Conducting Interview
Interview skills is one off the most important skills in journalism, and it is not just about walking up to
somebody with a bunch of questions, start asking these questions, waiting for a respond and then you
ask another question. Their is much that goes into it, that is to say interview is more than that. Their are
steps a journalist must fellow for him or her to have or conduct a successful interview.
Identify your subject
The first step in Conducting an interview is to identify your subject. As a journalist the work that goes
into interview starts when you have had identify your subject. that is the person that you want to
interview. the moment you decide that you want to interview the President of Sierra Leone for an eg. is
where the work start, it is not when you are in front of the interviewee.
Identify a topic
The next point or step in Conducting an interview after you have identify your subject is to choose or
decide on the topic of discussion or the topic that you want to interview the President for eg. about.
Conducting a research or doing a research
Another point after you would have identify your subject and topic is to do a huge amount of research
on the topic and also do some research about the person that you would want to interview. you cannot
just call the person for the interview. you have to do some research on some of the things he has done
before, things he had said in the past, interviews he had attended before.you cannot just call the person
and say I would love to have an interview with you.
After you have done a research and have brought up some interview questions list, you can now call the
person that you want to interview and fix a date for the interview. but if you have problem reaching the
person, you can use other means to get him or her through him or her relative, work place etc.
On the day of the interview you should be in the studio earlier before the interview and when the guest
shows up in the studio, sometimes you don't just start the interview. you should have a discussion with
the interviewee off air and this is where your interpersonal skills comes in. you should create some kind
of relationship with the interviewee. but however this cannot work all the time so that is why as a
journalist you should be able to access the situation so that things can go well.
After some some discussion off air, you can now start your interview proper. you can ask questions on
reports, review, and also on interviews the panelist have attended before.