Interview techniques All interviews are similar in that the interviewer asks the interviewee questions, all interviewers will have a set out structure for their interview and will know what it is that they want from the interview. The interview will also try to get answers the listeners want to hear. By Emily May Walker

TV TV interviews are different to a radio or print interview because people can see the interview, TV interviews also tend to be more of a conversation than questions and answer, for a TV interview the layout of where the interviewer and interviewee is sat, they usually sit opposite each other I think this looks professional and it also will allow the interviewee to hear and understand the question better. It is also important that the interviewer asks short clear questions as if the question is too long or they ask multiple questions the interviewee doesn’t always answer everything asked. When interviewing you need to make sure that the research you have carried out is true, you don’t want to ask a question about something that is not true.

Radio Radio interviews are similar to TV interviews because you can hear what the interviewee has given as an answer and therefore you know that they actually gave that answer. A radio interview is usually made into more of a conversation than just boring questions and answers, the interviewee usually sits opposite the interviewer, the interviewer will make sure that the information they are going to ask the interviewee is true.

Print Print interviews are different to a TV or radio interview because it is written down rather than spoke which means that the viewer cannot hear the interview. Therefor the answers could be edited and it is not as reliable as if you hear or see the interviewee answer the questions. With a print interview there is no conversation just questions and answers.

Hard A hard interview is where you ask questions without giving much of a space to answer so the interviewee doesn’t start talking about something else that links with the question, because you want them to answer it not avoid it with a different answer.

Soft A soft interview is where you warm your interviewee into the questions and give them room to answer the question how they want because you trust they will give you the answer you want.

Informative The interviewer asks deliberate questions to get the information both the interviewer and interviewee want, both know what the interview is about so can plan well and there will be no surprise questions and the idea of the interview is to inform the audience.

Promotional The interviewee will expect the interview to promote them to get them more fans so its good to talk to the interviewee to find out what it is that they want from the interview so you can try and base some questions on what they want to talk about but also let them know what you want from the interview but without giving to much information away.

Expose It is good to try to expose information that is not already out there this will give the interview more views as your audience will want to know this information, the best way to get this information out of your interviewee would be to make them feel comfortable around you and feel welcomed by the TV/Radio/Magazine company.

Entertaining An interviews aim is to entertain the audience and therefor as an interviewer you should be asking questions that the audience want to know the answer to rather than what the interviewee wants to answer. An interview will be more entertaining to an audience if you can get the interviewee to tell you something that no one knows the truth about or something that the audience didn’t already know about the interviewee.

Open Open answered questions are the best questions to ask because the interviewees answer could then lead you onto ask more questions about something and it gives them time to give you a good answer which is more interesting to listen to than just a yes or no answer, however sometimes its best to use a closed question to get more open questions to ask the interviewee.

Closed Closed answered questions are not so good to use in an interview because if the whole interview was based on closed questions it would be an extremely boring interview and doesn’t really help get any good answers, however the odd closed question could be good in an interview for example if you was asking if it was true that a particular thing happened on their holiday then that could open up more questions about why it happened and how it happened.