Conducting An Interview: Things You Must Know

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorCollege, Undergraduate August 2001

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There are several different types of interviews on TV these days. Flip the channels and you will come across such humor in interviews as Howard Stern on E! interviewing a midget, Maury Povich interviewing a lady deathly afraid of horses, or Barbara Walters conducting an interview Monica Lewinsky on ABC. On a more serious note, you can turn the channel to C-SPAN or MS- NBC to see reporters interviewing a member of the White House Staff, a senator, or the president. Every person conducts an interview differently. Some interviews better than others, some proving a point better than others, some topics better than others.

Late Saturday night while watching Howard Stern, I learned one of the things a person must do in order to generate interest in the viewers or listeners. In order to conduct a good interview one must be daring with the questions they ask. They must be able to accept that not every question is a question the person being interviewed will be willing to answer.

They must be able to accept a sarcastic comment or a "I am not at liberty to answer that question"� as an answer.

Howard Stern executes a good interview because he is unafraid to be turned down by a question and is not afraid to embarrass himself in front of people. Although he is known because of his bizarre and eccentric topics for interviews, he does conduct them well because of his nature as a very blunt and bold person.

Another aspect that is good to possess in conducting a good interview is the ability to come up with cunning follow up questions at a moment's notice. To be able to do this in such a manner as to not insult or confuse the person being interviewed or the viewers...