Journalism tutorial: 8 tips for a successful interview

Discover some practical tips for conducting journalistic interviews in any format professionally

The interview is one of the most complex journalistic genres and its success depends on external factors, such as who the interviewee is, but above all, it is conditioned by the prior preparation and communication skills of the journalist /b].

Paco Herranz (@pakoherranz) is a journalist and doctor in Information Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid. In his extensive career in various media, he has covered several war conflicts and has worked as a correspondent in dozens of countries. He has conducted multiple interviews with various public figures and knows very well the keys to achieving a successful result and with journalistic rigor.

In this tutorial, Paco will teach you practical tips and tricks that will help you in the preparation process, during the interview and in editing it. If you have a journalistic vocation and want to learn from one of the best, don't miss the following video.

8 tips for conducting successful journalistic interviews

As the journalist explains below, these are 8 very practical tricks that will help you get interviews with successful results to continue positioning your professional career.

Tip 1: Research your interviewee

To ask interesting questions and, above all, provide new information that is unknown to the interviewee, you need to carry out thorough prior research. The volume of work varies greatly depending on the character, it can be a well-known person with a wide presence in the media, in which case you will have a lot of previous material to examine, or it can be someone unknown to date.

Tip 2: Work on your questions

The personality of both the interviewee and the interviewer and the objective of the interview will determine the type of questions you ask and their order. In addition, you must be very clear the topic of your interview and what information you want to obtain.

An extroverted and direct person can accept more incisive questions at first, while with someone who is shy or reticent, you should start softly and increase the intensity of the questions as they become develop the interview.

Tip 3: Define the format of your interview

Where is the interview going to be published? This question is crucial since the entire process will be conditioned, not only depending on whether it is a written, radio or audiovisual medium, in addition, you must take into account the style, tone and type of content of the medium in question.

Tip 4: Create a structure based on the time available

In an ideal scenario, the journalist would be in charge of defining how much time is invested in the interview, but the reality is that many times you will be conditioned by the interviewee's agenda. In an hour-long interview, you can let the conversation flow naturally, whereas if you only have 15 minutes, you should get straight to the point.

A structure that works very well is to always start with neutral questions that allow you to gauge the attitude of the person in front of you. It is important to know how to adapt to the personality of the interviewee and ask based on how the conversation flows.

Remember that interrupting is not a sign of rudeness. You control the interview and the times and sometimes it is necessary to interrupt to get more precise answers. The opposite may happen to you, the interviewee is too brief and you run out of more questions, which is why it is very important that you always bring extra questions.

Tip 5: Pay attention to non-verbal language

Gestures provide extra information that is impossible to obtain through words. It is very important that you read the non-verbal language of your interviewee and know how to use it to your advantage. Questionnaire interviews are increasingly common and one of their biggest disadvantages is the loss of the non-verbal factor; it is always better not to limit the format of the answers.

Tip 6: Ask without being leading

If you have the perception that you need more information on one of the topics already covered, reformulate the question without hesitationsince it is a very common strategy. But don't be tricky, if you ask questions with the answer implied or force your interviewee too much to give a different answer, he may feel that you are trying to manipulate him and will create a barrier between you, preventing the flow of the rest of the interview.

Tip 7: Define whether you are going to write in a direct or indirect tone

The direct interview is the most classic modalityand is based on the question-answer structure, it is usually longer and with more nuances. A style recommendation is that you maintain the order of the questions, this way the audience will be able to follow the conversation and understand its development.

In the indirect style, the journalist's narration has greater load, since the answers are inserted throughout the body of the piece in the form of quotes. This type of interview gives more license to the interviewer to delve deeper into the context, provide more data about the character or even your feelings or non-verbal communication.

Tip 8: Prioriza la ética

Las personas que entrevistes son reales y todo lo que publiques tendrá consecuencias para ellos, por eso es fundamental que reflexiones sobre qué efecto puede generar la pieza. Llegados a este punto, la ética personal es fundamental, puede que te sientas tentado a cambiar la formulación de alguna respuesta ya que los pequeños matices son decisivos.

Recuerda que las únicas modificaciones que debes hacer a las respuestas son aquellas que impliquen una corrección gramatical, en caso de que el entrevistado no se haya expresado adecuadamente.

If you have a journalistic vocation and want to learn from a professional like Paco Herranz, don't miss his online course; Introduction to journalistic writing.

Do you want to explore your skills as a writer? This pack of 2 courses to express yourself with creative writing is perfect to test your skills .

To continue training as a journalist:

- Develop your skills in reading formats with Journalistic writing techniques for non-fiction stories, a course by Daniela Rea.

- Discover the new voices of international photojournalism with 10 Chilean photojournalists who follow closely.

- Are you starting out in the journalism industry and need to expose your work? We make it easy for you with these Free sites for independent journalists.

- If you are more into audiovisuals than written media, Professor Gladys Serra will teach you all the secrets to handling the camera in Introduction to visual reporting.