Interviewing is basically a formal meeting or conversation of people in which interviewer asks questions of one or more persons from whom material or information is sought out for a newspaper story, T.V. broadcast etc.
Interview Questions:
Mostly interviews seek to achieve one or more of the following goals:
Obtain the interviewee's knowledge about the topic.
Obtain the interviewee's opinion or feelings about the topic.
Feature the interviewee.
Do Your Homework:
It's important that you exactly know why you are conducting an interview and which goals you are aiming for. The most important is you must have basic knowledge of your subject. If you will show ignorance you lose your credibility and risk being ridiculed. At very least subject is less likely to open up to you.
While you should be prepared and adapt , it makes sense to have a list of questions which need to be asked. So that before conducting an interview you must have a list of questions because many interviewee ask for the list.
Preparation:
Interview is a situation in which you must get everything right first time and you have to make this job flow smoothly and comfortably for everyone involved. Preparing for an inter view involves contacting and making arguments with the guests, choosing right type of location, preparing equipment, travelling to the location and setting up and final briefing and technical checks.
Making Contributor Comfortable:
While conducting an interview its your role to help your contributor feel comfortable. This will give you an opportunity to let them know face to face. This informal meeting will also give you chance to establish a relationship which will be beneficial to the on camera interview. As mentioned earlier giving a list of questions in advance will ease their nerves and improve the quality of your interview.
Interview Tips:
Here are some very general tips which apply differently to different situations.
Listen Carefully; A common mistake is to thinking about the next question while the subject is answering the previous one, to the point that interviewer misses some very important information. This can lead to all sort of embarrassing outcomes.
Be Honest; Sometimes it's tempting to lie or omit important information when securing an interview. This is not just unethical. it will damage your career in the long run.
Stay Neutral; Don't appear to persuade by the subject's opinions. Try not to ooze bias. Don't judge or directly criticize the subject.
Don't Interrupt; This can upset the subject train of thought. So avoid to interrupt your subject.
Dress Appropriately; Means your appearance influence the way interviewees respond to you. That's why dress up very simple and you should look decent.
Try to be Unique; Always try to ask questions which has never been answered before by the interviewee.
Minimize your Vocals; Ask questions clearly, then let the person speak without any more word from you. Learn to react silently as the subject talks rather than saying " uh-huh, right, I see" use nods and facial expressions.
Show Empathy; Often you will need to cover sensitive or distressing topics.Show some compassion for subject without getting too emotional. Ask for permission before asking difficult questions e.g. "Is it okay to talk about......?"
Remember that it's not about you; Don't talk about yourself or add your own opinion Your questions can be long enough to add information or interest about the topic , but the interviewee is the who audience wants to hear from.
Take an interest in Psychology; Interviewing is very closely associated with psychology The better you understand how people think the better you will be able to extract their thoughts from an interview.
Make Sure; Recheck that you have asked all the important questions from the subject and has not missed any question. If you will miss a question it will difficult to all back the interviewee and again setting a meeting.
After Finishing the Interview; At the end put your notebook or recorder away and have an informal chat. As well as being polite and leaving a good impression.
I hope this will help you a lot.
