THE INTERVIEW

Interviews happen when YOU are the news. You can become news by being a spokesperson for an organization, by being personally involved in a controversy, or just by being available to a reporter seeking a point of view.

Although we may think of interviews as expansive feature articles that appear in question-and-answer format extending through several pages of glossy magazines, in general practice, interviews are short. As published, they may appear as a phrase or a couple of sentences. An interview is generally a reporter's way of identifying your key position through a dramatic and expressive quotation. An interview may appear as nothing more than a reporter's summary of your position, without a direct quotation.

For print and radio, interviews are usually by phone, although occasionally they are live, to a tape recorder or notepad.

Television interviews are on videotape (for subsequent editing, except in the rare situation of a live telecast).

Tips for giving effective interviews

  • Be proactive! Giving an interview is like writing a letter to an editor. Although the reporter asks for a reaction, don't react. Take control.

  • Prepare yourself! The key to taking control is knowing your position and knowing the point or points you want to make. If you are a spokesperson involved in a controversy-or potentially may become such a spokesperson-develop your key points in advance. Come up with a few short, positive, attractive, dramatic phrases that represent your position. Unless you are extraordinarily gifted at improvisation, you won't be able to develop them off the top of your head during the interview.

  • Speak in capsules! Don't make your statements depend on the interviewer's question for context. The reader or audience will not know what the question was. Your statements should contain all the information a reader or audience needs to understand them.

  • Be friendly! The context you want for your message is that you like the reporter and that you like the reader (or broadcast audience). Conveying respect for the adversarial position connotes confidence in your own position, rather than weakness. If interviewed before a camera, smile.

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