Conducting an Interview

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 874.

Interviews are a way to gather facts and historical data on an emerging event or issue. Ask the right questions at the right moment and your source may volunteer information that might otherwise have been ignored or overlooked. Fail to ask those questions and you lose the opportunity to effect change or expose a problem. Combine soft questions, seeking background information and confirming facts, with tougher questions, seeking motives or intentions, to make your story more meaningful.

Open-Ended: “Tell Me About...”

Get a source started with an open-ended question that does not frame the issue. This allows your source to define the issue himself / herself and gives you a glimpse into his / her mindset, feelings and basic understanding of the issue or event. Variations include “Tell me a little about yourself”; “What do you know about this event or issue?”; and “What did you see or hear when the event took place?” None of these questions blocks the source into a corner or makes any assumptions or judgments about his / her own role in the event or issue.

Clarification: “What Did You Mean by ...”

Ask a source to explain what he / she means. This helps you avoid engaging in “gotcha” journalism, which is inherently biased and burns the bridge between you and your source. Although you may gain a few points from roasting your source, you lose any future chance at more information and make other possible sources more skeptical of your motives. People do not volunteer information when they are at risk. Asking for clarification of a point or explanations about why the source does or believes something respects that person's right to frame his / her thoughts and actions to his / her own context.

Fact-Checking: “How Do You Know...”

Ask questions that help you determine the validity and authority of the source's information without making him / her feel like you are calling him / her uninformed or a liar. “Where or when did you first learn...?”; “What is the source for that fact?”; “Where or when did you hear that?”; and “What made you believe the source of that information?” Even if you already have reputable, reliable sources for the basic facts, asking these questions helps you discover new sources of information and keeps you from presenting inaccurate information, perpetuating stereotypes or giving misinformation.

Follow-Ups: “Is There Anything I Haven't Asked...”

This allows your source to share what they think is the key information about the topic or issue. It sometimes provides you with a new direction for your story, confirms or contradicts the way you have framed the issue or exonerates one or more participants. Key unasked questions can have long-range consequences. Lillian McEwen, who dated Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, stated that she did not provide information at his confirmation hearings that might have confirmed Anita Hill's assertions of a hostile work environment because no one asked her, leaving Hill a lone voice.

Now you are going to get acquainted with some information about conducting an interview. If you are interested in more details, you can find this information on the following Internet site: www.roguecom.com/interview/module5.html.

Central to conducting any type of interview is establishing a productive interview climate[8]. It does not happen magically but develops in the interactions between an interviewer and an interviewee.

Interviews have an opening, body and closing. As the interviewer, you want to begin the interview in such a way that facilitates the interview process, ask questions that assist all parties in achieving their goals, and end the interview on a positive note.

1. OPENING – “breaking the ice”. The interview opening usually sets the tone for the remainder of the interview. Your goal is to establish a productive climate, so both you and your interviewee will participate freely and communicate accurately. Climate issues contribute to the mood or tone of the interview; both interviewer and interviewee are responsible for establishing the interview climate.

Formality level reflects differences in status between interview participants; evolves and can change during the interview process.

A. Nonverbal indicators of status include dress, proximity, location of the interview.

B. Verbal indicators of formality level include how participants address each other (titles or first names), how much “small talk” participants engage in, use of slang.

Rapport is the process of creating goodwill and trust between interviewer and interviewee.

A. First impressions greatly influence how rapport is established; avoid jumping to conclusions about others based on little information.

B. When you and the interviewee share a similar frame of reference or worldview, it is easier to establish rapport.

C. The interview's formality level influences how rapport is established; for example, in more informal interviews, there is more “small talk” at the beginning, while in more formal interviews, the interviewer will tend to take a more direct approach.

2.BODY – asking questions. This is the main part of the interview. Here we'll look at the order or sequences in which you might ask the questions.

A. Funnel. Use this question sequence when the interviewee knows the topic well and feels free to talk about it, or when the person wants to express strong feelings. This is the most common of all question sequences for all types of interviews. In this sequence, the interviewer begins with broad, open-ended questions and moves to narrower, closed-ended questions. The interviewer may also begin with more general questions and gradually ask more specific questions.

B. Inverted Funnel. This question sequence is effective when an interviewee needs help remembering something or to motivate an interviewee to talk. In this sequence, the interviewer begins with narrow, closed-ended questions and moves to broader, open-ended questions. The interviewer may also begin with more specific questions and gradually ask more general questions.

C. Diamond. The Diamond question sequence combines the Funnel and Inverted Funnel sequences. Use this sequence when dealing with topics interviewees may find painful or difficult and therefore are reluctant to discuss. Begin with specific, closed-ended questions about a situation similar to the interviewee's, then ask general, open-ended questions about the interview, and finally ask specific, closed-ended questions about the interviewee's particular circumstances.

D. Tunnel. In this sequence, all questions have the same degree of openness. Also called the “string of beads” questions sequence, the Tunnel sequence allows for little probing and variation in question structure. It can be useful for simple, surface information interviews, but not for in-depth interviews.

3. CLOSING – concluding the interview. The closing brings the interview full circle. Your goal is to leave the interviewee feeling positive and satisfied with the interview.