you won't get much out of your interview.
Once you hit record, before you start the interview, you will need to slate. A slate is information that is provided before a clip of audio or film so someone listening knows exactly what the clip is. Your slate for audio should simply be your name, your subject's name, where you are, and when the interview is taking place: "This is Brandon Coon, and I'm interviewing Clark Kent at the Starbucks on Lowell Ave. on October 10, 2018."
After you slate, ask your subject to describe themselves. This way, you can create a context opener for the reader, which is a written paragraph in italics or clip of audio by the interviewer that explains who this person is and why they are being interviewed. We'll get into the context opener later, but it's very helpful to see how your subject describes themselves before you write it. If they don't know where to begin, take advice from legendary journalist Studs Turkel and ask them "What's your name, how old are you, where do you live, who do you live with, and what do you do all day?"
After introductions are out of the way, dive into the interview. During the interview, you have two tasks: look and listen. Listening is obvious, as you want to hear the response to each of your questions. If you want to explore a response more, ask a follow up question. What's just as important as listening to your subject is looking at them talk to you. Take notes of their tone of voice and any nonverbal communication they make, such as faces or hand gestures. You also want to gauge if your subject is comfortable through their body language--if they start crossing arms, looking away, or show signs of anger, back off the hard questioning and pitch them some junk questions to make them feel more at ease.
On more thing about subject comfort--sometimes, they will give you an answer but then request that it stays "off the record." This is good--a subject telling you personally something that they would not tell others means you have built up a good rapport--but you have to honor their request and not use any portion of their interview that they want off the record. This is a professional requirement of journalists, as some journalists have heard their subjects commit crimes that they later cannot report due to an ethical duty to protect their sources.
Anticipate that different questions may result in longer or shorter answers, and you may not be able to predict the length of the answer ahead of time. Filmmaker Kevin Smith once famously spent a two-hour Q&A only answering the first question. That's okay. Longer answers are great, as you can get anecdotes from them. An anecdote is a short often amusing story about a person's past, and audiences love interviews with lots of anecdotes. If a subject is just rambling, it's okay to ask them to move on, but be careful that you don't lose out on a great story just because you want to get to the next question.
Finally, make sure you honor the subject's time. If you told them that it would be a twenty minute interview, and you're at nineteen minutes left with six more questions, don't try to get your subject to stay until every question is asked. This is why you should also start with your most important first.
Once you hit record, before you start the interview, you will need to slate. A slate is information that is provided before a clip of audio or film so someone listening knows exactly what the clip is. Your slate for audio should simply be your name, your subject's name, where you are, and when the interview is taking place: "This is Brandon Coon, and I'm interviewing Clark Kent at the Starbucks on Lowell Ave. on October 10, 2018."
After you slate, ask your subject to describe themselves. This way, you can create a context opener for the reader, which is a written paragraph in italics or clip of audio by the interviewer that explains who this person is and why they are being interviewed. We'll get into the context opener later, but it's very helpful to see how your subject describes themselves before you write it. If they don't know where to begin, take advice from legendary journalist Studs Turkel and ask them "What's your name, how old are you, where do you live, who do you live with, and what do you do all day?"
After introductions are out of the way, dive into the interview. During the interview, you have two tasks: look and listen. Listening is obvious, as you want to hear the response to each of your questions. If you want to explore a response more, ask a follow up question. What's just as important as listening to your subject is looking at them talk to you. Take notes of their tone of voice and any nonverbal communication they make, such as faces or hand gestures. You also want to gauge if your subject is comfortable through their body language--if they start crossing arms, looking away, or show signs of anger, back off the hard questioning and pitch them some junk questions to make them feel more at ease.
On more thing about subject comfort--sometimes, they will give you an answer but then request that it stays "off the record." This is good--a subject telling you personally something that they would not tell others means you have built up a good rapport--but you have to honor their request and not use any portion of their interview that they want off the record. This is a professional requirement of journalists, as some journalists have heard their subjects commit crimes that they later cannot report due to an ethical duty to protect their sources.
Anticipate that different questions may result in longer or shorter answers, and you may not be able to predict the length of the answer ahead of time. Filmmaker Kevin Smith once famously spent a two-hour Q&A only answering the first question. That's okay. Longer answers are great, as you can get anecdotes from them. An anecdote is a short often amusing story about a person's past, and audiences love interviews with lots of anecdotes. If a subject is just rambling, it's okay to ask them to move on, but be careful that you don't lose out on a great story just because you want to get to the next question.
Finally, make sure you honor the subject's time. If you told them that it would be a twenty minute interview, and you're at nineteen minutes left with six more questions, don't try to get your subject to stay until every question is asked. This is why you should also start with your most important first.
STEP SIX: Thank and follow up
After the interview, thank your subject for their time in person. Also ask if there is a project of theirs that they want you to mention--often in professional journalism, celebrities give long interviews to reporters in exchange for the chance to promote their newest album or film. Once you get home, send a nice thank you note, either through mail or email, letting the subject know that you appreciated their help and that you will send them the published interview when it's done. Once your work is published, make sure they get access or a copy.
All of this profuse thanking does two good things. First, it makes the subject feel good about the interview experience, meaning they will be more willing to be interviewed by you in the future. Second, sometimes an interview needs a follow up. Say you interview the local high school principal about the upcoming SAT test, then while you are editing your interview, there is a blizzard that postpones the testing--you need to make a major update to your story, and if you have been previously grateful to your subject, they are more likely to give a quick follow up interview to complete the story.
All of this profuse thanking does two good things. First, it makes the subject feel good about the interview experience, meaning they will be more willing to be interviewed by you in the future. Second, sometimes an interview needs a follow up. Say you interview the local high school principal about the upcoming SAT test, then while you are editing your interview, there is a blizzard that postpones the testing--you need to make a major update to your story, and if you have been previously grateful to your subject, they are more likely to give a quick follow up interview to complete the story.
The Skills of an Interviewer
I said in the introduction that interviewing is a required skill for reporters--actually, it requires four skills. These four skills are known as the Principles of Reporting and must be practiced regularly for journalists to not only complete the interview process but to ensure that each interview is high quality. These skills are:
- The ability to prepare: Good interviews are all about preparation, from researching the subject to getting ready for the interview to following up with the subject after the fact. A good interviewer needs to be very organized and keep in communication with their subject throughout the entire interview process. Part of the preparation should also be checking the ethical guidelines of journalists before the interview so they know what they can ethically do and cannot do in the interview.
- The ability to establish rapport: The best interviewers can make even the toughest subjects feel comfortable talking to them. From the initial communication to the questions themselves, reporters should strive to be friendly and trustworthy. Since rapport is earned and not given, good reporters do lots of little things to build the rapport up. Telling subjects the question topics ahead of time. Making small talk while setting up equipment. Giving the subject water during the interview. Even showing up in nicer clothing can help convey to the subject that you can be trusted.
- The ability to observe: Great reporters don't just ask questions--they convey the experience of being in the room with this person. To do this, they observe tone, body language, and any nonverbal communication and use it to make their project richer. This high level of observation will also help them get the best result. By observing something questionable in subject research, they will avoid subjects who may lie or act unethically. By observing the setup of the room of the interview and changing conditions if needed, the reporter ensures an interview with clear audio free of distractions.
- The ability to be curious: Ultimately, an interview comes down to the questions asked an answered, so a good reporter must be naturally curious and good at generating questions. This applies to creating the list of interview questions beforehand and when asking questions in the moment of the interview: a naturally curious reporter will find the most interesting parts of a topic and get the subject to not just give an interview but to reveal who they are. Great interviewers never think of a list of questions as a checklist--they see it as a series of different keys that can potentially unlock a really interesting story.