Process & Type - how to Prepare for your interview

1^st  Research
Research is crucial. The strength of your questions and your capacity to resist being manipulated/overpowered and respected depends on how good your research has been.


2^nd Making contact beforehand
Making contact with the person before the interview should give your interviewee a better understanding of  what is expected of him or her, and in what context the interview will be used. It also means you can assess whether or not someone will make a good interviewee. Once you have shortlisted your questions you should give them a copy to prepare their answers. 


3^rd Preparing the questions
How you prepare your questions will depend on two criteria:


a) Who am I interviewing?
A politician, a colleague, the man in the street, an expert, a celebrity. You will tailor your questions in quite a different way for each.


b) What is it for?
A news bulletin, a current affairs programme, a general interest broadcast. The format and the atmosphere should be adapted for the different types of programme.


4th Preparing your equipment
· Make sure your recorder is working properly (microphone, cable, iphone, batteries, etc) by doing a quick recording and listening back to it.
· If the interview is to take place outdoors, place the iphone inside the collaborators pocket.


There are five different types of interview:


‘Explanation’ interview. Get information from your interviewee about his or her expert subject, or about something he or she is well-positioned to talk about.

‘Portrait’ interview. Bring out the personality of the interviewee on the air.

‘Witness’ interview. Have a witness to an event.

’Declaration’ interview. Ask the reaction of someone involved in the news, or of a politician for their immediate reaction to a story or meeting in which they have taken part.

’Vox Pop’ interview. Survey a slice of the population to give a reflection of public opinion about a news story.