Useful Pointers on Conducting a Successful Interview

10 points for conducting an interview

Based on the documentary we watched ‘Frost on Interviews’, I picked up some interesting tips about how to conduct interviews, including some key pointers, and quotes, and directions to take interviews depending on the circumstances.

I will outline these, and highlight the top ten I feel I would use, and that benefited my knowledge the most.

1. The interviewer shapes the discussion in the interview

In 1951, this year was considered the first, that political interviews arose, and where considered so. When ITN launched, it was the first company to conduct ‘interviews.’

2. Bring out how the interviewee thinks and feels about a particular thing
3. Be friendly, and make questions relevant to a subject

The late night line-up was a show hosted by a female interviewer, Joan Bakewell. She recommended;

4. Don’t interrupt people, have manners and let them finish speaking

John Freeman was the first kind of interviewer to be considered abrupt, and aggressive. It was described in the documentary as a ‘psychoanalyst’s chair’ this being because of the close intimacy of the camera concentrating on the interviewee’s face. He asked questions that would be sometimes quite personal, and he dominated discussion. People would answer the questions put to them.

He asked martin Luther King; ‘Do you feel you are an adequate symbol for Negro’s in Southern States’?

Face to face interviewing was a breakthrough thanks to Freeman. There weren’t many outlets that provided somewhere to view celebrities in honesty.

5. The onus is on the interviewer to create a mood to speak, so research them thoroughly
6. Move the talk show into an area that informs the viewer and entertains.

‘’You can’t please all interviewee’s all of the time.’’ Michael Parkinson

‘’You’re looking for someone that tell the truth about their work.’’ Melvin Bragg

7. Establish a situation where people can talk about themselves and their work without embarrassment.

An interview that stood out to me in the documentary was the interview between mlvin Bragg, and Francis Baker.

‘’I am profoundly optimistic about nothing!’’ Baker

8. Always tell the truth, and get a truthful interview in return
9. Any good interview has got to build – Dennis Potter interview

From 1979 onwards, interviewees learned to fight the interview.

‘’Interviewing is a Gladiatorial subject.’’ Lord Heseltine

10. Be well prepared, know what you want to say
11. Adjust questions to the answers
12. Charm them, relax them, then bang – This is Frost’s technique, for example in the Margaret Thatcher interview

Jeremy Paxman, he battles his way through interviews, he is very persistent, and aggressive as an interviewer.

Interviewing made its way over to entertainment.

Clive Anderson, a former barrister, used spontaneity in an interview, such as in his Anderson Talks Back show on Channel 4. He uses an example of when he got half way through an interview with the Bee gees when they left.

Ruby Wax seduced the interviewee; she only had 10 minute interviews. She tried to turn these into three day interviews. She created a bond with the interviewee, and most incredibly, interviewed them in their own homes, a new approach to interviewing.

In relation to political interviews, form 1997, when Tony Blair became Prime Minister, they had found a way to work through interviews, by using Spin Doctors. Alistair Campbell was Tony Blair’s Spin Doctor, and he used techniques to prepare him for interviews.

13. For the public to get anything form an interview, the interviewee needs to be challenged a lot.

Alistair Campbell noted that ‘politicians try to communicate with the public, whilst the interviewer tries to take it to a new route, this often ends up in the modern political interview being a stalemate.

‘’Spin Doctors have made aggression in interviewing politicians worse.’’ Andrew Neil

14. When you get the interview you have won.

An example of an interview with David Cameron saw how the effect of Spin Doctors can influence an interview.

‘’I’ve chosen my words very carefully today.’’ Cameron

The nature of television has changed to be more empathetic, this has affected the nature of interviews.

15. The interviewee responds to something, i.e. people
16. It’s not the questions that matter, it’s the answers they give
17. 17. If the Spin Doctors aren’t happy, you’re doing your job.